Max Verstappen claims Red Bull could have contended for the Belgian Grand Prix victory if he had started higher up the grid.
Despite topping qualifying for the fourth consecutive year, Verstappen had to start from 11th place due to penalties for exceeding car part limits. He quickly moved up the field but got stuck in traffic and a DRS train, which hindered his progress.
Verstappen managed to pass Lando Norris at the first pitstops, climbing past Sergio Perez but ultimately falling just short of overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for fourth. Verstappen insisted, “If you start P1 with the pace that we had, I think you’re fighting for the win, regardless. But starting P11, I knew that it was always going to be a damage-limitation race.”
He noted that the team’s aggressive pit strategies helped, but he felt that an additional set of hard tires could have improved their chances. However, Verstappen acknowledged, “We maximized the performance today. Naturally, if you start P1 with the pace that we had, I think you’re fighting for the win, regardless.”
Verstappen extended his championship lead, despite the setbacks, and stated that the race outcome could have been different without the engine penalty. “Having an engine penalty, I think if all of the cars had that, their race would also look very different,” he pointed out.
Reflecting on tire allocations, Verstappen commented, “I think today an [extra] hard tire would have helped. But we didn’t have the tire wear or tire life to do that anyway. So yeah, also there’s a few things to analyze, but as a team today we did a good job.”
Though Verstappen didn’t win the race, his performance was solid given the circumstances. He extended his championship lead and demonstrated resilience.
