Max Verstappen Spa grid penalty confirmed as Red Bull take double hit

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.

The expected Belgian Grand Prix grid penalty for Max Verstappen is official, with Yuki Tsunoda over at Red Bull junior team VCARB also set to drop down the order.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had teased that a Verstappen grid penalty was coming as they plotted where to introduce a new engine, with Spa now emerging as the venue where they take that hit.

Max Verstappen drops 10 places on Belgian GP grid

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The FIA confirmed that Red Bull has given Verstappen his fifth internal combustion engine of the season, with only four permitted, triggering a 10-place grid penalty for the World Championship leader.

Verstappen has also taken a seventh new exhaust for the season, but with eight allowed, he remains within the allowance for that component.

Verstappen is not the only Red Bull representative though who will fall down the Belgian GP grid, as Tsunoda will do the same, VCARB having given him a new power unit, consisting of a new ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store, control electronics and exhaust.

For Tsunoda, his ICE, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store and control electronics all take him beyond the maximum permitted number of each component for the F1 2024 season, meaning a back-of-the-grid start for the Japanese racer.

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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com ahead of the Belgian GP, Verstappen had come to terms with the fact that a grid penalty was coming his way.

“I knew of course that it is coming, so that’s not a surprise to me,” he said.

A grid penalty is not always enough to stop Verstappen at Spa though. One only needs to remember back to the 2022 Belgian GP, where Verstappen won from P14 on the grid. Last season he won from P6 after a grid drop.

The competition has closed in on Red Bull since then though, so Verstappen was keeping his cards close to his chest when it came to his chances of overturning this penalty.

“Well, we’ll find out on Sunday of course how good that is going to be,” he said.

With VCARB sporting director Alan Permane confirming to media including PlanetF1.com that “Yuki’s taking a PU penalty here”, he was also quizzed on Tsunoda’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who sits on the brink of power unit penalties.

Permane was giving little away over when VCARB may look to take that hit with Ricciardo.

“We’ll wait and see what happens in the next couple of races,” he said.

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