Max Verstappen can claim yet more Formula 1 records for Red Bull in the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, Sprint Race format for the first time at the venue, to set up a milestone Dutch homecoming party after the August break.
Red Bull have won a record 12 races in a row but they can make history at Spa-Francorchamps as the first team to take the first 12 victories of a season as well as 12 consecutively in the same year.
Another victory on Sunday this weekend for double F1 world champion Verstappen would be his eighth in a row, one shy of the record for successive F1 wins in a season set by former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel in 2013. Max is also the outright favourite to win the Sprint.
That would further crank up excitement for what will already be a festival of orange when the 25-year-old turns up for his home Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort chasing victory for the third year in a row at the seaside circuit.
Verstappen, who was born in Belgium but races with a Dutch licence: “Spa is of course my favourite track on the calendar so I’m looking forward to racing there and seeing the fans, it should be a fun weekend.
“I have good memories from Spa and coming off the back of a great team result in Hungary, I hope we can deliver this weekend, it’s the final push before summer break,” added Verstappen who has won in Belgium for the past two years.
Rain or shine Verstappen is the outright favourite to dominate in Belgium
Last year he did so from 14th on the grid, and will be favourite for a hat-trick unless the rain gods intervene during this 68th edition of the Belgian Grand Prix. But then he is a master of those conditions too.
The current weather forecast is for rain on Friday, when qualifying is held, and Saturday which features the sprint qualifying and standalone race.
After 11 rounds, Verstappen is 110 points clear of closest rival and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez after 11 of 22 rounds and could extend that advantage to the equivalent of five races. Perez finished second in Spa last year, the only time he has appeared on the podium there.
“The weather will be tricky, as it always is in Spa, and we have the sprint format to contend with so running could be very limited,” said the Mexican who is the season’s top scorer in sprints after two of six so far.
McLaren’s Lando Norris will be chasing his third podium in a row, after finishing second in Britain and Hungary with a car that is very quick through the fast corners, while Australian team mate Oscar Piastri is after a first top-three finish.
“You will fly in Spa. Everyone should go and stand in Pouhon (corner) because you will be flat,” Verstappen told Norris after the race in Budapest.
“One-handed. Blindfolded as well,” joked Norris in return.
Spa-Francochamps sadly brings back unpleasant memories
Fellow Briton, Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has had more wins than any other active driver at the circuit, with Mercedes’ seven times F1 world champion a quadruple winner there.
Hamilton was on pole in Hungary, his first since 2021, and could again be a threat along with teammate George Russell in an upgraded car.
Williams could also be in the mix for solid points at a circuit likely to favour their car’s aerodynamics. While much focus will be on Daniel Ricciardo’s progress, in his second race with AlphaTauri after his return in Hungary last Sunday.
The race also takes place amid concern about the dangers of racing in rain and spray, in the sombre shadow of the death this month of Dutch teenager Dilano van’t Hoff in a junior series.
Alpine’s French driver Pierre Gasly has organised a track run on Thursday evening for all F1, F2 and F3 personnel to remember compatriot Anthoine Hubert, who died in a 2018 F2 accident, and van’t Hoff. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin)
Belgian Grand Prix Stats & Facts by Reuters
- Round 12 of the 22-race 2023 Formula 1 World Championship season;
- Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
- Lap distance: 7.004km. Total distance: 308.052km (44 laps)
- 2022 pole position: Carlos Sainz (Spain) Ferrari one minute 45.050 seconds
- 2022 race winner: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
- Race lap record: 1:46.286, Valtteri Bottas (Finland, Mercedes 2018)
- Start time: 1300GMT (1500 local)
- There is no Belgian driver on the starting grid but McLaren’s Lando Norris and Verstappen both have Belgian mothers.
- Verstappen, who is chasing a third successive Belgian Grand Prix victory, was born in Belgium.
- The 2021 race was Formula One’s shortest, lasting three laps due to heavy rain after starting from the pitlane behind the safety car. Half-points were awarded.
- This year’s will be the 56th Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Eleven of the last 21 have been won from pole position.
- Spa is the longest lap in F1 and one of the fastest, with an average speed of around 230kph. Cars can hit 315kph at Blanchimont.
- Four current drivers have won at Spa: Lewis Hamilton (2010, 2015, 2017, 2020), Daniel Ricciardo (2014), Charles Leclerc (2019), Verstappen (2021, 2022).
- Michael Schumacher won a record six times at Spa, including from 16th on the grid in a wet 1995 race.
- Safety cars have featured in the last seven Belgian Grand Prix races.
- Red Bull are chasing a record-extending 13th consecutive win and 12th of 2023. No team have ever won the first 12 races of a season before, with McLaren winning the opening 11 in 1988.
2023 Formula 1 World Championship Points
Victories, Poles, Podiums & Fastest Laps
- Verstappen has won seven races in a row, only the fifth driver to do that after Alberto Ascari, Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.
- The Dutch driver has 44 wins from 174 starts and is fifth on the all-time list. Alain Prost, with 51, is fourth.
- Red Bull have won every race this season (nine for Verstappen, two for Perez).
- Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 321 starts but has not won since Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
- Aston Martin’s Alonso has 32 wins, most recently in his home Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 with Ferrari, from a record 366 starts.
- Hamilton’s pole in Hungary last weekend was the record-extending 104th of his career and ended Verstappen’s run of five in a row.
- Red Bull have been on pole in nine of the season’s 11 races, with Leclerc taking the top slot in Azerbaijan and Hamilton in Hungary. Verstappen has seven poles for 2023.
- Six teams and eight drivers have made a podium appearance this season: Red Bull, Alpine, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. Verstappen has yet to finish outside the top two.
- Hungary saw Red Bull take their 250th and 251st podium finishes.
- Five different drivers have taken fastest laps this season – Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou, Verstappen (6), Perez (2) and Mercedes’ George Russell and Hamilton.