At the Belgian Grand Prix for the past two seasons, Max Verstappen received a grid penalty because Red Bull changed parts on his race car.
Verstappen overcame those penalties to win in both 2022 and 2023.
As we and others have pointed out, 2024 is not either season. The F1 grid has changed, and the days of Red Bull dominating the field and Verstappen easily overcoming penalties are over. Verstappen was quickest on Saturday, and that performance in qualifying led many to believe he would overcome a 10-place grid penalty and start 11th for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
But that was not to be the case: Verstappen finished fifth on Sunday, promoted to fourth after George Russell was disqualified during post-race inspection, and while the recovery drive was certainly an impressive result given his starting position, it was also a reminder that the days of him and Red Bull’s dominance of the grid are long gone.
“In my first stint, I stayed out of trouble for the first few laps, got into the DRS train and basically just kept going with it. Then I tried to make a nice undercut and I thought it worked pretty well. But yeah, all the cars have a similar pace and it’s very difficult to move up,” Verstappen said after the race.
“So I think I did a good job from 11th and it was a positive day for me in terms of the championship. Of course I’d like to go higher, but with the pace of the last few races it’s not realistic to think I can go from 11th to the front again,” the Red Bull driver added. “Unfortunately those days are gone, but we have a lot to analyse during the break and see if we can improve the car, which has already started in Zandvoort.”
The result saw Verstappen extend his lead over Lando Norris to 78 points – the Red Bull driver scored 12 points on Sunday to Norris’ 10. However, it was a different story on the constructors’ side, with McLaren scoring 28 points at Spa on Sunday to Red Bull’s only 19.
That means that with the grid quieted by the summer shutdown, McLaren are trailing Red Bull by just 42 points – a fact that may spark some interesting discussion in the coming weeks in Milton Keynes about the situation of Sergio Perez alongside Verstappen.
“Luckily, things are changing a bit so we’re not taking points away from any particular team, but certainly we know we have a bit of work to do. We want to do better and we’ll see what we can do,” Verstappen concluded at Spa on Sunday.
Can Red Bull find the answers they’re looking for? How they answer that question will play a big role in writing the final chapter of what is becoming a legendary F1 season.
