Max Verstappen wasn’t too pleased with the decision to delay the start of F1 Belgian GP, as other drivers and team bosses chimed in with their responses.
After the mistake by Red Bull in Silverstone, the team balanced the car in F1 Belgian GP to be ready for rain at Spa-Francorchamps. The rain arrived but there was no racing. They waited nearly 1.5 hours for the rain to subside and go racing. They opted for about four laps behind the safety car.
The idea was to try for a standing start, but the grid was too wet. It was a rolling start eventually, but by then the track was moving towards dry with no rain falling. This certainly irked Red Bull’s Verstappen, who had a car partly set-up for the rain. He hardly got laps in rain to utilise.
He was stuck in fourth considering Charles Leclerc had a set-up more towards dry. Even though, Verstappen would have probably only gained one place to third, the Dutchman was anyhow not happy with the decision to delay the start, noting that ‘classic wet races’ could be a thing of past.
He feels this was done after decision taken post Silverstone, where Isack Hadjar collided with Andrea Kimi Antonelli after the Frenchman was unsighted by the Italian due to poor visibility. But Verstappen argued that the rain was a lot less at Spa-Francorchamps and they could have raced from 3 PM itself.
“Quite difficult, on the intermediates, of course, we made a choice with the setup, and then they only allow us to drive in almost slick conditions, so yeah, that’s a bit disappointing,” said Verstappen to media. “We spoke after Silverstone to be a little bit more cautious with the decisions, but this was the other extreme for me. And then, of course, choice that we made with the setup of the car, yeah, was then, of course, the wrong one, because they didn’t allow us to race in the wet.
“Once we got to the dry tyres, we were just too slow in the straight, and then with the general balance problems that I already have with this car, it made everything just a bit worse. Three o’clock, straight away [we could have started], it was not even raining. And of course, between Turn 1 and 5 was quite a bit of water but if you do two laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear and the rest of the track was ready to go. It’s a bit of a shame.
“Of course, I knew that there would be a bit more cautious after Silverstone, but this also didn’t make sense. Then it’s better to say, ‘You know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry and then we just start on slicks’, because this is not really wet weather racing for me. Between Turn 1 and 5, it was [where visibility was poor]. It was only for a few laps, and the more you run, it will be much better. And if you can’t see, you can always lift, then at one point you will see,” summed up Verstappen.
The Dutchman reckons there is nothing more he can say since the FIA will do what they feel is best. Verstappen found support from fellow F1 drivers, but there were a lot of them who felt the FIA made the right call. The team bosses too shared their opinion on the call.
“Yeah, potentially, of course, at the end of the day, they do what they want, right? I mean, they decide,” continued Verstappen. “But I just find it is a bit of a shame for everyone. You will never see these classic kind of wet races anymore, then which, yeah, I think they still can happen. And I think also the rain that fell afterwards was still manageable if we would have kept lapping anyway.
“You make all the decisions based on wet racing, so that also just ruins your whole race a bit. But I mean, realistically, P3 would have been the highest possible, we were very close to that. But at the same time, it also still highlighted our weaknesses with the car. And that’s something that is not so easy to fix at the moment,” summed up Verstappen.
What F1 drivers said –
Lewis Hamilton: “We obviously started the race a little bit too late, I would say. I kept shouting, like, ‘it’s ready to go, it’s ready to go’, and they kept going round and round and around [during the safety car]. So I think they were probably overreacting from the last race where we asked them not to restart the race too early because the visibility was bad, and I think this weekend they just went a bit too much the other way because we didn’t need a rolling start. I would agree. Yeah, my car was set up for [the wet-weather racing conditions] as well. They waited for it to dry. Definitely, we could have done the standing start, especially at the end there. It was almost a dry line. It was hardly any spray.
“So definitely could have done it. I think it was just a reaction to Silverstone. I think Silverstone was mega. We sat down and spoke about it. Of course, the driver said in the last race we shouldn’t have restarted. So I think they just focused on visibility. As soon as someone up ahead said visibility was really bad, which was great, but it wasn’t as bad as the last race. I think they just waited just to be sure. I think they still did a good job. Of course, we did miss some of the extreme wet racing, which I think would have been nice. But for some reason, the spray here is really, or this year at least, it’s like going through fog. I don’t know what we’re going to do to try and fix it.”
George Russell: “As a racer, you always want to get going, drive in the rain, but the fact is, when you are doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything. You go in blind over there and it is just stupidity, so I think, considering that it was clearly going to dry, it was the right call.”
Charles Leclerc: “I think it’s always fine-tuning. On a track like this with what happened historically, I think you cannot forget about it. For that reason, I’d rather be safe than too early. It’s a constant discussion, and we’ll probably feed the people that made this decision back that maybe it was a little bit on the late side, but I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
Oscar Piastri: “I think the past few years, particularly here, we’ve given the FIA feedback that we would much rather be on the safe side than risk anything. I think that’s what we did today. If you were to be picky, maybe we could have done one less formation lap. But in the grand scheme of things, if that’s one lap too early, is it worth it? No. Also, us three are the worst people to ask because we have the least amount of cars in front of us. For someone at the back, the first time we tried to start the race, even for myself with just Lando ahead, I couldn’t see a thing. You can only imagine what it’s like for the guys at the back. That’s always a tough thing to balance because the guys at the front have an easier time than the guys at the back.”
Lando Norris: “Same [as Charles and Oscar].”
Alexander Albon: “I do, yeah, by the time we started, it was almost slicks. Not sure, it would have changed to much but it would have been more exciting to have a bit long wet stint in the race. It would have maybe hurt us, so I preferred it to be a short wet stint. But yeah.”
Carlos Sainz: “In a normal track, yes [we could have started earlier]. I think we could have started maybe 5-10 minutes earlier. In Spa-Francorchamps and history of this track, it is better safe than maybe you guys got to a full race, got to watch the whole race, I don’t think it was a bad…it was a safe call. My respect to the race director because he told us after Silverstone that the accident in Silverstone, that he would play it safer here and that’s what he did. That’s why better safe than have an accident and be regretful.”
Fernando Alonso: “Not really, we know that safety is priority, we even spoke about that on Friday, at the previous briefing. And I think at the beginning it was not raceable conditions with visibility, so I think the race started at the right time, to be honest. But we didn’t anticipate that it will be a sunny afternoon, we thought that showers would come in all throughout the day and it didn’t happen, so our advantage was gone.”
Gabriel Bortoleto: “No, safety is first always. I think when we went out for the first time it was just so much spray, so much aquaplaning that if we raced in that condition someone could get hurt. I love racing in every condition but when it’s not good, it’s not good, and we need to be realistic on that. And I really feel like today we started at the right moment, and FIA did a very good job on that sense.”
Pierre Gasly: “To be fair, when we started, first lap we couldn’t see a thing. So that was the right call to put a red flag. Then there was a big cloud coming, was there a window for five minutes potentially but I think they did the right choice. Then after it’s always the same question: could you restart the race 10 minutes earlier or later? I think at the end of the day, knowing the history of this track and what happens, as a driver, you’d rather be 10 minutes too late than 10 minutes too early. So I think on my side they did the right call, and [you can] always argue a couple of minutes earlier or later, but at the end they went on the safer side, which was the right one.”
Liam Lawson: “Honestly, I think it was very well timed. We did a few laps under the safety car, the conditions were getting better and I think it was honestly the right time to start the race. The spray is always going to be bad in Formula 1, but I don’t think there were any crashes or anything like that. For us, at least where I was, it was comfortable.”
Esteban Ocon: “No, the FIA did a really good job in that sense taking care of us. I think they did the right thing in starting when it was the right time.”
Yuki Tsunoda: “Right decision.”
Franco Colapinto: “I think it’s tricky for the FIA, in Silverstone people were saying it was too wet, now that it was too dry, it’s tricky for them I think. It’s very difficult to judge before the cars go out on track, I think it was too wet when they red-flagged it once, maybe then too late, I don’t really have an answer. Of course we will talk to try and understand if we should have gone earlier or not.”
Isack Hadjar: “I think it was completely fine for us, we completed 44 laps. The race was well managed. Visibility was great when we restarted. Maybe we could have taken less margin, but definitely well handled up there.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “Definitely. The standing water wasn’t bad from when once we got going but the visibility is always the topic, it is difficult on the straight even when it was dry basically but visibility was still challenging the first couple of laps. But yeah, kind of weird one, waiting for so long and going so late in the afternoon.”
What F1 team bosses said –
Frederic Vasseur: “I think this is always easy to say after…obviously it is safety first. We had one car on low downforce and one car on high downforce, I was not pushing in one or the other direction for sporting reason. In the rain you can imagine, if you have a crash in Raidillon, then we are baling the race control. I think it is a huge responsibility for them. It is true that today with the situation that you have 50% of the grid choose the high downforce and 50% were on low downforce, but I think their job is also to forget this and to start when they think it is safe to start. After 2021, when we had the issue in Spa, that we did some tests the week after or at the end of this season, in Fiorano, to limit the spray. We put different appendix on the car. But at the end the spray is coming from the floor.
“It means that there is nothing that we can do or you have to stop massively the performance of the car if you want to put something there. Because I think for the fans it’s quite difficult to understand that they can’t drive. Limitation is not the grip, limitation is not the adherence, limitation is visibility. And I think it’s good also to show sometimes with the camera that they have on the helmet because you can understand in this situation that they see absolutely nothing. At one stage, we were speaking with Charles to change something on the steering wheel. And he said, guys, ‘I can’t move the eyes in front of me..’. Remember what’s happened to… I don’t remember if it was behind, it was Kimi or Hadjar. But in Silverstone they had a crash in the same situation just because they didn’t see each other. And I think this is the most dangerous.
“Also because if there is a crash in front of you, you can’t see the car, you stop on track. I had a couple of times the question after the race, that do you think that we could have started the race a bit earlier or whatever. For sure. In terms of grip, for sure. In terms of visibility, I’m not sure. And we can’t blame them because we would be collectively the first ones to give them shit if something happened. And in the sense that we have to respect their decision. I can speak frankly because I have one car pushing on the high downforce, one car pushing on the low downforce. And I was comfortable to respect their decision because they are taking a huge responsibility also. I am not sure with this car we can do something different [to help better racing in wet without spray].”
Laurent Mekies: “So I think we’re all surprised, I believe, by how late we started the race. I’m sure the FIA had its own considerations, but certainly for us as a team, it surprised us because fundamentally we waited not only for the rain to stop, but also for pretty much the sun to come out and then we still had many laps behind the safety car. So again, I’m sure the FIA had its own reasons. In our specific case, having biased the cars towards right running, for sure, it’s costing us performance, but it’s part of the game.”
Andrea Stella: “I think the race was managed in a very wise way, by the FIA, because we knew that there was a lot of rain coming, and I think in a circuit like this, if you make the calls late, it may be too late, and the outcome could be a difficult outcome. So I think being on the forefoot is the right approach, and delaying the race allowed us to race in wet conditions, and then we went into dry, but in fairness, we are in Spa, we didn’t even know how long the dry race would have been, and we knew that there could have been wet conditions again at the end.
“So I think for once, from our position as a team, we always praise the work of the FIA when this is deserved, and I think this is one of the cases in which this should be praised, because I understand that it would be quite entertaining to see cars going in wet conditions, but we all should be wary that the average speed in Spa is so high that the cars just displace such a large amount of water that it’s just impossible to see. We have seen already in Silverstone that a car drove into the gearbox of another car because it was impossible to see it, and it was lower and there was less water. So, we don’t want to see the same in Spa, so well done by the FIA.”
Here’s race highlights: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/race-highlights-2025-belgian-grand-prix.1838817680374623033
Here’s how F1 Belgian GP panned out
