McLaren chief executive Zak Brown believes it would be a “big mistake” to rule out Max Verstappen winning this weekend’s Belgian F1 Grand Prix despite receiving a 10-place grid penalty.
Verstappen can only start from 11th on the grid at best after receiving a grid penalty.
The Dutchman has been forced to use a fourth power unit and will therefore be relegated on the grid.
Verstappen dominated the first practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, topping the timesheets by more than 0.5 seconds over Oscar Piastri.
Despite Verstappen’s penalty, Brown believes it would be foolish to think the Red Bull driver cannot win.
“It’s a tricky track, where it’s difficult to gauge how much downforce you want versus straight-line speed,” he said.
“Max’s second sector was pretty impressive. You have to assume he’s on pole, which means 11th place.
“You can overtake him here. I think he went from 20th to ninth in two or three laps recently. I think it would be a big mistake to think he can’t go from 11th to first.
“We have to take advantage of every opportunity we can.”
Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing RB20. Formula 1 World Championship,…
Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle was hugely impressed with Verstappen’s early performance at Spa, describing it as “sinister”.
“It’s the first free practice session but he was flying,” he explained. “Both on single laps and longer runs. I’ve just looked at his tyres. The softs look pretty good. The soft tyres that we were on when we were at McLaren waiting for Zak looked awful. The mediums still looked a bit upset.
“I think Max was on this new asphalt and really found the sweet spot with the car set-up, driving style and speed he was carrying.
“I think it was disturbing how good Verstappen and Red Bull were at the time.”
Verstappen is 76 points clear of Lando Norris at the top of the F1 drivers’ championship ahead of Sunday’s race.
