Verstappen's data reveal the painful direction Formula 1 has taken

During the first free practice session, this was immediately noticeable as cars headed toward the bus stop chicane. Every driver whose onboard was shown could be clearly heard losing speed. The battery was already empty and where you would normally go flat-out through Blanchimont toward the final chicane, drivers are now focused on just one thing: charging.

It’s the painful phenomenon that has plagued F1 all season long. At some circuits the charging and using of the battery is less noticeable, but at iconic tracks like Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps it’s painful to see how little is left of these top circuits. It’s really only about where you use and charge the battery, and that’s mainly figured out by the engineers, not the drivers.

While FOM does not seem to show speeds anymore during onboard footage as the drivers audibly slow down, it cannot prevent you from hearing and seeing certain things. In FP1 with Verstappen it was clearly audible that he even downshifted heading to the bus stop chicane. Downshifting on a straight, it's bizarre that this is the new reality in F1. All to keep the revs high so the battery can be charged more effectively.

While during his fastest lap in FP2, Verstappen did keep the car in eighth gear, that did not apply to the fastest man of the day: Kimi Antonelli. Exiting Blanchimont he downshifted to seventh gear. As a result, the Italian initially lost some speed, but he made that up elsewhere in the lap.

The battery Antonelli saves at the end of the lap, he uses at the start. Before entering Eau Rouge the Italian has much more speed than Verstappen on his fastest lap, speed he carries all the way down the Kemmel Straight. The same happens exiting Les Combes, after which the Mercedes driver again carries more speed than Verstappen.

Antonelli seems to save the battery more often overall compared to Verstappen. At the end of the Kemmel Straight, the Mercedes driver also downshifts earlier to a lower gear, and he even goes all the way down to third gear going into the following corners. That’s one gear lower than Verstappen and thus again a higher engine speed. Entering Les Combes it happens again. Now, Antonelli even drops to second gear.

And so it’s not the drivers, but the engineers in the garage who make the difference on track. Small details like Antonelli generally braking earlier for most corners pale in comparison to the big differences made by whether or not the battery is deployed. So on Saturday we’ll be watching a qualifying session where it will be much more about who did the math right than who finds that little bit extra on the circuit.