'Conservative FIA' prevented Verstappen capitalising on setup sees Windsor

08:54, 28 Jul

bySandy van Wijngaarden

Red Bull Racing had a high-downforce setup on Max Verstappen's car, but because of the FIA's delay, the Belgian Grand Prix was almost entirely run in dry conditions. Peter Windsor analysed why Max Verstappen missed out on finishing on the podium.

After the Sprint in Belgium, Red Bull Racing chose to set up the car for the expected rain on Sunday. As a result, the team may have a less ideal concept for qualifying, but it would have the best setup for the Grand Prix.

However, the FIA chose only to wait an hour and a half before starting the race, by which time the track had almost dried up. After the race, the Dutchman was not happy with the governing body's decision.

FIA was too conservative in Spa-Francorchamps

Peter Windsor discussed a conservative approach by the FIA on his YouTube channel. “The biggest maybe of all, of course, is Max Verstappen's and Red Bull's choice to run so much wing on their car. It wasn't really a gamble in terms of was it going to rain. It was pretty clear it was going to be wet.”

“But we're in an era of Formula One now, particularly on a circuit like Spa with so many fast corners, where everybody, when I say everybody, the rule makers, the stewards, Liberty, the FIA, are very, very safety conscious and very conservative in the way they apply the rules."

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After the first few laps of the race, the track was already getting dry, and soon after, Lewis Hamilton was the first to pit for slicks. It worked, as the Briton gained multiple positions.

“And even in the wet, when Max in theory had an advantage, there was nothing he could do. Charles had at least three to four kilometres an hour at the end of the straight in the wet, and it was only wet for four or five laps.”

As soon as the track was dry, Verstappen had almost no chances to overtake the Ferrari driver. The top speed of the Red Bull was not enough.

“When it started to dry out, they were on slicks, the difference lap after lap after lap was nine kilometres an hour between Charles [Leclerc] and Max Verstappen. Max would pull back maybe 0.3, 0.4 through Sector 2,” according to Windsor.

Still, the Australian also praised Leclerc, who managed to keep Verstappen behind and finished on the podium as a result. "Yes, he had more grip but Charles drove beautifully with that pressure and used Ferrari perfectly in terms of its top speed advantage and not making any mistakes apart from one lock-up late in the race," he concluded.