Jos Verstappen predicted Spa 2022: 'Marko looked at me in disbelief'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
In the Viaplay documentary Lion Unleashed 2 on Max Verstappen's past F1 season, the Red Bull Racing driver talks about the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix. According to his father and former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, it was one of Verstappen's strongest races and the two-time world champion himself cannot deny that.
Jos Verstappen saw early in the weekend that the car was fast and so he had high hopes. Verstappen would face a grid penalty due to an engine change, though, which meant that Verstappen's chances of victory that weekend could be viewed with scepticism. The Dutchman had a fast car, but would have to start 14th.
Verstappen takes rare strong victory
Jos Verstappen: "But before the race I had the feeling... I remember Helmut [Marko] asking: 'What do you think?' I said: 'We are going to win.' He looked at me in disbelief.' Twelve laps later he was already in the lead. So my feeling was good." Verstappen, who put his car back in the garage after just one run in Q3, scared the hell out of his opponents. No one could match Verstappen's single lap in the rest of the session. That Verstappen had to start the race from P14 didn't matter anymore, as father Verstappen thought.
Verstappen himself says: "It was the whole weekend. We were extremely dominant [...] The whole team did its best. That kind of weekend very rarely happens; that you are so far ahead of the rest." The Dutchman only really realised after the weekend how special and how strong his F1 weekend at Spa-Francorchamps was. "They didn't make it easy for me with that engine penalty, to start at 14th, but I don't think it mattered which position I started in. Even if I had started last, I would still have won that race."