How Verstappen is banking on “different tyre strategy” in bid to win from 11th

A week on from blasting Red Bull for their strategic calls in Hungary, Max Verstappen is hoping their tactics will give him the edge he needs as he lines up 11th on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Starting in the thick of the midfield at Spa, Verstappen says his first target will be to “survive lap one”, then try to use tyre management to his advantage.

“We have a bit of a different tyre strategy to the other cars, so we have to wait and see how that will evolve in the race.”

After the first day of practice at Spa, since when drivers have only used wet weather compounds, Verstappen still had two fresh sets of medium rubber and one set of hards. That puts him out of step with every driver from Red Bull’s three main rival teams.

The Mercedes drivers left themselves with a single set of mediums but kept two new hards, as did Carlos Sainz Jnr and Oscar Piastri. Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc kept their options open, using up an extra set of softs in order to retain two sets each of mediums and hards.

Verstappen has also opted to run a higher wing angle than some of his rivals, notably the McLarens. “When you look at the McLaren, for example, they run a very skinny wing,” he said yesterday. “Seems to work for them, but it didn’t really work for me yesterday. So a bit of a different strategy also there and I guess we’ll find out tomorrow how it will work out.”

Running a higher wing angle will inevitably make Verstappen’s car slightly slower on the straights, but only until he reaches a DRS zone. As he will start in the middle of the field in a car which was quicker than anything in qualifying by almost six-tenths of a second, that should be a given.

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The other advantage of his steeper wing angle is it will allow him to slide his tyres less and look after them. On Friday, several teams experienced high tyre degradation on the partially-resurfaced track. Now washed clean by a day of solid rain, it is likely to be more abrasive still.

“I have to pass cars,” Verstappen observed. “The DRS effect is quite big around here, but at the end of the day, I think it’s more important just to be good on tyres around here. If you’re good on tyres, you can pass people.”

He said he “felt a bit more confident and comfortable” using a higher wing angle in practice. “So I hope that that is also going to be the case tomorrow.

“Tomorrow is a bit warmer as well, so naturally probably a bit more sliding. I just hope that it’s better for me.”

After the experience of Hungary, where he narrowly missed pole position but struggled more for pace in the race, Verstappen has put the onus on race performance this weekend, at a track where overtaking should be much easier for him.

“[Running] a bit more downforce for sure is good for today. One-lap pace is of course important, but it’s more important to be good on the tyres tomorrow.

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“I feel like most of the last qualifyings, we have been quite close over one lap, even when I was still not entirely happy with the car or the balance. But then in the race, sometimes there have been bigger differences for me. So it’s important that tomorrow we are good on tyres and competitive, of course, as well.”

Despite that, he does not expect to enjoy the kind of performance advantage which allowed him to win after taking grid penalties in previous years. He won from 14th on the grid in 2022 and again from sixth last year.

“I’m not as confident as I was the last two years around here in coming back to the front,” said Verstappen. “I still see it more as a damage limitation race. That’s how it is. But at least today was the best possible we could do in terms of the starting position for tomorrow.”

He is particularly wary of the pace of the McLarens, who he expects to rise to the front of the field from their fourth and fifth places on the grid.

“Looking at their pace yesterday in the long run, it’s incredibly strong,” he said. “They look very comfortable out there.

“Of course, they are starting a little bit further back, I think they’re so fast they will quite quickly challenge for the front, for the lead. It also depends a bit, of course, how I get through lap one and stuff.

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“But I would already be happy if we can match that race pace. So starting a bit further back, also being on different tyres, I don’t know how that is going to work out. Most teams around us have two hard tyres, we don’t. I don’t know if that’s better or not, of course, for the moment, but we’ll find out tomorrow. But it’s definitely still a damage limitation.”

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