Amsterdam, Netherlands — Papaya won the Dutch Grand Prix, and as the fireworks went up on the start/finish straight early on Sunday evening, another shade of orange.
Despite having a rough start, in which he lost the lead to Max Verstappen in the second phase, Lando Norris turned his pole position start into his second win of the season. But the McLaren driver passed the current world champion a fourth of the way into the race. By the end of the race, Norris had established a commanding lead over Verstappen, closing the gap between the two in the title fights. He finished roughly 23 seconds clear of the Red Bull driver.
Ferrari, meanwhile, appeared to improve during the weekend and demonstrated a surprisingly competitive pace. Aston Martin, according to Fernando Alonso, is the “seventh-fastest team,” and Valtteri Bottas of Sauber “did not expect the performance to be this dismal.”Additionally, rumors regarding Logan Sargeant’s seat for the remainder of the season are circulating as the paddock prepares for the Italian Grand Prix the next weekend.
Before we head to Monza, here are The Athletic’s takeaways from the Netherlands — plus a paddock notebook dump.
McLaren makes a statement
This season, McLaren has had a string of successful results. It was Piastri in Hungary and Norris in Miami. McLaren has appeared to be the fastest vehicle on the Formula One grid for the majority of the previous two months. However, it had failed to put together a “full” weekend, during which everyone was aware that McLaren was the team to beat from the start of the race to the finish.
Up until Zandvoort this next weekend. From one session to the next, Norris continued to punctuate his points. He completed a flawless lap to clinch pole in qualifying after leading FP. Yes, he lost the lead in the race before the first turn as a result of yet another sluggish start—the kind of error that has cost McLaren chances this year. However, Norris’s vehicle was so powerful this time that the mistake was insignificant. On lap 18, he easily defeated Verstappen and won by a massive 23 seconds.
“It’s incredible to remind ourselves of where we were and what we’re able to achieve now,” Norris told F1tv. “You know? (Going from) getting lapped by Red Bulls most races to beating them by 20-something seconds today. It just shows the work that we’ve been putting in – I mean, not so much what I’ve done, but the team delivering a car that can go and do what it did today.”
Even if Piastri finished in P4, McLaren will still feel like it left points on the table. In the final twenty circuits, with both drivers running hard tires, he lacked the vehicle to overcome Leclerc’s defense for P3. Still, it does not matter. McLaren will be favorites to win several of the remaining grand prix as they leave Zandvoort as the current F1 leader.
“I don’t think we fear any circuits anymore like we did last year,” Piastri told F1TV.
In the drivers’ championship, Norris trails Verstappen by seventy points. Red Bull leads McLaren by thirty points in the constructors’ championship.
Verstappen searches for answers
There were signs throughout the weekend that Verstappen and Red Bull might struggle on Sunday. Throughout qualifying, Verstappen battled the car on corner entrance, and neither driver took the lead in any practice sessions.
However, for a brief while it appeared that Verstappen might be fortunate. Verstappen quickly took the lead into Turn 1 thanks to Norris’s sluggish start from the starting line. Verstappen would sail off into the distance, signaling the conclusion of the race for the majority of the previous year. Rather, Verstappen’s persistent balancing problems from the previous weekend finally caught up to him, and by Lap 18, Norris did too.
Verstappen had no answer for Norris. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
Verstappen claimed that his car’s limits and balancing problems persisted from practice to the race. For a few race weekends, the Red Bull driver has been chasing this issue.
“It’s just very hard to solve at the moment,” Verstappen said. “It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on deg at the moment. That’s a bit weird because I think the last few years, normally we’ve been quite good on that. So something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to quickly try to improve.”
The points leader said, “It was quite clear that we’re not quick enough.” Not what Red Bull fans want to hear with a trip to Monza, F1’s “Temple of Speed,” next weekend.
Ferrari’s curious case
Leclerc surprised everyone by finishing the Dutch GP weekend on the podium despite his dissatisfaction with the SF-24 at the beginning of the event. He partially said, “When asked how it happened, “Ah, that is a very good question. And I think the best question is also to understand why we were nine-tenths off (Saturday) and suddenly pretty strong (Sunday). The car is exactly the same.”
Ferrari had a difficult week before the race, but on race day, they found some speed. And it executed its plan flawlessly, maintaining Oscar Piastri’s lead and putting Leclerc under pressure. The McLaren driver appeared to pose a threat at certain points. Piastri was almost a second faster when he was driving in “free air,” according to Leclerc. However, the Ferrari driver would accelerate farther as Piastri got closer, gaining about five tenths of a second.
“I think with the dirty air, he probably lost three or four-tenths. He managed to stay behind and to put me quite under pressure for two, three laps, but then couldn’t stay there because of the overheating. It was a really good strategy.”
Carlos Sainz, on the other side of the garage, too was not expecting Ferrari to do that well. He was about seven seconds off the podium in fifth place after qualifying in tenth place. “After qualifying on Saturday, I was feeling a little down and uninspired by the day’s and the weekend’s events,” he stated. From the laps to the grid on Sunday, the car felt much better in high fuel than it did in low fuel yesterday. I thought we would be able to accomplish our goal of finishing P7 and P8 in a strong race behind the leading cars, which was a little better than we had anticipated.
Rather than the fuel level, the Spaniard believes it may have “to do with the tires, the window of the tires and the way we switch them on in quali, maybe is what is protecting them in the race.” On a difficult track for overtaking, Sainz made strong overtakes, like his pass on Pérez.
“To be able to pass a Red Bull in a tough track like this, it just shows the car must have been in a sweet spot and I was driving really well,” Sainz said. “Very proud of that.”
But what was their method? What does that signify going forward? These are the questions worth a million dollars.
“If we manage to understand what’s going on with our car, then I’m quite optimistic about the future,” Leclerc said. “But for now, we don’t quite have the understanding yet.”
Speculation around Sargeant’s F1 future
Williams had a difficult weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, to put it mildly.
Logan Sargeant was forced out of qualifying due to a severe FP3 crash that left debris, a burning car on the course, and expensive repairs. Alex Albon, a teammate, qualified for the third round but was later ruled out, therefore the two Williams drivers would start from the bottom of the field. Albon reached the finish line in 14th place, while Sargeant finished in 16th.
And it’s worth noting that Williams brought a major upgrade to Zandvoort.
Was this the last GP with Williams for Logan Sargeant? (Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
One of the few drivers without a point this season is Sargeant, who will be replaced by Sainz in the next season. Although his plans for 2025 are unknown, rumors about his present Formula One position and the possibility of an in-season driver change are still circulating.
Sargeant said Sunday that he hears the speculation “every weekend, so it’s nothing new.” When asked whether it was frustrating, particularly after the Saturday he had, he responded, “No, I couldn’t care less.”
Two names that have come up in rumors regarding the possibility of an in-season driver switch are Liam Lawson and Mick Schumacher. When questioned about their thoughts regarding loaning out reserve driver Lawson, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner responded, “Depending on whatever terms and if we needed him back that we could get him back very quickly.” However, we would be willing to accommodate them if they required a driver the following weekend. However, that is not a matter for us, but rather for Williams.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff faced similar questions about junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Schumacher, its reserve driver. As far as the latter driver, he said, “I would very much hope that Mick gets the chance because we haven’t seen the real Mick. You’re not winning F4, F3 and F2 and then you’re not performing in F1… I think he deserves a chance. If the opportunity would be at Williams, it’s something that we would be cheering for. But it’s James Vowles’s decision.”
Regarding F1’s meritocracy and the requirement that the American driver earn his spot, Vowles has maintained his consistency.
Paddock Notebook
- Despite having both of its cars in qualifying on Saturday, Aston Martin only managed to finish with points on Sunday, with Alonso finishing in tenth place. However, Alonso claimed after the race that he thought Alpine and Haas were faster. Nineth- and eleventh-place finishers Pierre Gasly and Nico Hülkenberg were the closest drivers from those two teams.
- In the race on Sunday, Bottas had a respectable start, but the Sauber driver said that he “struggled to follow the pack” after five or six circuits. I realized then that we were not quite keeping up the pace. Using different tire compounds also did not assist. “We tried all the compounds today, so it is not the tire; it is the car,” he continued. This tune just does not work for it. Although Sauber has not earned a point yet in this season, the Dutch Grand Prix was not one of its better events. “The banked turns, off cambers, cambers, with the wind, it just underlines the sensitivity of the car,” stated Bottas. “This track is really emphasizing the flaws of the car.”
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli will compete in Formula One at Monza, according to confirmation from Mercedes manager Toto Wolff. The Athletic questioned Wolff about if he had given the Italian driver an FP1 drive or an F1 berth for the upcoming season as a gift, as Antonelli turned 18 on Sunday. He laughed and said, “That is a nice suggestion, let us try that.” With a solemn tone, Wolff confirmed the FP1 visit, stating that, considering Antonelli’s longstanding ties to Mercedes, it would be a “very emotional event.” It is generally anticipated that he will be named as Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 replacement shortly.
- Haas remained in Zandvoort on Sunday while it awaited the settlement of its outstanding debt to erstwhile title sponsor Uralkali. Last Monday, a Dutch court decided that Haas’s track assets might be taken if the money was not paid back to the Russian company, whose title sponsorship agreement was canceled in 2022 due to the invasion of Ukraine. Haas claims that the money that was outstanding was paid on Friday, but confirmation that Uralkali received the monies is still pending. As usual, the squad packed up on Sunday night and will wait for the all-clear to depart on Monday.
- Looking ahead to Monza, Alonso reckons, “Ferrari should be the car to beat.”
Additional reporting from Luke Smith.
Top photo: Sipa USA, Mark Thompson/Getty Images
