McLaren is looking to have a particularly sweet summer break. On Friday at Spa, the ‘papaya’ garage received two pieces of good news: Verstappen will take (at least) a ten-place grid penalty on Sunday and the two MCL38s have also settled in very well to the most complete layout on the entire calendar. The combination of the two points in one clear direction: the question of who can win the Belgian Grand Prix is a puzzle to be solved within the McLaren garage.
When a technical cycle that has marked several seasons (as in the case of Red Bull) loses its dominant position, it takes a while to convince yourself and convince that things are actually changing. “Yes, but… let’s see in Spa”, was the leitmotif after the Hungarian Grand Prix regarding McLaren’s potential.
Well, at Spa Norris and Piastri are still ahead of everyone, like last weekend in Hungary. Max Verstappen is closer, but it must be considered that the Belgian track was supposed to be the perfect one for Red Bull, as it appeared in the FP1 session.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
In the afternoon session the picture changed, with the one-two in the qualifying simulation (Norris ahead of Piastri by two tenths) and above all the long-run by Oscar on medium tyres, by far the fastest on the track. The chameleon-like properties of the McLaren were confirmed, the balance between the three sectors of Spa (always a headache for engineers) already seemed very good in the first laps.
Of course, a Verstappen without penalties would be considered a real threat by the Norris-Piastri tandem, but a very fit Max was still unable to keep up. The gap is small, but in the forecasts it should have been in the opposite direction, that is, in favor (and not by a little) of Red Bull. There are those who hope for rain, a variable that at Spa is as much a part of the circuit as the asphalt, and confirmation of how much some teams believe in a wet Saturday also came with the use of a double set of soft tires (by Norris and Leclerc) in the FP2 session. In the event of a disturbance in FP3 or qualifying, the sets of red tires will be of no use.
![Helmut Marko, Max Verstappen and Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YBeONmn2/s1000/helmut-marko-consultant-red-bu.jpg)
Helmut Marko, Max Verstappen and Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Behind McLaren there is an important game that could have a podium position as a prize. It will depend, of course, on Verstappen’s comeback, but at least on the starting grid the role of third force sees Ferrari slightly ahead of Mercedes.
![Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24](https://cdn.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YKEdkRB0/s1000/charles-leclerc-ferrari-sf-24.jpg)
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
In the qualifying simulations, Leclerc and Sainz confirmed themselves behind Verstappen and ahead of Russell, with Carlos also author of a good long-run that saw him two tenths from Max but with a margin of four tenths on George’s Mercedes. Even with the soft tyres, the comparison confirmed the same hierarchies, with Leclerc confirming himself to be faster than a Hamilton who appeared to be in difficulty.
“We start from a very different situation compared to the last two races,” Lewis explained, “and honestly I don’t know what to say because when we put the soft tyres on I couldn’t improve on my previous times and I found myself struggling with a lot of balance issues. Being 1.2 seconds behind the top of the standings is not a nice feeling…”.
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