The Formula 1 weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix turned out to be better than Red Bull had anticipated. After the difficulties experienced at Silverstone, the team director, Laurent Mekies, expected a challenging experience at a circuit he himself had described as “powerless”, but it was finally less problematic than imagined.
Max Verstappen started the competition with a great performance on Friday and secured a good qualifying position on Saturday, placing himself in the front row. However, the world champion also acknowledged that he gained three tenths thanks to Isack Hadjar‘s slipstream, which allowed him to finish second.
During the race on Sunday, Verstappen briefly managed to get ahead at the entrance of Eau Rouge, although he later admitted that this was not the most correct approach. “Clearly, there was an excess of power deployment between Turn 1 and Turn 2,” he commented, adding that he had to carefully manage his battery state during the race.
At the start of the race in Spa, the leader is always vulnerable on the Kemmel Straight. According to Verstappen, this was accentuated this time, especially by the surprising speed with which Charles Leclerc was approaching him. “I expected Kimi to pass me, but when I looked in the mirror, I found a red rocket coming,” he said, referring to the Ferrari driver.
“I thought it was better to maintain my position, as if I moved here, it could lead to a monstrous incident,” he added. Despite the stress of the situation, Verstappen kept calm, which was key to avoiding disaster.
The Mercedes director, Toto Wolff, acknowledged that almost all the cars with Mercedes engines had little battery time during this race, and many drivers complained about issues with the “self-learning aspect” of their engines.
For his part, Verstappen indicated that none of these setbacks surprised him. “Welcome to F1 2026. Sometimes it might be a ‘jungle’,” he added humorously. After a chaotic opening phase, the virtual safety car arrived at unfortunate moments for the Dutch driver, who had already completed his pit stop. In any case, Verstappen finished on the podium in a weekend that was expected to be complicated.
“I think that, overall, the weekend was quite smooth for us and the car responded well from the start, which helps a lot. However, the truth is that today we found ourselves a bit unlucky with the VSC and I could have fought with Charles, but the second stint was worse than I expected,” he concluded.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
