Racing Bulls gave Arvid Lindblad the only available upgrade package for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps after the team and both drivers agreed that the better qualifier at Silverstone would get it. Lindblad beat Liam Lawson 9th to 10th in qualifying at Silverstone, so he received the parts because the team could not complete the chassis changes on both cars in time.

Team principal Alan Permane said the package combined a narrow roll hoop cooling upgrade with a resource-intensive chassis modification, plus a redesigned engine cover, revised rear wing, new front brake drum assembly and other bodywork updates. He said he had warned Lawson and Lindblad in Austria and joked about skipping Spa or deciding by coin flip before they settled on qualifying position.

Permane said Racing Bulls started its 2026 car late because it had prioritized sixth place in the 2025 constructors’ championship. He added that the floor upgrade introduced in Canada had helped “switch on” the car and that improved race pace in Austria and Silverstone showed the recent gains, while Lawson is set to receive the next major upgrade automatically if the same issue happens again later in the season.

Max Verstappen topped opening practice for Red Bull at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, setting a best lap of 1:47.070 in dry conditions on soft tires. He finished 0.145 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, while Charles Leclerc was third. It was the first time this season that a car without a Mercedes or Ferrari engine led a practice session, and Red Bull had fitted an older rear-wing specification to Verstappen’s car for FP1.

Isack Hadjar briefly led early on soft tires before Verstappen moved ahead and stayed quickest for the rest of the hour. Hadjar ended up fourth, Oscar Piastri was fifth after showing strong pace before a late hydraulic pressure problem, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli was among the front runners after briefly going to the top of the timesheets. Reports varied on Antonelli’s final placing, with one source listing him fifth and another sixth. Lando Norris and George Russell also finished inside the top 10, while Gabriel Bortoleto had minor issues and Carlos Sainz was cited for a pit-entry line infringement.

Aston Martin had a difficult session at the back of the field. Reserve driver Jak Crawford ran in Fernando Alonso’s car as part of the team’s mandatory rookie-running plan and finished 22nd, while Lance Stroll was 21st after an apparent front-wing camera-mount issue. Stroll was 5.738 seconds slower than Verstappen, and Aston Martin said the FP1 data underlined the pace problems with its current car, with its B-spec AMR26 expected to arrive in Hungary as a clearer improvement.

Isack Hadjar will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the back of the grid after Red Bull fitted his RB22 with new internal combustion engine, turbocharger and exhaust components beyond his 2026 allocation. The changes triggered cumulative grid penalties that exceeded 15 places, which under Formula 1 rules converts to a rear-of-grid start. Hadjar said Red Bull will focus on race pace at Spa-Francorchamps, where he expects overtaking chances to give him a way back through the field, and he said another top-six finish would be difficult from 22nd after qualifying.

Lando Norris and Lance Stroll also picked up penalties for component changes at Spa. McLaren confirmed Norris will take a new control electronics unit and receive a 10-place grid drop, while Aston Martin fitted Stroll with a fourth MGU-K, also bringing a 10-place penalty. FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer confirmed the new components and said Stroll’s part was not in conformity with the sporting regulations, which triggered the automatic sanction.

Hadjar’s penalty came after Red Bull fitted new power unit elements that went beyond the season limit for those parts. He had already suffered engine-related problems earlier in the year, including a retirement in Australia and a lost chance at a podium in Monaco. McLaren chose Belgium for Norris’s component change because Spa’s layout offers better overtaking than Hungary or Zandvoort, and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen also took new power unit parts without incurring a penalty.

Oscar Piastri moved to shut down speculation over Max Verstappen taking his McLaren seat, saying ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that he would be a McLaren driver next season and in 2027. Piastri said he was very comfortable at the team, trusted McLaren’s leadership and was not bothered by the rumors, after receiving reassurance from team principal Andrea Stella and CEO Zak Brown. His manager, Mark Webber, also dismissed the talk, saying there had been “a lot of fiction written” about Verstappen joining McLaren, and Brown said he was happy with McLaren’s current driver lineup.

The rumors persisted as reports said Verstappen was in advanced talks with McLaren, even though he remains under contract to Red Bull through 2028. Piastri said Verstappen appeared to be exploring options because Red Bull was not in a strong position, comparing the situation to last summer’s speculation about a possible move to Mercedes that did not happen. Verstappen has been linked to an exit clause if he is lower than second in the championship at the summer break, and he is currently seventh, 78 points behind George Russell in second, with 50 points still available before the August shutdown. Verstappen declined to discuss his future in detail at Spa.

Piastri also turned to the track, saying McLaren was likely to be the third- or fourth-quickest car at Spa and that he hoped upcoming upgrades would help the team close the gap to the front-runners. He is trying to recover from a scoreless finish at Silverstone after an opening-lap collision and an unscheduled pit stop. Piastri said his win at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix venue gives him a chance to make up points if other drivers run into trouble.

Red Bull switched back to a conventional rear wing for the Belgian Grand Prix after two rear-wing-related failures in successive weekends helped trigger Max Verstappen’s crashes in Britain and Austria. Team principal Laurent Mekies said tests carried out since Silverstone found a problem with the rotating design, and Red Bull chose a standard setup that opens for straight-line mode in the usual way.

Red Bull and Ferrari had introduced the rear-wing concept this year, with the top flap rotating more than 180 degrees to reduce drag and boost straight-line speed. Mekies said Red Bull had found a problem in testing after Silverstone and did not specify the exact cause beyond an apparent aerodynamic disruption when the wing reverted to cornering mode. He said the team would do what was necessary to avoid a repeat.

Verstappen described the repeated faults as “super dangerous” and said he was lucky not to be hurt. The FIA has spoken with Red Bull and Ferrari about the wing designs on safety grounds and has begun looking into the technology. Photos from Spa showed the revised Red Bull wing on Verstappen’s and Isack Hadjar’s cars, and the circuit features five straight-mode zones this weekend, including the approach to Eau Rouge.

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps was set up as one of Formula 1’s toughest energy-management tests of 2026, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella and Williams chief trackside engineer Paul Williams saying the 7.004-kilometre lap’s long full-throttle sections, steep climbs and limited braking zones could expose the strengths and weaknesses of the new hybrid power units. Stella said drivers had already raised concerns about unpredictable speed differences as they manage electrical energy, and he warned that the new straight-line mode will not always be available in high-speed corners because of lateral forces. He said the challenge could still produce strong overtaking, even as drivers have to back off in unusual places to recharge energy for the straights.

Williams called Spa the most energy-sensitive circuit seen so far this season, with superclipping expected in the middle sector, plus ride-height and skid-block wear issues. Teams also have to balance straight-line speed against high-speed performance through corners such as Pouhon and the Les Combes and Fagnes chicanes, even as active aero and Overtake Mode change the usual downforce-versus-drag tradeoff. Five SLM zones have been added for 2026 and stay active in wet conditions. Pirelli’s C2, C3 and C4 tyres point to a likely one-stop race centred on the hard compound, although wear, safety cars, pit-stop timing and the chance of rain could change strategy. The start of Sunday’s race was expected to be especially chaotic before teams settled into more optimized energy use later.

The Belgian Grand Prix was the 10th round of the season and the first race of a double header before Hungary and the summer break, and several teams arrived with different pressures. Red Bull came off a disappointing British Grand Prix, and Max Verstappen said Spa is his favorite track, though he warned that energy limits on the straights could make the weekend trickier. Isack Hadjar said Red Bull did not expect to lead and needed to apply lessons from Silverstone, where he outqualified Verstappen and finished fifth. Hadjar has now strung together five consecutive top-six finishes. Kimi Antonelli was aiming to rebound, Ferrari wanted to show its recent improvement against Mercedes, and Racing Bulls were trying to hold off Alpine in the midfield.

Former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner urged McLaren to stop blaming Mercedes for its 2026 struggles and build its own engine instead, saying the team needed to “grow up” and “stand on their own two feet.” Steiner called McLaren’s complaints about its Mercedes power unit a familiar excuse and said the manufacturer should put sponsorship money into an engine program rather than blaming suppliers when results fall short. He said McLaren had raised similar concerns about Mercedes, Renault and Honda in the past.

Steiner said McLaren had enough money to make the move and argued that becoming self-sufficient would strengthen both its team identity and its road-car business. He pointed to Red Bull and Audi as examples of manufacturers building more independence in Formula 1. He also said McLaren had changed partners often enough to stop relying on outside suppliers, though he acknowledged that building a power unit would be difficult and that funding and hiring the right people would be the biggest hurdles.

The comments came as McLaren, the reigning constructors’ champions, had not won any of the first nine races of the season. Mercedes led the standings and had taken seven wins in nine Grands Prix, split between Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, while the works team also led McLaren 333 to 179 after nine rounds. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said during the British Grand Prix weekend that the team still appeared to be leaving performance on the table from Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains, but he did not directly blame Mercedes for the issue.

Mercedes heads to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix with a title lead and a car quick enough to fight at the front, but Toto Wolff said reliability problems and missed chances have already cost the team points it cannot afford to lose. He wants Mercedes to leave the final double-header before the summer shutdown with better reliability, fewer mistakes and more points than it has recently collected.

Mercedes has converted that pace into seven wins from nine races and all nine pole positions in 2026, with its only defeats coming in Barcelona and Silverstone. Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired in Barcelona because of an electrical failure, George Russell retired from the lead in Canada with a similar problem, and Antonelli’s Silverstone race was undone by a wheel-shield issue, a slow start, front-left damage, a second pit stop and a five-second penalty that dropped him out of the points. Mercedes has covered 5,215 of a possible 5,408 kilometers in grands prix this season, more than every team except Ferrari, and still leads Ferrari by 78 points in the constructors’ standings. Its drivers sit first and second in the championship, with Russell having cut Antonelli’s lead to 25 points.

Wolff said he would rather keep the quickest car and accept occasional failures than settle for a slower but reliable one, though he also said Mercedes must solve its reliability gremlins. He said Spa should produce good racing and overtaking, but qualifying and clean execution will still be crucial. The final stretch before the summer break is another test and a chance for Mercedes to finish stronger.

Sergio Perez said Red Bull’s Formula 1 operation was built around Max Verstappen from the start, leaving him in a supporting role that he described as the toughest challenge of his career. Perez said Christian Horner made clear when he joined in 2021 that the team was centered on Verstappen, and that the second car was not the priority, with Horner telling him Red Bull would be “super happy to race with one car.” Perez said, “everything goes to Max,” and that he accepted the arrangement rather than complain.

Perez said he felt “completely alone” during his four years at Red Bull, adding that beyond a certain point nobody at the team was willing to help him and that he lacked management support. He said he kept the same engineering team throughout his Red Bull spell and felt he overdelivered in the role. Across those four seasons from 2021 through 2024, Perez won five Grands Prix, finished second in the 2023 world championship and helped Verstappen win four drivers’ titles, while also contributing to Red Bull’s constructors’ championships in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Perez’s final season in 2024 went badly, he finished eighth in the standings and Red Bull sacked him at the end of the year after a run of poor results. He said Red Bull only realized how good he was after he left, and argued that the team’s struggles with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda in 2025 showed how difficult the second Red Bull seat was. Perez later returned to Formula 1 with Cadillac for 2026.