The Sports Guru
Red Bull arrived at Spa having spent two race weekends crashing an experimental rear wing, and a Silverstone weekend listening to Max Verstappen question the point of turning up. So naturally they bolted the old wing back on and went fastest. This covers Friday's opening practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, the two 10-place grid penalties already confirmed before qualifying, and what the times say about the championship picture underneath.
Max Verstappen set the fastest time in first practice at the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday, 0.145 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari, and he did it with a rear wing Red Bull had supposedly moved on from. The team reverted to the specification they started the season with while they refine the 'flip-flop' design that has caused high-speed crashes for Verstappen in each of the past two race weekends. The old wing is estimated to cost around 0.2 seconds a lap at Spa-Francorchamps. Nobody told the timing screens.
The old wing that still went fastest
The distinction between the two wings is worth a moment, because it explains both the crashes and the caution. The newer design rotates on its axis by more than 180 degrees to shed drag on the straights. The season-opening version Red Bull ran on Friday does something more familiar: its flap opens for straight-line mode in the style of last year's DRS overtaking aid, a mechanism the team actually trusts. The clever wing is quicker until the moment it is very much not, and two high-speed accidents in two weekends is the sort of pattern that makes an engineer put the prototype back in the cupboard. It may return for Hungary next weekend. For now, Red Bull are running the equivalent of the reliable family car while the sports car sits in the garage being looked at.
That context is what makes Friday's headline time interesting rather than merely routine. Verstappen was supposed to be giving away two tenths a lap to his own team's better idea. He still finished the session with everybody behind him, including both Ferraris, with Charles Leclerc third behind Hamilton. Practice times carry all the usual caveats about fuel loads and engine modes. Even so, a compromised Red Bull leading a Ferrari pair is not the Friday Red Bull's rivals would have designed.
Penalties before qualifying even starts
The stranger story of the day happened off the track. Isack Hadjar was fourth fastest in the second Red Bull, 0.252 seconds off his team-mate, and it emerged during the session that the Frenchman will take a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his permitted number of engines. He is the second driver to be sanctioned this weekend. Lando Norris, the world champion, will also drop 10 places for using too many batteries, and the McLaren driver could only manage seventh in the session. Two of the grid's quickest cars will start Sunday's race from the wrong end of their potential, which at least gives the neutral something to look forward to. Spa's long straights at least give a recovering driver somewhere to work, though that comfort is relative when you are giving away 10 places to the cars you are racing for a championship.
For Norris the timing is awkward in a wider sense. McLaren brought a significant upgrade package into this race, and the team's Friday delivered a seventh-fastest time, a penalty, and a late hydraulic pressure problem for Oscar Piastri, who was fifth quickest before spending the final minute limping his car back around the lap like a man carrying a full washing-up bowl across a kitchen. Upgrades are meant to simplify a weekend. McLaren's has complicated theirs before Saturday has even arrived.
The championship picture underneath
Sixth fastest does not usually merit a paragraph, but sixth was Kimi Antonelli, and Antonelli leads the world championship by 25 points. His Mercedes team-mate and closest rival, George Russell, was eighth, 0.356 seconds slower than the Italian, a gap that will read as a footnote on Friday and something sharper if it repeats on Saturday afternoon. The title fight between the two Mercedes drivers has been the season's quiet constant, and Spa marks what could be its halfway point. Could, because the arithmetic depends on whether the two Middle Eastern races scheduled to close the season can go ahead in the context of the war between the US/Israel and Iran, an uncertainty the sport can acknowledge but not resolve.
The session itself gave the stewards little to do. Liam Lawson ran wide after a big oversteer moment at Stavelot early on, and that was as close as anyone came to an incident until Piastri's hydraulics gave up late. One practice session decides nothing, and Friday pace has fooled wiser judges than this column. But the shape of it is clear enough: a Red Bull quick on its second-best wing, a Ferrari pair close behind, a champion starting Sunday with a handicap, and a championship leader going about his Friday as if none of it were remarkable. The remarkable part is that it no longer is.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hadjar has exceeded his permitted number of engines for the season, which under Formula 1's rules triggers a 10-place grid penalty. The sanction emerged during first practice at Spa, where the Red Bull driver had set the fourth-fastest time, 0.252 seconds slower than his team-mate Max Verstappen.
Norris will drop 10 places on the grid for using too many batteries, a separate breach of the same power-unit component limits that caught Isack Hadjar. It makes the world champion one of two drivers already penalised this weekend, and he could only manage seventh in Friday's opening practice session.
Kimi Antonelli leads the championship by 25 points for Mercedes. His nearest rival is his own team-mate, George Russell, who was eighth in first practice at Spa, 0.356 seconds slower than Antonelli. The Italian was sixth fastest in the session.
Possibly as soon as the next race. Red Bull reverted to their season-opening rear wing at Spa while they refine the 'flip-flop' design that caused high-speed crashes for Max Verstappen in the past two race weekends. The newer wing, said to be worth around 0.2 seconds a lap at Spa, may return for Hungary next weekend.
Sources: BBC Sport.
