“Clipping” and what it means: What technically ensured that Max Verstappen had virtually no chance in his battle with Charles Leclerc
A striking radio message from Red Bull driver Max Verstappen at the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa was bleeped out. The reason was a strong expression Verstappen used when complaining about the “clipping” of his drive. Verstappen railed that it was “shockingly shit, that’s how bad it is” on the long Kemmel straight.
But what exactly did the four-time Formula 1 world champion mean by that? What is this ‘clipping’?
Simply put, “clipping” is a loss of power in the hybrid system. You could say that the drive runs out of juice at the end of a long straight.
This happens when a driver no longer has enough electrical energy available. The system performance is then significantly reduced because only the combustion engine is still providing power and the electric motor (MGU-K) is out of action. And that (also) goes back to a setup decision by Red Bull.
Rain setup in dry conditions
Verstappen’s team had opted for a rain setup with steeply angled wings for Sunday’s Grand Prix. This proved to be a mistake in the predominantly dry race and favored “clipping” on the straights.
“When you drive with a wing like that, you’re always going to have problems on a track like this,” explained Verstappen. “We then made the best of it and adjusted the clipping a little. It felt much more comfortable after that.” But it wasn’t enough against Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, whose top speed advantage left Verstappen despairing.
Would a different setup have helped Verstappen?
“We were generally too slow,” said Verstappen. He only had good pace on the intermediates at the start of the race. “Charles was faster on the mediums.” He only got within striking distance thanks to a “big mistake” by Leclerc, but couldn’t get past due to a lack of top speed.
Verstappen admitted that he had been “too cautious” with the setup because he had been speculating on rain. “If I had known that on Saturday, I wouldn’t have changed the setup. But now it is what it is.”
Marko also blames the drive
Red Bull’s sporting director Helmut Marko came to the same conclusion in his interview with Sky, saying: “We couldn’t keep up with [Ferrari’s] pace. Our setup was geared for rain, and it turned out that we were simply too slow in the first sector.” This is because sector one extends to the end of the long Kemmel straight.
Marko agrees with Verstappen: “We were never in a position to overtake Ferrari.” He also attributes this to incorrect drive settings: “The engine wasn’t running in the optimal range.”
Just a snapshot or a trend?
And so Red Bull with Verstappen finished third in the Belgian Grand Prix behind McLaren – “in a class of their own” according to Marko – and Ferrari. But was Red Bull particularly weak at Spa or were the competition just that good?
Marko said: “Overall, we weren’t fast enough. We don’t have the same range as McLaren, for example, and we were also surprised by the speed of the Ferrari.“ However, Red Bull would have looked ”much better” with the setup from the sprint race. So the Grand Prix result does not necessarily reflect the true pecking order.
The starting position could be completely different as early as next weekend in Hungary, Marko said: “We’re still bringing something new for Hungary. Let’s see how that works out.”
