Max Verstappen admits he’s likely to be in damage limitation mode rather than in the mix for victory in the Belgian Grand Prix as he’s set to take a power unit penalty.
Red Bull has been weighing up when is best to take new power unit components as Verstappen has already used the maximum number allowed of his internal combustion engine, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store and control electronics. Spa-Francorchamps has been a venue where Verstappen has taken similar grid penalties in the past and still fought through the field to win, but he says the competitive picture this season makes that scenario unlikely to be repeated.
“[A penalty is] likely, but I knew of course that it is coming,” Verstappen said. “It’s not a surprise to me. We’ll find out on Sunday how good that is going to be. Some tracks naturally are a bit better than others. Of course on a street circuit, you wouldn’t want to have an engine penalty. So yeah, most likely it will be here.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]
“Probably yes [damage limitation will be the goal]. If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning. But again, a race can always be turned upside down with moments. We have to be open minded and try to make the best of it. That’s what we’ll try to do.
“At the moment, I also don’t know how competitive we’re going to be here. In a few places there’s new tarmac, so we need to see how the tires respond to that as well. So, still a lot of unknowns. Obviously with the weather, quite a bit of rain expected on Friday and Saturday. So we just need to follow the weather and just progress through the weekend, and see how competitive we are.”
McLaren’s one-two in Hungary sparked debate about whether Lando Norris should have been given priority in order to try and close what is currently a 76-point gap in the drivers’ championship, and Verstappen admits he has considered that Norris could be able to make it a close title fight later in the year.
“Yeah, naturally of course if they are the dominant force and they keep winning, then for sure. But at the end of the day we just need to focus on ourselves, as we can do things better as well in terms of optimizing the car performance. So that’s where my attention goes.
“Of course you have it in the back of your mind, the championship, but I think we first need to focus on just trying to find a bit more performance in the car.”
Verstappen was frustrated by Red Bull’s strategy in Budapest as he finished fifth, and his radio comments came under scrutiny as well his pre-race schedule of competing in a sim race until the early hours of the morning. On both fronts, the three-time world champion says he’s unfazed, with Red Bull sharing his disappointment at how the race played out but not questioning his extra-curricular activities.
“Yeah, I raced until 3am, it’s not something new,” he said. “For me, it’s something very important in my life. Now there are not any other sim races coming up anyway, so no one needs to worry about that. It’s always when you don’t win the race, you will blame it on, ‘Ah, you were staying up until 3am, oh he’s one kilo overweight,’ there is always things to make up that you know you can argue about when you don’t win a race.
“But, for example at Imola, I do win the race, both of them. For me, this is not something new — I’ve been doing this since 2015. So for me, this is not something that is any different in my preparation.
“I’ve won three world championships. I think I know pretty well what I can and what I cannot do, and I’m always very hard on myself what is allowed and isn’t allowed. I think with all the experience that I have in Formula 1, I think I know quite well what is possible.
“We talked about it. I said [to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko], ‘You don’t need to worry.’ I said there’s no other race coming up. But no, it’s not like I have a ban or whatever. I also don’t need to tell them what they do in their private time and during the weekends. That’s the same for me.”