At Spa, Red Bull chose a high-downforce setup expecting rain during the race. However, due to a delayed start, the race unfolded mostly on a drying track, leaving Max Verstappen with the wrong setup for the conditions. The Dutch driver openly criticized the race management’s cautious approach and the lack of courage to truly race in wet conditions.
Three weeks earlier at Silverstone, Red Bull had taken risks aiming to overturn a race seemingly set for another McLaren one-two finish by opting for a low-downforce wing. That setup proved effective on dry track, putting them in contention for pole position. Back then, Red Bull anticipated a dry race, but an unexpected heavy rain shower after about ten laps disrupted those plans. Burned by that experience, Red Bull played it safe at Spa.
After winning the Sprint race with an extremely low-downforce setup tailored for dry conditions, Red Bull reversed course for the Belgian GP by choosing a higher-downforce wing to prepare for rain. This decision heavily affected qualifying performance, costing Verstappen up to 7-8 km/h on the straights with DRS closed.
The high-downforce setup was intended for rain, but the race turned out mostly dry. Race direction’s choice to delay the start even after the rain stopped allowed the track time to dry in many sections, leaving only some very wet patches like Eau Rouge and Kemmel. They waited to improve visibility for safety reasons.
Beyond the initial laps, which ran on a mixed condition track with some dry patches causing intermediate tires to overheat and degrade quickly (a common scenario), drivers who took the risk to switch early to slicks—such as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hülkenberg—benefited significantly.
It was clear by that point, with no further rain expected, that the race would be completely dry. The wet-focused setup, therefore, didn’t work. As Verstappen explained after the race, the extra downforce in sector two didn’t compensate for the straight-line speed lost, which hurt his race pace and contributed to his inability to pass, despite several close attempts.
Although extra downforce probably helped reduce tire degradation near the end, the loss of speed on the straights had a bigger impact. Verstappen said, “We made a setup choice that forced us to drive almost like on slick tires, so yes, it was disappointing. After Silverstone, we were more cautious in decisions, but this was the extreme opposite.”
He added, “It was obviously the wrong choice because it didn’t allow us to race properly in the wet. Once we switched to dry tires, we were simply too slow on the straights. Combined with the general balance issues I already have with this car, everything got worse.”
When asked when he would have started the race, Max Verstappen had no hesitation, saying he would have started precisely at 3:00 PM. At that time, it wasn’t raining heavily, though rain was expected soon, which led race control to delay the start by over an hour and twenty minutes.
Even after the rain stopped, race control waited about half an hour before resuming, allowing marshals to clear standing water. Once underway, the Safety Car led for another four laps to remove water from the first sector, where visibility problems had been reported before conditions improved enough for a safe restart.
Verstappen stated, “I would have started exactly at 3:00. It wasn’t even raining. Sure, between turns 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but with two laps behind the Safety Car, visibility would have been much better. The rest of the track was already ready to race. The longer you wait, the better conditions get, and if you don’t see, you can always lift off. At some point, you’ll see… It’s a bit of a shame. I knew after Silverstone they’d be more cautious, but this didn’t make sense either.”
He continued, “Either we push to have a real wet race, or we just say: you know what? Let’s stop racing in the wet and wait for dry conditions. But that’s not really what anyone wants, right? I think we can still have some really great wet races, like we saw at Silverstone and here.”
“Of course, today that meant compromises, especially with the rear wing. But at the end of the day, the problems we have with the car and tire management are still there. It doesn’t matter what rear wing we put on, and that also hurt us a bit in the race today.”
“We’ll never see those classic wet races again. But I think they could still happen. And I think the rain that came afterward was manageable if we had kept running. You make all your decisions based on a wet race, and then it kind of ruins the whole race.”
“Realistically, third place was the best we could hope for. And we got very close. At the same time, though, it highlighted our weaknesses with the car. And yes, it’s not something easy to fix,” Max Verstappen added, emphasizing how on a high-speed track like Spa, Red Bull needs to exploit their true strength—running low-downforce setups to fly on the straights and make the difference.
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