Horner makes surprise Verstappen prediction after historic change

Christian Horner has downplayed Max Verstappen's chances of winning this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, due to his 10-place grid penalty. 

The reigning world champion has a grid penalty due to Red Bull taking a fifth internal combustion engine (ICE) into its pool, moving the Dutchman beyond his legal allocation. 

Verstappen took a similar penalty in 2022 and recovered from 14th on the grid to win by a staggering 18 seconds, although Red Bull was more dominant that season than this year.

Horner explained that Red Bull opted to take the grid penalty this weekend due to overtaking being possible in Spa-Francorchamps, as proven by Verstappen in the past as mentioned. 

"So we've introduced the engine here because we had to introduce an engine over the next three or four races," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"So we felt Spa with the overtaking, we've historically done it here. The overtaking delta here is less than other venues. 

"Of course, it relies on us needing to qualify as well as we can but you can overtake, so we decided let's get the engine in the pool. It gives us a bit more comfort as we go into the season after the summer break."

Verstappen 2022 repeat difficult

Whilst Verstappen won from 14th on the grid two seasons ago, Horner does not believe victory is on the cards for the 26-year-old on Sunday from P11. 

The Milton Keynes-based outfit are targeting a podium rather than the win as a realistic goal, with McLaren in particular being very strong. 

As outlined by Horner, other teams are closer to Red Bull's pace currently, making fighting through the field a significantly greater challenge for Verstappen to replicate his 2022 masterclass. 

"I think it'll be a bit harder this year," conceded Horner. "I think that, obviously, with the conversions we've seen in the pace, you haven't got big deltas between the cars.

"To win the race will be very, very hard. We're more aiming at a podium than a win."