Christian Horner explains Spa choice for Max Verstappen grid penalty

Christian Horner has explained why Red Bull have chosen the Belgian Grand Prix for a Max Verstappen engine penalty that puts him at the back of the grid.

Essentially, it came down to a process of elimination.

Verstappen, who has an 80-point lead in the defence of his Drivers’ title, is taking new power-unit parts at Spa-Francorchamps that will exceed his quota for the season.

That means an automatic back-of-the-grid penalty – but the way things have transpired fortuitously for Red Bull, it is not quite that simple.

They were not alone in thinking Belgium was the ideal opportunity for this decision because Ferrari, McLaren, Alpine, Alfa Romeo and Haas have all followed suit for one of their drivers also.

Respectively, they are Charles Leclerc – for the second time this year, following the Canadian GP – Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher.

Ironically, Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris were the top three fastest drivers in FP2. All are due to start on the back three rows of the grid as things stand, and for the engine penalty sextet it will be their qualifying results that determine the order.

Therefore, depending on what happens on Saturday afternoon, it would be no surprise if Verstappen starts 15th – last time out, with no penalty, he won the Hungarian Grand Prix from 10th on the grid on a circuit where it is more difficult to overtake.

Red Bull team principal Horner said the schedule for the next few races, starting with Verstappen’s home event next weekend, had been studied – and for the penalty, none of those made as much sense as Belgium.

“You look strategically at the calendar, I think we felt it was particularly tight to get to the end of the year with the engine allocation we have,” Horner told Sky F1.

“So you then look at the circuits coming up – Zandvoort, you don’t want to take it there; Monza is actually harder to overtake than you think; Singapore, you don’t want to take it there; Japan’s tricky to overtake.

“So you start running out of options and this is a good track to overtake at and we feel we should be quick here. Hence we’ve decided to take the opportunity here.”

That's a wrap for Friday ? Max is fastest in FP2 with Checo in P10 ⏱ #BelgianGP ?? pic.twitter.com/6II5xCSyXQ

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 26, 2022

Although Verstappen is Dutch, he was born in Belgium and cites Spa as his favourite circuit – and now faces the prospect of being unlikely to repeat last year’s win there when the race was truncated by incessant rain.

“I think the problem with Zandvoort is it’s narrow, it’s twisty, it’s very, very hard to overtake,” added Horner.

“Here, probably the smallest overtaking delta needed of the season – here and Bahrain are probably two of the easiest circuits on the calendar to actually make an overtake.

“That’s why probably so many people have nominated this circuit to take that penalty to try and get engines in the pool for the rest of the year.”