Mark Thompson/Getty Images for Red Bull
Verstappen credits wet setup advantage, needs ‘bit of luck’ to fight McLarens for win
Max Verstappen believes he will need luck to fight with McLaren for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix as he attributes his qualifying advantage to a higher-downforce setup than his rivals.
The championship leader has taken a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding power unit components at Spa-Francorchamps, and will start from 11th after setting the fastest time in qualifying. In a wet session, Verstappen was 0.6s clear of the rest of the field, but he says that was due to the setup he opted for that is designed to protect his tires as he fights through on Sunday.
“It was a good day,” Verstappen said. “Of course yesterday we tried a few things with the car. I think we learned from that and today we tried to put on the car what we thought was best -- and I think as you could see we ran maybe also a little bit more downforce compared to some competitors.
“So naturally in the wet it's probably a little bit more stable and that can help around here. But overall I think the laps were good in qualifying, all the way from Q1 to Q3. I passed Q1 and Q2 only on one tire set -- that was important because that gave me of course a better opportunity for Q3 and everything was working well.
“But of course today is not as important because tomorrow is going to be dry, it's going to be warmer and we need to be good on tires. Starting 10 places back it is going to be a little bit more tricky. I don't expect it to be like the last two years, naturally looking at the cars around us being quite quick.
“So we'll just try to move forward, try to fight Ferraris, Mercedes and with a bit of luck maybe the McLarens but it all depends on our pace ourselves.”
Starting right in the middle of the field, Verstappen -- who won from 14th on the grid in 2022 and sixth last year -- says his primary target is not to get caught in any incidents on the opening lap.
“Survive lap one and just go from there," he said. "We also have a bit of a different tire strategy to the other cars so we have to wait and see how that will evolve in the race but we'll see what we can do.
“Of course I'm not as confident as I was the last two years around here in coming back to the front. I still see it more as like a damage limitation race. That's how it is but at least today was I think the best possible we could do in terms of the starting position for tomorrow.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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