McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledges the team might need to reconsider its strict policy of total driver equality over the upcoming August break.
In recent races, as Red Bull's dominance has waned, McLaren and Lando Norris have emerged as Max Verstappen's main competitors for the 2024 world championship.
However, Spa-Francorchamps posed a tougher challenge for McLaren, and despite starting 11th on Sunday, Verstappen extended his points lead over Norris.
"I personally didn't expect to be able to keep Lando behind me," the Dutchman told Sky Deutschland.
But Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko was disappointed that Verstappen couldn't improve beyond fifth place at the finish, later adjusted to fourth after George Russell's disqualification.
"We were surprised in a negative way," he told Servus TV. "It turned out that overtaking was just as difficult as in Hungary, even though the straights are much longer here. It's incomprehensible with these cars that the DRS zone was shortened."
"You almost have to put all your focus on qualifying now," Marko added. "If you want to mention something positive, it is that we still gained two points on Lando Norris. But the only real overtaking action was that of Oscar Piastri on (Charles) Leclerc."
Piastri, 23, has generally been slightly behind Norris this season, but the Australian won in Hungary and was promoted to second place in the Belgian GP classification after Russell's disqualification.
Meanwhile, Norris lamented more personal driving errors.
"If you want to catch up with Max, there's obviously a lot of pressure," McLaren CEO Brown told Sky Deutschland. "We know that Lando is quite self-critical."
"He will be a bit grumpy about this mistake, but overall he makes few mistakes and has a lot of good moments."
In Hungary, McLaren notably allowed Piastri to re-pass Norris for the win in the interest of driver equality. However, given the team's struggles at Spa, Brown admits that policy might need re-evaluation.
"Yes, we'll talk about it."
"We have two number 1s," the American said. "We will give them equal opportunities. But if in the future, if it's the case that Oscar could support Lando without compromising his own race, we'll have a look."
"We'll look from race to race and make sure that both guys still have the chance to win."
In the standings, Norris is Verstappen's closest challenger, 78 points behind. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is next, followed by Piastri, who trails Norris by 32 points.
"It looks very much like Piastri is the mentally stronger one and is gradually catching up with Lando over the course of this season and is even better in some areas," Marko said. "I didn't see any mistakes from him."
"Let's see how the decision (in Hungary) plays out."
For Verstappen, the positive news is that while McLaren has narrowed the gap, so too has Mercedes, with Ferrari not far behind. "It's positive that McLaren wins one time and Mercedes the next," the triple world champion said after Spa.
"Then they can take points from each other, which I definitely need for the rest of the season. In the drivers' (championship), it may look like a big gap, but just one mistake or a retirement and we'll be a lot closer together." body check tags ::
