Max Verstappen shares biggest F1 fear after Belgian GP ‘shame’

Are the days of the “classic kind of wet races” over? Max Verstappen fears so after an 80-minute delay to the Belgian Grand Prix when the heavens opened up at Spa on Sunday.

Finally underway, the drivers spent four laps behind the Safety Car, and after only eight laps of running, were already swapping to slick tyres.

Max Verstappen: Because this is not really wet weather racing for me

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The drivers lined up on the grid for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix in the rain before the Safety Car led them off for the formation lap. FIA race director Rui Marques red-flagged the start procedure due to poor visibility, and the drivers headed into the pit lane for an 80-minute wait.

Verstappen wasn’t happy with the decision and told Red Bull over the radio: “That’s a bit silly. We should just run a few laps. Way too cautious. And now the rain is coming, the heavy rain, and there’s going to be a three-hour delay.”

The race started at 4.20 pm local time, but the first four laps were run behind the Safety Car before Marques released the drivers.

But already swapping onto slick tyres after eight laps of running, questions have been asked about whether the race director waited too long.

Verstappen says yes, as the delayed start hampered drivers such as himself who opted for a wet setup even though it cost them lap time in Saturday’s dry qualifying.

“It was quite difficult,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “On the intermediates, of course, we made a choice with the setup, and then they only allow us to drive in slick conditions, so yeah, that’s a bit disappointing.

“We spoke after Silverstone to be a little bit more cautious with the decisions, but this was the other extreme for me.

“And then the choice that we made with the setup of the car, yeah, was then the wrong one, because they didn’t allow us to race in the wet.

“Once we got to the dry tyres, we were just too slow in the straight, and then with the general balance problems that I already have with this car, it made everything just a bit worse.”

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Asked at what point the race he thought the race should’ve started, the driver says it should’ve begun at its scheduled start time.

“Three o’clock, straight away, it was not even raining,” replied Verstappen.

“And of course, between Turn 1 and 5 was quite a bit of water but if you do two laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear and the rest of the track was ready to go.

“It’s a bit of a shame. I knew that there would be a bit more cautious after Silverstone, but this also didn’t make sense. Then it’s better to say, ‘You know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry and then we just start on slicks’.

“Because this is not really wet weather racing for me.”

He did, however, concede that huge accidents in recent years at Spa that claimed the lives of Anthoine Hubert and Dilano van’t Hoff could have factored into Marques’ decision to delay the start.

“Yeah, potentially,” he said when asked about that.

But if that’s the level of caution that will be applied going forward, Verstappen fears F1 has seen the last of “classic” wet races.

“Of course, at the end of the day, they do what they want, right? I mean, they decide,” he continued.

“But I just find it is a bit of a shame for everyone. You will never see these classic kind of wet races anymore, then which, yeah, I think they still can happen. And I think also the rain that fell afterwards was still manageable if we would have kept lapping anyway.

“You make all the decisions based on wet racing, so that also just ruins your whole race a bit.

“But I mean, realistically, P3 would have been the highest possible, we were very close to that. But at the same time, it also still highlighted our weaknesses with the car. And that’s something that is not so easy to fix at the moment.

As for those drivers who complained about visibility, the reigning World Champion had some advice for them.

“It was only for a few laps, and the more you run, it will be much better. And if you can’t see, you can always lift, then at one point you will see,” he said.

Finishing fourth at Spa, Verstappen dropped 81 points behind race winner and championship leader Oscar Piastri.

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