Fresh Max Verstappen engine details emerge in Red Bull curfew break

Putting a new engine into Max Verstappen’s RB20 at Spa, a reliable Dutch source claims Red Bull did swap it out for an old power unit to be used in practice – only to reinstall the new engine on Friday night.

There was a lot of speculation about Verstappen’s engine on Saturday morning at the Belgian Grand Prix given Red Bull broke curfew on Friday night and were seen working on Verstappen’s RB20.

Pundits speculated as to why Red Bull broke curfew at Spa

Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz pondered if they’d made a strategic engine change, taking the grid penalty hit at Spa where overtaking is possible but with the intention of only running the new engine next time out in Zandvoort.

“Would they want the life of a fresher engine for Zandvoort, a race Max really wants to win, or Monza?” he said.

“Would they rather use engine number five for those races, and would they rather use engine number four for the rest of this event?”

This was refuted by team boss Christian Horner who said Red Bull “left” the new engine in the car.

But with Max Verstappen, who was quickest in qualifying by almost six-tenths of a second, thanking his crew for doing a “good job” in their late-night work on Friday, De Telegraaf claims Red Bull did swap the new engine for an old one only to put the new one back in his car.

Key data from qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix

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According to the Dutch publication, Red Bull put a new engine in Verstappen’s RB20 for Friday but then later in the day put an older engine from his pool into the car.

But reportedly there “were some problems” with that older engine after which Red Bull reinstalled the new engine, resulting in Verstappen’s crew breaking curfew.

Verstappen’s 10-place penalty has relegated him to P11 on the grid with the triple World Champion admitting it is going to be a race of “damage limitation”.

“Survive lap one and just go from there,” he said of his strategy. “I mean, we also have a bit of a different tyre strategy to the other cars, so we have to wait and see how that will evolve in the race.

“But, yeah, we’ll see what we can do. I mean, I’m not as confident as I was the last two years around here in coming back to the front. I still see it more as a damage limitation race. That’s how it is. But at least it was the best possible we could do in terms of the starting position.”

He was given a minor boon with Red Bull’s closest challengers of late McLaren lining up fourth and fifth. Verstappen, though, reckons they have the pace to quickly overhaul those ahead – Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton.

“Looking at their pace yesterday in the long run, it’s incredibly strong. They look very comfortable out there. Of course, they are starting a little bit further back, I think they’re so fast they will quite quickly challenge for the front, for the lead.

“And it also depends a bit, of course, how I get through lap one and stuff. But I would already be happy if we can match that race pace. So starting a bit further back, also being on different tyres, I don’t know how that is going to work out.

“Most teams around us have two hard tyres, we don’t. I don’t know if that’s better or not, of course, for the moment, but we’ll find out. But, yeah it’s definitely still a damage limitation.

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