Verstappen already defeated? 'No chance of winning with grid penalty'

With McLaren ironclad and Mercedes also getting better, it is likely to be quite a task to drive from the backfield to the lead, Verstappen realises. "Probably yes. If you look at our last few races where we haven't particularly been the fastest, I wouldn't say that with 10 places extra we have a chance of winning," the World Championship-holder said in conversation with, among others GPblog.

"But again, a race can always be turned upside down in moments. So you have to be open-minded, to make the best of it and that's what we'll try to do. I mean at the moment, I don’t know how competitive we are going to be here because there are a few places where there's new tarmac so we need to see how the tyres respond to that. Still a lot of unknowns, also with the weather. Quite a bit of rain expected on Friday and Saturday, we just need to follow the weather and just get the progression throughout the weekend and see how competitive we are."

Spa really the best place for engine change?

At the Spa circuit - given the RB20's strengths - Verstappen would have had a good chance of winning. Whether it was therefore wise to take a grid penalty here in particular? "We'll find out on Sunday how good that is going to be right, but some tracks naturally are a bit better than others. On a street circuit, you wouldn't want to have an engine penalty so most likely it will be here."

So in the end, what is the best result, perhaps P8? "I hope a little bit more, but let's see. I don't know. It's difficult to predict at the moment."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy