Verstappen concedes engine penalty is ‘likely’ in Belgium as he admits Red Bull’s competitiveness is an ‘unknown’

Max Verstappen has explained the thinking behind him "likely" taking an engine penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Dutchman suggesting that Red Bull are unsure of how competitive they will be at Spa-Francorchamps.

After losing a power unit during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, there was a strong likelihood that Verstappen would incur a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his allocated number of engines at an upcoming race.

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And when asked ahead of the weekend in Belgium how likely an engine change could be at the venue, the reigning world champion responded: “Likely, yeah. But I knew of course that it is coming. It’s not a surprise to me.”

With the circuit being one where overtaking is possible, Verstappen acknowledged that the track could be a good one to take the penalty.

“We’ll find out on Sunday how good that is going to be, right?” the Red Bull driver said. “Some tracks naturally are a bit better than others. Of course on a street circuit, you wouldn’t want to have an engine penalty. So yeah, most likely it will be here.”

Verstappen is no stranger to success at Spa-Francorchamps, having won the last three Belgian Grands Prix. However, at the current stage of the 2024 campaign, the 26-year-old has not claimed victory at the most recent three rounds in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary.

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Pushed about the situation looking different to the last couple of years – and whether the goal this weekend would be damage limitation – Verstappen commented: “Probably yes. If you look at our last few races where we haven’t particularly been the fastest, I wouldn’t say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning.

“But again, a race can always be turned upside down with moments. We have to be open minded and try to make the best of it. That’s what we’ll try to do. At the moment, I also don’t know how competitive we’re going to be here.

“Also a few places there’s new tarmac, so we need to see how the tyres respond to that as well. So still a lot of unknowns. Obviously with the weather, quite a bit of rain expected on Friday and Saturday. So yeah, just need to follow the weather and just progression through the weekend, and see how competitive we are.”

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Verstappen has previously won in Belgium from 14th on the grid in 2022 and from sixth one year later. Asked if P8 was the maximum he could expect this weekend, the Dutch driver responded: “I hope a little bit more, but let’s see. I don’t know, it’s difficult to predict at the moment.”