Why Verstappen did nothing wrong

I had the luxury of not watching the Belgian Grand Prix live because other commitments took priority - like a weekend on my narrowboat with my grandkids - so that meant I didn't see the race until Monday evening.

I say it was a luxury because, having followed the Autosport Live coverage online while cruising down the Grand Union Canal - which was great - I knew the result. But when it came to judging the incidents Max Verstappen was involved in, I was able to read what others thought without a preconceived opinion of my own.

In many ways, for all the incidents and accidents, the result of the grand prix was broadly what you would have expected. Mercedes again dominated, with Nico Rosberg leading from start to finish and Lewis Hamilton coming through to third from the back of the grid.

The obvious place to begin is the start. With Rosberg on pole, Verstappen second and the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel on the second row, we had the ingredients for the first incident.

We know the first corner at Spa is a potential accident zone, and once Verstappen had bogged down he had to recover from his poor start.

He actually did a very good job to get up the inside and alongside Raikkonen. Verstappen has had some criticism for this move, but look at the facts.

He didn't lock up, so he was fully in control of turning the car into the corner. He couldn't have been any further to the inside kerbs, but Raikkonen still chopped across him - primarily because Vettel was, in turn, chopping him and he had nowhere else to go.

Verstappen got a lot of abuse in the media for what happened, but I don't think it was justified.

There is such thing as a racing incident, and this was one of them. There was only one driver you could say was at fault, and that's the four-time world champion Vettel. He'd been around that corner at Spa on the first lap of a grand prix nine times previously and should know that, if you are on the outside, you can expect trouble from those on the inside.

All three drivers suffered the consequences of the car damage, and all three would probably do something different if they encountered the same set of circumstances again. But unfortunately it's only us viewers who can hit rewind - and even that doesn't change what happens.

For the drivers it's all about instant decisions and making the correct ones on more occasions than you do the wrong ones. That's what they get paid so highly for.

Verstappen's overtaking, and defence against being overtaken later in the race, was also acceptable. He was right on the limit, but again that's what makes him stand out from the rest.

As a new driver in F1 you need to stamp your authority from day one, and that's what he's doing. The greats before him did it and if the others around him can't cope with it then it's probably time for them to move on. After all, drivers like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher had their critics and they didn't do badly.

What the other drivers need to remember is that, at the age of 18, Max Verstappen is now the box-office draw for Formula 1 and it's only his way of driving that's doing that.

The day he matures and doesn't drive in his own aggressive way is the day he simply becomes another one of the drivers on the F1 grid.

I have worked with many young, new-to-F1 drivers and have to say it can be frustrating when they throw things away when, if they just thought a little bit more about what they were doing, they could have pulled out a better result. But we were rarely in a winning position, just points gathering.

It's different when you're driving for a potentially championship-winning team. You need to take every opportunity when it's presented to you.

Keep it up Max, I love your style and it's the others that need to come to terms with the fact that you are totally committed to being a winner.

Looking back at those I've worked with, there were some similarities with Eddie Irvine in his early days.

He came into F1 with Jordan at the end of 1993 and managed to have his famous run-in with Senna at Suzuka - and then he got a three-race ban (originally one, but extended as a result of us appealing) for a crash at Interlagos that ended up with Jos Verstappen practically landing on Martin Brundle's head.

But, like Max, Eddie was actually hard but fair at that time. Look at that race at Suzuka, where he went around numerous well-established drivers in the first two corners. Some complained, but it was there for anyone to do and he did the job. So it wasn't a problem for me as technical director.

What I've found very frustrating over the years is when team-mates take each other out. That's not happened with Max - yet - but it may only be a matter of time. This is what Christian Horner at Red Bull will be keen to avoid.

It's worth taking a little look at the aftermath of that first-corner incident at Spa. Both Verstappen and Raikkonen pitted for new noses and Red Bull's went like clockwork. The team has obviously put a lot of work into it.

Ferrari's nose change is best described as another grande casino, and that tells you about the difference between the teams.

Ferrari seems to treat everything that happens as a new, unexpected event. There's no real forward planning and preparation for the things that could go wrong, and that's what the team is currently paying the price for.