Oscar Piastri arrives in Belgium as a grand prix winner for the first time, and now that the celebratory Big Mac has settled, he can turn his attention to doubling his victory tally.
The Aussie’s underwhelming late-night celebrations, comprising a Macca’s airport run and a game of Monopoly, will be distant in his mind as he prepares for one of Formula 1’s most iconic challenges.
Everyone wants to win at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Its high-speed bends and rolling elevation changes form an adrenaline rush few other tracks can offer, and triumphing in Ardennes puts a driver’s name among some of motorsport’s true greats.
Every qualifying session and race from the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
Piastri will be hoping history repeats not just week on week but also decade on decade.
This time 10 years ago Daniel Ricciardo did the Hungary-Belgium double, claiming his second and third career victories in his first season with Red Bull Racing.
Equipped with the most competitive McLaren car in a generation, a morale boost and a sense of confidence, Piastri will be hoping to replicate the feat.
WILL THE McLAREN DRIVERS BE CALLED ON TO WORK TOGETHER AGAIN?
McLaren broke some tremendous droughts over the course of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
Its front-row lockout was its first since the end of 2012, almost 12 years ago.
Its one-two finish is its first since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix and just its second since the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix, more than 14 years ago.
But McLaren’s operating principles were almost broken too when Lando Norris spent 20 laps threatening to disobey a team order that ultimately allowed Piastri to win the race.
It was the first major flashpoint of their young rivalry, and having come at the weekend Piastri turned his speed from being a potential threat to Norris’s authority into an actual one, it won’t be the last.
Nor will it be the last time McLaren calls on its drivers to play the team game.
While McLaren was dominant in Budapest, it’s unlikely to have such a stranglehold on the field at other tracks. Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, for example, is a totally different layout in totally different conditions.
Historically it’s been a site of immense pain for McLaren.
In the last 12 years its recorded a best finish of fourth in Belgium. Five times it’s walked away without a score.
To succeed this weekend, there’s every chance its driver will need to work together.
The trust was tested but not broken last weekend. How will it go at the second time of asking?
Piastri said he had no doubt McLaren’s principles of teamwork and fairness would hold.
“First and foremost I’m a McLaren racing driver,” Piastri told select media, including Fox Sports. “I’m not racing for Oscar Piastri Racing, I’m racing for McLaren.
“That’s always the big picture, and there’s a thousand more people behind me and behind Lando as well.
“The team orders go both ways. We’re very open, very honest about it, and I think in basically all situations it’s a very sensible way of going racing.
“I think we both know that at the end of the day we’re racing for the team.”
Speaking about last week specifically, the Aussie said he was sympathetic to Norris’s mindset divided between individual glory and team success.
“I think for me I would have done the same thing as Lando did in giving the position back,” he said. “I fully understand — he’s a racing driver, so am I.
“When you’re in the lead of a race, it’s not a nice thing to have to let it back through, but we are racing for the team, and certain decisions were made on the basis that we’re racing for the team and securing a one-two.
“I think that the end result was the same and would have been reciprocated the other way had we been the other way around.”
It remains to be seen, but you can be certain Budapest wasn’t the last time Norris and Piastri will be battling for control of a race.
Norris V McLaren: Full radio battle | 04:44
CAN VERSTAPPEN OVERCOME HIS GRID PENALTY TO KEEP STREAK ALIVE?
While Red Bull Racing has been good at just about every track since the change of rules in 2022, its form at the Belgian Grand Prix deserves special mention.
Red Bull Racing, led by Max Verstappen, has been totally untouchable in Spa-Francorchamps.
In 2022 he qualified on pole with an advantage of 0.632 seconds before dropping to 14th with a power unit grid penalty.
He was unstoppable in the race. He took just 12 laps to take the lead and won the race by 17.8 seconds ahead of teammate Sergio Pérez. The gap to the next-best car — Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari — was 26.9 seconds.
Last year’s race was even more impressive.
He took pole by a whopping 0.820 seconds but was dropped to sixth on the grid with a gearbox penalty.
He passed Pérez for the lead on lap 18 and won by a massive 22.3 second, gapping his teammate in identical machinery by 0.85 seconds per lap.
The next-best car — Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari — finished 32.2 seconds down the road.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Red Bull Racing has reportedly chosen this race again as the venue for Verstappen to serve a penalty. He’ll take a 10-place drop for taking a new internal combustion engine after his power unit failure during practice at the Canadian Grand Prix last month.
He’s also on the bubble for further penalties for being on his final examples of other power unit parts.
Belgium’s long straights, ample DRS and big braking zones means overtaking is easier than at other circuits.
But it’s desperately unlikely Verstappen will have such an easy time cutting through the field and onto the podium this season.
The game has changed in 2024. Whereas in 2022 RBR was in the ascendancy and last year it was enjoying the most one-sided run in the history of the sport, this year the team’s been caught up and its title defence is at risk.
McLaren dominated last week’s race in Hungary. While it’s a dramatically different style of circuit, its result there was only the culmination of improving form.
The high-speed, high-efficiency Spa-Francorchamps layout and cool weather should perfectly suit Mercedes, which proved in Silverstone that these are the sorts of conditions in which its car excels.
It means this weekend’s shapes up as a big test of how far Red Bull Racing has fallen in one of its great strongholds. If Verstappen can’t put up a fight here, then it’ll be hard to call him or the team favourite at most other circuits this season.
Verstappen blows up in radio tirade | 01:56
CAN SERGIO PÉREZ PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR HIMSELF?
Good race, but …
Pressure peaked on Sergio Pérez in Hungary last weekend, with speculation rife he was ripe to be turfed from the team by the mid-season break given his weak form.
He couldn’t have picked a worse weekend to crash out of Q1.
The Mexican was distraught, but on Sunday he put his strong practice pace to good use, climbing nine places from his grid spot to finish seventh, just two places behind Verstappen, to score some six points.
It was a good race, but it demonstrated Pérez’s problem: he’s chronically inconsistent and an unreliable second driver.
Pérez wasn’t hired to win the drivers world championship. While Red Bull Racing has never hindered his ambitions, what it wants from him is enough points to win the teams title and to maximise his result when Verstappen is having a bad day.
His qualifying crash ensured he achieved neither. In Hungary he should have been in podium contention on an afternoon Verstappen was having a brain snap; instead he was scrambling to recover from a poor qualifying result.
Now he has his second chance — but it comes with added pressure.
Verstappen’s penalty means it will automatically fall to Pérez to lead the team’s Sunday result.
He must start ahead of Verstappen, and if he gets the most out of the car in qualifying, he will surely be in podium contention on Sunday.
That’s really the only acceptable result this weekend.
His pace in Hungary was good but his performance wasn’t good enough. He now has one chance to make amends, with his career on the line.
Perhaps it’s all too late, with signs increasingly pointing to Red Bull Racing having come close to making up on cutting him from the team. After all, one good result by definition is not consistency.
If that’s the case, Pérez will at least want to bow out on a high.
Piastri WINS after major team drama! | 02:37
CAN DANIEL RICCIARDO BUT BAD BUDAPEST TO REST?
Daniel Ricciardo had one of his better weekends of the season in Budapest, but his Sunday result was badly compromised by a botched team strategy that eliminated his shot at a points finish.
Had he been able to race with a regular strategy and demonstrate his race pace, he would’ve almost certainly finished a very comfortable ninth at the head of the midfield.
It was a crucial race for the Aussie. Just as pressure is on Pérez to save his seat, so too is Ricciardo’s career hanging in the balance.
Reserve driver Liam Lawson is waiting in the wings, and some reports suggest Red Bull has resolved to get him onto the grid after the August break.
No longer thought to be at the top of the list for Red Bull Racing, Lawson’s sights are set on Ricciardo’s drive.
Ricciardo must therefore do enough to convince RBR to take a punt on him as Pérez’s replacement.
Part of that is in Pérez’s hands — if the team hasn’t already made up its mind to turf him.
But even in that scenario Ricciardo would still have to perform to rise above the background politics of the Red Bull program. While he has the backing of RBR principal Christian Horner, Helmut Marko reportedly favours Yuki Tsunoda finally getting the nod for the senior team.
It’s unlikely Horner will allow himself to be overruled. Driver decisions at RBR are his domain. But the decision on a possible Pérez replacement carries significant risk for him as a team boss, for if he subs out Pérez for a driver who loses the constructors championship anyway, his decision-making will be inextricably tied to the outcome.
“Please compare the Q3 appearances, qualifying results and the race results, and it will be clear,” Tsunoda said, stating a last-minute case for himself, per Crash.
“It’s quite clear how many points I get compared to other drivers.
“If you just see the performance, it’s quite clear, like I said. It’s really clear that I’m the one performing well, even in the top of the midfield, if you compared to all the drivers.”
Ricciardo has beaten Tsunoda in three of the last five races — though Hungary should have made it four from the last five. He’s likewise qualified ahead of the Japanese ace in three of the last four grands prix.
Is that enough to overcome his slow start to the year — and Tsunoda’s 18 months of strong form?
It’s a high-stakes situation for Horner and his team. Ricciardo’s job this weekend is to put himself beyond doubt as the best candidate for the job.