McLaren not ruling out Max Verstappen despite F1 penalty: “A big mistake to think…”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes it would be a “big mistake” to rule out Max Verstappen from winning this weekend’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix despite being hit with a 10-place grid penalty.

Verstappen can only start from 11th on the grid at best after he was hit with a grid penalty.

The Dutchman has been forced to use a fourth power unit and thus will be demoted on the grid.

Verstappen dominated first practice at Spa-Francorchamps, topping the timesheets by over 0.5s ahead of Oscar Piastri.

Despite Verstappen’s penalty, Brown thinks it would be foolish to think the Red Bull driver can’t win.

“It’s a tricky track with how much downforce do you want versus straight-line speed,” he said. 

“Max’s second sector there was pretty awesome. You’ve got to assume he’s on for pole which means P11.

“You can pass around here. I think he went from 20th to ninth in two, three laps not long ago. I think it will be a big mistake to think he can’t go from P11 to P1.

“We got to take advantage of every opportunity that we can.”

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle was very impressed with Verstappen’s early form at Spa, describing it as “ominous”.

“It’s FP1 but he was flying out there,” he explained. “Both in single lap and longer runs. I have just been looking at his tyres. The softs look quite good. The soft tyres that came past us when we were up at McLaren waiting for Zak, looked awful. The mediums still looked a bit angry.

“So I think Max was out there on this new tarmac and has really hit a sweet spot in car setup, driving style and just the speed he was carrying.

“I think it looked ominous just how good Verstappen and Red Bull were then.”

Verstappen sits 76 points clear of Lando Norris at the top of the F1 drivers' championship ahead of Sunday's race.