Max Verstappen’s days of dominance are over, as evidenced by his failure to win the Belgian Grand Prix for a third straight time due to a grid penalty.
hat’s the view of former F1 driver-turned-co-commentator Martin Brundle after seeing the three-time F1 champion fail to overtake his rivals at Spa-Francorchamps
In 2022, Verstappen beat his rivals, including team-mate Sergio Perez, by nearly 18 seconds despite starting 14th on the grid following a series of engine penalties.
Last year, Verstappen had little to do on his way to victory, finishing just over 22 seconds behind after starting sixth following another PU violation.
Ahead of Sunday’s race, a similar result was expected after the 26-year-old Dutchman started from 11th after once again taking pole, but there was no third in a row as Verstappen had to settle for fourth.
“Verstappen was necessarily extremely cautious at the first corner and passed easier victims early on in Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso, who were all racing for the best position rather than arguing with the world championship leader,” Brundle commented via Sky Sports’ F1 column.
“But when Verstappen came up behind Norris and the leading group in a train took shelter in the front driver’s open rear wing DRS zone, he stopped to continue.
“The days are long gone when Red Bull were so dominant that they could win by any means from almost anywhere on the track.”
To be fair, it was a race that took many by surprise as the suspected tyre wear in Friday practice did not affect the grand prix.
That allowed George Russell to win on a one-stop strategy, although he was later disqualified because his Mercedes was underweight.
Brundle added: “In recent times, with so much data, experience and endless simulation work, I rarely know the people in the know, and therefore the media, because they don’t know the race well.”
“Friday’s race, and even the dry F2 race on Sunday morning, showed Tyre degradation will be significant throughout the grand prix.
“There was a lot of talk about McLaren being the frontrunner and ‘guessing’ how long it would take Max Verstappen to get from 11th on the grid, penalised for a new engine, to get close to the front.
“The best race left was arguably a tight race between Ferrari, Mercedes and Sergio Perez on the front row with Red Bull starting.”
Instead, Mercedes emerged as the favourites as Lewis Hamilton inherited victory from team-mate Russell.
