Verstappen could have won at Spa, claims Helmut Marko

Motorsport Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko insists that reigning world champion Max Verstappen could have been in contention for victory at the Belgian Grand Prix if he had started from the front of the field.

Red Bull enjoyed a strong start to its 2024 F1 title defence, winning four of the opening five rounds. It looked like that the Milton Keynes-based outfit would dominate the third year of the current era of ground-effect cars until McLaren and Ferrari achieved a sudden lift in performance.

The Scuderia won in Australia and then in Monaco while the British squad took the victory in Miami. Following a successful upgrade in Monaco, Mercedes also started to claw it way back to the sharp end of the field. So impressive was the step the Brackley-headquartered outfit took that they won three of the last four races.

At the last race before the summer break in Belgium, Verstappen started from P11 as he served a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation. Although he won the Belgian Grand Prix in 2022 and 2023 from lower grid positions, the Dutchman was seemingly unable to fight his way back to the front, and finished down in P5.

Red Bull's Motorsport Advisor Dr. Helmut Marko insists that reigning world champion Max Verstappen could have been in contention for victory at the Belgian Grand Prix if he had started from the front of the field.

"Max Verstappen managed to finish in fifth place in Spa after his grid penalty and then moved up to fourth place after George Russell was disqualified.

"If he had started from pole position, which he achieved the day before, a win would have been possible. But since he had to start the race from 11th place, that was difficult, because you could see how difficult overtaking was in Belgium.

"It wasn't just the shortened DRS zone, it's the current cars that generate so much downforce that it's incredibly difficult to follow. The front tyres overheat and you either manage to overtake in the shortest time possible or you don't, as we saw with Lando Norris."

Verstappen was promoted from fifth to fourth after race winner George Russell was disqualified for a technical infringement. The Briton's Mercedes W15 was found to have been 1.5kg under the minimum weight of 798kg in the usual post-race.

Reflecting on Russell's disqualification, Marko insists that Mercedes' one-stop strategy might have contributed to the technical infringment.

"George Russell was first across the finish line thanks to his one-stop strategy, but was then disqualified because his car was 1.5 kg too light. The strategy was not planned, as could be seen from the radio traffic.

"For us, such a strategy would not have been possible unless the tyre had recovered - you never know. Sometimes the tyres break and then recover again. But you can also see that Russell made the right choice because he set his fastest lap on the last lap.

"I think the one-stop strategy contributed to his car being too light at the end. They didn't expect that, and because he was on the same set of tires for so long, there was obviously a lot less rubber on it.

"In Spa, the drivers don't have the opportunity to pick up rubber on a cool-down lap. You're happy to pick up two kilos. I don't know if the spectators notice that the drivers always drive on the dirty track at the end so that they can put as much weight as possible on the tires. Maybe they didn't calculate that either.

"It is in the nature of things that a Formula 1 team operates close to the weight limit. Ten kilos make up three tenths - in Spa it might even be four. It is clear that you try to get as close to the limit as possible. And if something goes wrong, you are already at the limit - or even below it," concluded Marko.