Max Verstappen criticises FIA decision after rain delay to Belgian GP

Max Verstappen said the rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix should have started “miles earlier” after it began more than hour behind schedule.

Despite a relatively dry scene at the scheduled 3 PM start time, FIA race director Rui Marques opted to red flag the race, leading to a lengthy delay.

Max Verstappen criticises FIA start time

Even after the rain eased, the FIA was still conservative with its start time, opting to do a number of formation laps behind the Safety Car and even opting for a rolling start.

Verstappen, who was vocal on the team radio questioning the decision, said it was a “shame” the governing body opted for the delay and that the race could have started “miles earlier.”

“I mean, one hour earlier,” he told Sky Sports. “It was just a bit of a shame. Of course, they took a very cautious approach, because we spoke about it after Silverstone, to be a little bit more cautious, because there was quite a lot of water there.

“But this, for me, was then the other extreme of waiting, and it just ruins a nice classic wet race as well. So we either still try to push to go for a proper wet race, or we just say ‘you know what, we stopped racing in the wet and we just wait for it to be dry.’ But that’s a bit, it’s not what you want, right?

“I think we can have some really cool wet racing, like it showed at Silverstone.”

In contrast, Mercedes driver George Russell said it would have been “stupidity” to begin the race any earlier.

“As a racer, you always want to get going, you love driving in the rain, but the fact is, when you’re doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally can’t see anything,” Russell said. “You may as well have a blindfold on. It isn’t racing, it’s just stupidity.

“So I think, considering it was clearly going to be dry from four o’clock onwards, I think they made the right call.”

After the race began, Verstappen spent most of it looking at Charles Leclerc’s rear wing, with a slow pit stop preventing him from overtaking the Ferrari.

More reaction from the race in Spa

Lando Norris ‘couldn’t have won’ Belgian GP in Oscar Piastri admission

George Russell labels Belgian GP ‘worst performance of the season’ in Mercedes demand

Verstappen, however, said the car’s long-term issues were more impactful.

“At the end of the day, the problems that we have with the car with tyre management are still there. It doesn’t matter what rear wing you put on the car and that also hurt us a little bit today in the race,” he said.

“We then changed the clipping a bit around. But when you run that wing, of course, and actually on the track like this, you always have that trouble.

“So we did the best we could I think. We made some changes, and it was much nicer around the lap but we know what we have to work on. Unfortunately, it’s not that straightforward to fix.”

Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda finished 13th, extending his pointless run to six races.

Read next: Belgian GP: Piastri sees off Norris in tense McLaren strategy game after rain delay