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Formula 1 was naturally excited by the fact that there have been seven different race wins so far in 2024, and six different winners over the past eight races, as Red Bull struggled to get the most out of its previously dominant car.
But Spa may be the perfect circuit for Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the ground effects era, so Fernando Alonso has warned against getting too excited as the tide has turned definitively against Red Bull amid the recent surge of McLaren and Mercedes.
“This track will be interesting because it has been dominated by Red Bull in the past quite easily,” Alonso said on Thursday. “So if Red Bull wins one-two here we might have a different opinion about all these different winners – maybe there is not as much competition as we think.”
The early signs were not encouraging. Verstappen was quickest in FP1, more than half a second ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, with Red Bull putting Verstappen’s RB20 back in the engine cover and cooling configuration ahead of Hungary.
Soft Rating (Total)
1. Verstappen 1 minute 43.372 seconds
2. Piastri 1m43.903s
3. Albon 1 minute 44.099 seconds
4. Russell 1 minute 44.225 seconds
5. Hamilton 1 minute 44.279 seconds
6. Leclerc 1 minute 44.306 seconds
7. Perez 1 minute 44.329 seconds
8. Norris 1m44.415s
9. Sainz 1 minute 44.574 seconds
10. Walk 1 minute 44.699 seconds
11. Gasly 1 minute 44.833 seconds
12. Alonso 1 minute 44.921 seconds
13. Ricardo 1 minute 44.950 seconds
14. Bottas 1 minute 45.155 seconds
15. Sergeant 1m45.311s
16. Tsunoda 1 minute and 45.564 seconds
17. Hulkenberg 1 minute 45.645 seconds
18. Magnussen 1m45.812s
19. Chu 1m45.995s
Verstappen faces a 10-place grid penalty this week due to forced engine changes caused by an unexpected failure at the Canadian Grand Prix in June – but if he continues on this path it may not be difficult for him to win the race.
On a recently refurbished circuit that requires a compromise between the low-drag first and third sectors and the middle sector dominated by corners with higher downforce, Verstappen is almost otherworldly in his ability to pass through the middle sector at speeds his teammates cannot imagine.
“It is a big mistake to think that he cannot move from the eleventh position. [where he’ll start if he’s on pole] “To pole position,” warned McLaren team principal Zak Brown after the first free practice.
He was eight-tenths faster than Perez in sector two on their fastest laps in a row, with Perez complaining of difficulty getting the car right on all corner entries.
Perez was still just four tenths off Piastri’s pace, and there is no doubt that the Red Bull’s inherent aerodynamic efficiency made it ideally suited to the demands of Spa. If Perez can fine-tune the Red Bull to his tastes, he will be a decisive factor at the weekend – and the increased internal pressure on his pace at that team must be given.
Another phrase roll…
After the furore over his angry exchanges with Red Bull during the tough Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen was frank in his speech at Spa.
His first flying lap of the weekend, on the harder C2 tyre, was a time of 1min 44.706sec – good enough for 11th in FP1 had he simply parked his car in the garage after that run!
Before everyone started using the softs (C4) in the initial qualifying simulation in the second half of the session, Verstappen’s first lap on the hards was good enough to beat anything anyone else had managed in the early runs – and the McLarens, Mercedes and Ferraris were all using the theoretically faster mediums at that point too…
hard classification
1. Verstappen 1 minute 44.524 seconds
2. Albon 1m45.807s
3. Perez 1 minute and 45.907 seconds
4. Walk 1m45.957s
5. Bottas 1 minute 46.227 seconds
6. Alonso 1 minute 46.311 seconds
7. Ricardo 1 minute and 46.680 seconds
8. Tsunoda 1 minute and 46.949 seconds
9. Sergeant 1m47.245s
10. Magnussen 1 minute 47.373 seconds
Average rating
1. Russell 1 minute and 44.998 seconds
2. Hamilton 1 minute 45.207 seconds
3. Piastri 1m45.288s
4. Leclerc 1 minute 45.324 seconds
5. Norris 1m45.544s
6. Sainz 1 minute 45.549 seconds
7. Gasly 1 minute 45.553 seconds
8. Hulkenberg 1 minute 46.764 seconds
9. Chu 1m46.993s
The fact that Verstappen was on straightaway pace, on the slower tyre, and more than a second off what Perez could achieve on the same tyre, suggests that Red Bull started the week with Verstappen’s car in a great position. His long laps later in the session were similarly impressive.
What about the rest?
An impressive lap by Williams’ Alex Albon – who usually has aerodynamics that suit the straight-line demands of Spa – was the anomaly among the leaders in first practice.
The Mercedes, running on modified and updated floors for Spa, was less impressive on the soft tyres than the McLaren on the mediums, while the Ferraris’ limited-run cars started off rebounding well enough but should drop off as grip and speed increased and their car became more prone to that rebound limit as the ride height naturally dropped.
Everyone will be limited in this regard by the pressure through Eau Rouge, of course, but it remains to be seen whether the ten-place penalty will be able to put an end to Verstappen’s ability to win this race.
This week has started in a different league than the rest.
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