Max Verstappen was satisfied with his performance following FP2 at the 2026 F1 Belgian GP, despite a rear wing change bringing a slight reduction in pace.
Red Bull decided to remove its rotating rear wing following crashes by Verstappen in Austria and Silverstone, replacing it with the conventional one the cars previously ran. The rotating wing is the team’s take on Ferrari’s ‘Macarena’ concept, designed for greater drag reduction and increased straight-line speed. However, following Verstappen’s incidents, the team decided to err on the side of caution at a track as high-speed as Spa.
Verstappen: Red Bull “slower on the straight” at F1 Belgian GP
Verstappen finished third in Friday’s second practice session, trailing Mercedes frontrunner Kimi Antonelli by four tenths of a second. When asked if it was an encouraging session, he hesitated to respond in the affirmative, acknowledging the gap between Red Bull and the likes of Mercedes and McLaren.
“It’s been alright for me, I didn’t really have big problems,” he said. “The car has been in a quite good window. Probably in FP2 you see a little bit more of the real gap still, but that’s nothing shocking or [unexpected].
“It’s just a bit of a tough track with the energy management as well. It seems like we’re a bit slower on the straight compared to some of our competitors, but balance-wise it’s been quite okay.”
During the session, Verstappen could be heard complaining about his gearbox, calling the downshifts “unacceptable”. This isn’t the first time the Dutchman has complained about this specific issue – in fact, a similar radio message was aired just two weeks ago at the F1 British GP.
Asked about the downshift issues, Verstappen said: “I’m always very sensitive to these things because I want to work on that and improve it. I think there was a software update or downgrade that took a bit of time for the shifts to learn, and it got a bit better again at the end.
“Some bits were working well and then sometimes it wasn’t working, but overall the car has been in a decent window.”
Waché: Rotating rear wing had “mechanical issue”, will return for F1 Hungarian GP
Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché, however, wasn’t convinced that Verstappen was satisfied with the car’s performance.
“It’s a good starting point, but still, I’m not sure [Verstappen] is happy from what I heard,” he said after FP2. “We still have a lot to improve on the balance side, especially in the short run and maybe on the degradation side for sure.
Waché confirmed that the rear wing swap was due to a mechanical issue with the rotating unit, which was spotted following the F1 British GP.
“It’s a mechanical problem that we [spotted] after the accident in Silverstone. We fixed it, we are trying to prove that [it is] bulletproof before putting it on the car, and it should be ready for Budapest.
“After Silverstone it’s clear now. We looked at the wing and we know what happened, we know how to fix it. That is just to make sure that it’s ready and bulletproof.”
Pressed on whether the mechanical issue related to the actuation mechanism (the part of the wing that activates straight-line mode), Waché hesitated to go into detail.
“It’s part of it,” he said. “I don’t want to be too precise on what we are doing, because it’s part of the benefit of this wing, because it’s a performance benefit to use it. But yeah, we take it seriously, we discuss with the FIA internally, because it’s our duty to make the car safe, but we make the parts stronger, and you will see this wing back soon.”
He continued: “We prove it to [the FIA], what we’ve done. I think it’s on our side that we make it cautious now, we don’t want to take any risk, and we want to be 100% sure. It could be interesting for Budapest.”
