Max Verstappen’s win kickstarts Red Bull’s new era but bigger tests lie ahead

It was apt he should do it at his favourite track in front of legions of the Orange Army, who have crossed over the border with the Netherlands in their droves this weekend.

Red Bull’s parent company will be breathing a sigh of relief two and a half weeks on from the shock decision to axe Horner as team principal and CEO for such a positive spin.

For Horner’s replacement, the affable Frenchman Laurent Mekies, it could hardly have been a better opener. He said simply over the race radio: “Well done, Max. Very, very impressive defence. You didn’t leave anything on the table there.”

But it was perhaps telling that the celebrations in the garage were a little muted within a team still reeling from the removal of the only boss they have ever known, who was almost universally popular back at the Milton Keynes factory and was no doubt watching from home.

Red Bull opted for the same skinny rear wing employed at Silverstone, which had helped Verstappen to pole before unexpectedly heavy rain in Sunday’s race scuppered his hopes. Just a few days later, Horner had his marching orders.

For this sprint, Verstappen, who now has 12 victories in the shorter format of racing, did not manage to park his Red Bull on pole, instead sandwiching it between the McLarens, with Oscar Piastri on pole. But while Verstappen couldn’t get past the championship leader off the line, he used the slipstream gifted to him by the Australian and his superior straight-line speed to scythe pass at Les Combes on that opening lap.

It was a lead he never conceded, although Piastri kept him honest for the 15-lap race distance, ­perhaps coming nearest to taking the lead on lap 11 with the use of the drag reduction system (DRS), but again the Dutchman’s pace on the straights proved too much.

Lando Norris, who initially dropped a place to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, wrestled that back and, for a time, looked like forcing his way past his team-mate. But instead it proved something of a DRS procession for the top three and for much of the field. Lewis Hamilton, a sprint winner in China, endured a difficult race in Belgium, finishing in a lowly 15th place, while his countryman Ollie Bearman impressed in seventh, with his Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon two places better.

Crucially, Verstappen’s win ­further extended his lead in third in the drivers’ standings over George Russell. Much has been made of the clause allowing the four-time world champion to leave the team next season – and with Mercedes making no secret of their interest – if he is outside the top three in the championship come the summer break after the next race.

Increasingly, the sense has been he is staying put anyway, with a move likelier in 2027 once he assesses the pecking order on the grid when the impact of the regulations overhaul next season is fully known.

Helmut Marko, one of the team’s directors, had told staff to smile more in his address to them after Horner’s sacking. And the Austrian led by example, all smiles in the immediate aftermath, shaking hands with every member of the pitwall following Verstappen’s win.

The result shows the raft of upgrades brought to this race – Red Bull’s last package of the season including a new front wing – have clearly worked, although Verstappen did complain about his brakes during the sprint.

Explaining the brake issue afterwards, he said: “I’m doing 15 qualifying laps trying to keep them behind. It wasn’t easy but we still managed to do it. It worked out really well.”

The main race, however, is a different matter, and qualifying told a different story. Heavy rain is expected at some stage today – potentially for chunks of the race – for which Verstappen will start in fourth. No one has ever won the Belgian Grand Prix from fourth on the grid.

For that race, the skinny wing has gone to avoid a repeat of what happened in the wet at the British Grand Prix and give him far greater downforce.

But he faces a battle in full race distance to reel in the two McLarens, who again dominated qualifying and secured another one-two on the grid. In contrast to the shootout for the sprint race, it was Norris who proved the quicker of the pair over Piastri as the Briton bids for a hat-trick of grand prix victories.

Hamilton’s weekend went from bad to worse when his flying lap in Q1 was deleted after he exceeded track limits and, as a result, he went out after the first 15-minute shootout.

Photograph by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images