Max Verstappen chasing history, McLaren’s hot streak, and more storylines for the Belgian Grand Prix

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Looking at the biggest storylines as F1 heads to Spa

Formula 1 faces a quick turnaround this week, as the grid heads to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix. Beyond the double-header nature of the schedule is the fact that the teams face the third F1 Sprint weekend of the year, meaning they get just one practice session before qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday afternoon.

No rest for the weary.

That angle is one of the many storylines facing the teams as they head to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Can McLaren continue their hot streak?

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An alternate title for this section could be “Will Lando Norris break another trophy?”

The past two grands prix have been very kind to McLaren. Norris and Oscar Piastri both qualified in the top three for the British Grand Prix, and followed that effort with a strong finish in the race itself, with Norris scoring his first podium of the season with a P2, and Piastri not far behind from his first F1 podium in P4.

While there were questions regarding how the MCL60 would fare in the low-speed corners of the Hungaroring, the team answered those questions in stunning fashion. Norris banked his second-straight P2 of the season, while Piastri pushed again for his first F1 podium, settling for an impressive P5.

The reward for their efforts? Two weeks with a massive haul of points. McLaren left Austria sitting on 29 points for the season, placing them sixth in the Constructors’ standings and 18 points behind Alpine.

Now? McLaren has pulled well ahead of Alpine, sitting on 87 points for the season. In the interim Alpine has failed to secure a point, meaning McLaren now sit 40 points clear of their competitors.

Even more intriguing? McLaren was 125 points behind Ferrari after Austria. At the moment they are just 80 points back of the Scuderia. While that might be asking too much for McLaren to catch them, the past two races have made the improbable seem … possible.

Can Aston Martin stem the tide?

In his first bit of post-race analysis following the Hungarian Grand Prix, noted F1 journalist Albert Fabrega posed this question: Is McLaren the new Aston Martin?

Not too long ago Aston Martin were the darlings of the non-Red Bull F1 field. They began the year in impressive form, and were in second place in the Constructors’ standings following the Miami Grand Prix.

Recent weeks have seen Mercedes catch them for second, and Aston Martin banked just nine points over the past two grands prix. Fernando Alonso notched a seventh-place finish at Silverstone followed by a ninth-place finish in Hungary. Teammate Lance Stroll finished out of the points in the British Grand Prix, and managed to bring home a single point with his P10 at the Hungaroring.

How much has the conversation shifted? Earlier in the season the AMR23 was the second-fastest car on the grid, behind the RB19. But following the Hungarian Grand Prix last week, Alonso conceded that the team was fifth-fastest, and ninth place was the best result possible.

“I think we weren’t quick enough to challenge anyone in front, and we didn’t have any threats behind. So three points, ninth and 10th, maximum today,” said the veteran driver.

“As a team, I think we have some work to do to try and understand what we can be doing better,” said Stroll after the Hungarian Grand Prix. “The car is quick, but there’s more pace to unlock and that has to be our priority as the season continues. We’ll take these learnings into Spa next week where, as always, we’ll be pushing hard.”

“Today is a reality check,” added Team Principal Mike Krack. “We need to keep our heads down, keep working hard, and push through the developments to get back to where we were in earlier in the season.”

Getting Aston Martin rebound?

Will Ferrari have a mistake-free week?

Death, taxes, and Ferrari making mistakes.

As we outlined yesterday, the Scuderia endured another weekend with some mistakes, that cost them points in the standings and time on the track. Charles Leclerc dealt with a slow pit stop thanks to a wheel-gun failure, and exacerbated that with a mistake of his own, as speeding in the pits resulted in a five-second penalty, which dropped him a spot in the final qualification.

Carlos Sainz Jr. managed a good stint on the soft compound early in the race, but the team’s fears regarding tyre wear came to fruition, as he struggled with wear on his rear tyres during a longer stint on the hard compound.

The result? A P7 for Leclerc, a P8 for Sainz, and a Ferrari Team Principal talking yet again about mistakes and errors following a race. “Our result is rather poor today,” said Team Principal Frederic Vasseur.

“I have the feeling that we are not that far off the pace in terms of performance, but we did not put everything together over the whole weekend. We showed we had the potential on Friday, but then we did not build on it for Saturday or today in the race,” added Vasseur. “Now we really need to focus on Belgium, because it is always important to go into the summer break with a good result, find more pace and minimize mistakes.”

Can they finally deliver that mistake-free week?

The impact of the schedule and the sprint format

Thankfully for Ferrari, they will not have much time to linger on the mistakes in Hungary.

The grid faces a very quick turnaround, as the second half of this late-July doubleheader awaits at Spa. Adding to the compressed timeline? This is the third F1 Sprint weekend of the season, meaning the teams get just a single practice session on Friday before qualifying for the Grand Prix itself later in the day.

Then they immediately change gears for F1 Sprint Saturday, with qualifying for the sprint race taking place in the early afternoon, followed by the F1 Sprint itself later on Saturday.

Finally, the Grand Prix itself follows on Sunday.

How will the compressed timeline, minimal practice time, and Sprint format impact the grid this week?

Is Guenther Steiner on the hot seat?

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Scanning the F1 mediasphere in recent days uncovered an intriguing storyline emerging.

Is Guenther Steiner actually on the hotseat at Haas?

According to one former driver, their recent struggles should at least raise some questions about Steiner. Ralf Schumacher, the former driver and current analyst for Sky Sports F1 wondered if Steiner would put the same demands on himself as he does the rest of the team.

“It’s clear,” he told Sky Deutschland, “the car was good last year and nothing has happened since. It would just be good if the team boss made the same demands on himself and on the team as he makes on others.”

“One thing is clear the drivers, especially one driver, do a great job in qualifying and the car just doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do,” added Schumacher. “You can’t blame everything on the fact that it’s a small team – after all, you’re in Formula 1 and you want to improve. There’s great potential there.”

While it is fair to note that Schumacher is probably not Steiner’s biggest fan, given how things ended for his nephew Mick at Haas a season ago, it is also fair to point out that Haas’s strength on Saturdays this season has often failed to return points on Sundays. Nico Hülkenberg has advanced to Q3 seven times this season, including this past weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but on many of those occasions they came away without points.

As they did in Budapest.

“Going into the race we knew that we’d be struggling with the heat with our tire degradation issues. I mean, it was a tough race, but I think we got the best from it that we could. At the moment this is what it is for us,” said Steiner after the race. “We can’t do anything else but keep working on the car and trying to resolve our problems. A lot of other people are picking up the pace – at the moment we can’t, but we’re working on it.”

Honestly, it feels premature to speculate that Steiner could be on the hot seat. Thanks to the popularity of Drive to Survive he has become one of the most recognizable figures in the sport, and from a marketing angle he is an asset to the team he helped found.

But Haas does have to start turning things around, most notably on Sundays.

So the seat might not be hot.

Yet.

Are points in the cards for Daniel Ricciardo?

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Daniel Ricciardo’s much-anticipated return to the grid got off to a rough start, as the newly-minted AlphaTauri driver was hit in the back by Zhou Guanyu on the opening lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix. That contact pushed Ricciardo into Esteban Ocon, whose A523 was lifted into the air briefly before crashing down on the A523 of Pierre Gasly.

That knocked both Alpines out of the race, ending it almost before it began.

As for Ricciardo, he managed a P13 on the afternoon, but believes that points could have been in store were it not for the initial incident.

“The whole weekend has been good and to come back, really feel all the things I’ve missed in the last twelve months, I can’t ask for more on the first weekend, and it gives me confidence,” said Ricciardo after the Hungarian Grand Prix. “I got hit in turn 1, and dropped to the tail of the pack. After that, we got stuck in traffic, but once we got some clear air, I could settle into a rhythm and from then on, I was happy. Our pace wasn’t bad, maybe we could’ve been in the points today, I don’t know, but our strategy was good, we were just a bit unlucky.”

Still, Ricciardo was his usual positive self following the race.

“On the other hand, the contact at the start could’ve ended my race, so I’m grateful the car was still ok, and I was able to do 70 laps to learn as much as possible,” said Ricciardo. “I’ll learn from the mistakes I made to get better and better, and I made little mental notes, which I will share with the team. Overall though, there are a lot of things to be happy about.”

WIth the grid heading to Spa, there might be more reasons to think points could be in his future. Ricciardo has enjoyed success in the Belgian Grand Prix with three podiums to his credit at Spa, including a win back in 2014 with Red Bull.

Of course, all three of those results came while he was with Red Bull, but is a track where he has enjoyed success in the past, and perhaps some points do follow this week.

Can anyone catch Verstappen?

Until it happens, this is going to remain a storyline.

And at the moment, it does not look like it is going to happen.

Even though Red Bull was frustrated after qualifying on Saturday, with Verstappen seeming uncomfortable in the RB19 over short stints. But as the driver himself noted, the RB19 seemed calmer on longer runs, and that was the case on Sunday as he pulled away from the field yet again.

The result? A 12th-straight win for Red Bull dating back to 2022, a new mark in the F1 record books. It was also Verstappen’s seventh-straight victory, and two more would tie him with Sebastian Vettel for the most consecutive wins by a driver in F1 history.

The next two races are the Belgian Grand Prix, and then the Dutch Grand Prix following the summer break.

Verstappen won both a season ago.