Max Verstappen has signalled the end of a F1 era after the decision to delay the Belgian Grand Prix in the rain on Sunday.
The Belgian GP was delayed by over an hour due to the wet weather and poor visibility at Spa, and Verstappen critical of the decision labelling it as excessively cautious.
By the time F1 resumed running at Spa, the track was practically dry, and fans were deprived of an exciting wet race with teams switching to slicks a quarter into the race distance.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, Verstappen disagreed with race control’s decision and claimed the sport will never see classic wet races anymore because of this new cautious approach.
“Between Turn 1 and 5 there was quite a bit of water, but if you do two laps behind the safety car it would have been a lot more clear. And the rest of the track was ready to go,” he said.
“The more you run, it will be much better. And if you can’t see, you can always lift. At one point you will see…
“Then it’s better to say: ‘You know what, let’s wait until it’s completely dry and then we just start on slicks.’ Because this is not really wet weather racing for me.
“At the end of the day, they do what they want, right? But I just find it a bit of a shame for everyone. You will never see these classic wet races anymore.”
Verstappen signals end of wet weather racesIs F1 too cautious over wet races?
The decision to delay the Belgian GP comes after a chaotic weekend at Silverstone, where wet conditions contributed to poor visibility for drivers on the track.
Spray from the Mercedes in front led to Isack Hadjar crashing into Kimi Antonelli at Copse. While Verstappen understood the need to prevent this from happening again, he still argued the approach at Spa was too cautious.
“We made a choice with the set-up and they only allowed us to drive in almost slick conditions, so it was a bit disappointing,” he continued.
“Of course, we spoke after Silverstone to be a little bit more cautious with the decisions, but this was at the other extreme for me.
“It was a choice that we made with the set-up of the car, which was then the wrong one of course, because they didn’t allow us to race in the wet.
“Once we got to the dry tyres, we were just too slow on the straight. And then with the general balance problems that I already have with this car, it made everything just a bit worse.”
