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…
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