Australian driver Oscar Piastri delivered a commanding performance in the Sprint Qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, leveraging a flawlessly set-up McLaren MCL39 to dominate the crucial central sector of the circuit. His impeccable feeling and immediate rapport with the car allowed him to establish an untouchable supremacy, outpacing teammate Lando Norris by three-tenths of a second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by over four-tenths in that sector alone.
Spa is the longest track on the Formula 1 calendar, so seeing sizable gaps between drivers is not unusual. In this case, Piastri’s Sprint Qualifying lap saw him nearly half a second faster than Max Verstappen and more than six-tenths ahead of Lando Norris. This stands in stark contrast to his struggles at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he started the weekend off on the back foot and had to play catch-up. Here at Spa, from the very first Free Practice 1 session, Piastri exhibited strong confidence in the car, which translated into outstanding performance and made a decisive difference in the most technical part of the track.
Throughout the 2025 season so far, McLaren has consistently demonstrated competitiveness on tracks that demand significant aerodynamic downforce and where precise vehicle balance is key, especially up front. Spa-Francorchamps is particularly challenging for teams when it comes to setup because the circuit demands a balance between two very different characteristics.
The long straights and fast sections encourage teams to adopt a low-drag setup—sometimes even extreme—to maximize aerodynamic efficiency and unleash the full potential of the power unit without sacrificing speed on the straights. Conversely, the second sector, which consists of high-speed corners, quick direction changes, and chicanes, requires a stable, well-planted car with substantial downforce.
This inherent contradiction makes Spa one of the most complex circuits in terms of setup strategy. It’s interesting to note how McLaren and Red Bull have taken distinctly different approaches to address these challenges.
Red Bull has remained faithful to its philosophy, focusing on aerodynamic efficiency and high-speed cornering performance—strengths that have defined their 2025 campaign. McLaren, meanwhile, has also stuck to its core concepts by reducing rear wing angle, similar to previous events, but without pushing for extreme solutions, feeling that such extremes are unnecessary.
McLaren’s strategy is straightforward: minimize time lost on the straights and make up time in the corners. The team’s strength showed most clearly in the central sector, exactly where pre-race expectations predicted they could excel.
Oscar Piastri was the standout driver in this regard. From Free Practice 1 onwards, he seemed perfectly poised to extract the full potential of the MCL39, delivering a sector time more than four-tenths faster than Max Verstappen’s RB21. When compared to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the gap widens to approximately half a second.
This clear dominance is partly echoed by teammate Lando Norris, though not with the same decisiveness. Norris himself admitted to leaving roughly three-tenths behind Piastri, who remains unbeaten on what is considered his favorite track. But what exactly is the source of this superiority?
“We thought we’d be closer, but in the second sector we lose four tenths,” explained Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s advisor. “All other drivers lose that margin or even more. So, we have made progress, but it’s clearly still not enough to challenge Piastri.”
“It’s simply a matter of downforce. If we add more, we lose too much on the straights. We have to find the right compromise. But especially Piastri is incredible. He’s not only faster than us: the others struggle against him as well. And for just one sector, that’s a big difference.”
Indeed, analyzing the sector splits reveals that the only corner where Verstappen outpaced Piastri was Pouhon, a high-speed left-hand bend that showcases a car’s aerodynamic qualities at extreme speeds—an area where the Milton Keynes-based RB21 has traditionally excelled.
However, throughout the remainder of the sector—particularly through turn 9, the quick changes of direction, and the chicanes at turns 12 and 13, as well as on the exit of turn 14 leading into Blanchimont—Piastri consistently demonstrated a higher level of performance. This was not just against Verstappen, whose RB21 struggles with these complex sections, but also compared to Norris, who appears to lack the confidence needed on corner entry to carry speed and make the crucial difference.
Leave a Reply