Why Verstappen has the upper hand for Spa’s recovery race

Formula 1 title rivals Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc both face a battle to recover from the rear of the grid after engine penalties. But it appears the championship leader is in the box seat on pace to salvage the most from a potentially tricky Belgian Grand Prix

Matt Kew Aug 26, 2022, 8:08 PM

Upd: Aug 26, 2022, 8:18 PM

We knew that when Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari agonisingly went up in smoke in Spain and Azerbaijan that more pain was to come. It wasn’t just the possible 50 points that he had lost in the moment as he was twice eliminated from the lead of the race. The turbo and MGU-H that let go at Barcelona and then the internal combustion engine which self-immolated at Baku would all need to be replaced. As a consequence, it was clear that he would eventually exceed the maximum number of parts permitted and so grid penalties became an inevitability.

Leclerc served his first hit for the Canadian Grand Prix to line up 19th. But he recovered soundly enough to claim fifth. However, his shunt from first place three races later in France gave the back end of his F1-75 a hefty jolt to result in a new gearbox next time out in Hungary and taking him up to the limit.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.