“Thank you, Zandvoort.”
Hey, there’s still one race left to cover this weekend, how about that! Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review and in this edition, we’re covering the final Dutch Grand Prix as we know it from Zandvoort, with the sport leaving the Netherlands for Portimao’s return in 2027. In this piece, we’ll talk about what we’re leaving behind, the parallel nature of the track itself and what it produced over the years, and of course, another intriguing win for Lando Norris. Let’s talk about it.
The Final Lap
When it was first announced back in 2019 that Zandvoort was being rebuilt and heading back to the F1 calendar for the first time since 1985, I was skeptical about it. Sure, the banking was cool at Hugenholtz and Luyendyk, but it was hard to ignore the fact that the track seemed too small for modern-day F1 with its bigger hybrid-powered cars and massive dependence on downforce for speed sake.
Annoyingly, the more skeptical were probably proven right on that one. Zandvoort probably leaned a little more towards being one of the tamer races from an entertainment standpoint, but it also provided unique challenges, a micro-climate that made for unpredictable weather given it was right by the coastside, and a couple of genuinely good races.
It’s why I’m a little bit torn on the whole experience. It wasn’t a great fit for F1, but when it hit right, it hit differently. Beyond the racing, the track produced a genuinely brilliant atmosphere, with orange as far as the eye could see across the grandstands. On the flip side, when it first arrived, it was criticised for a small handful of women being harassed (Thankfully, that seems to have been a one-off from the nastiness of 2021 across the board.) For all the stroopwaffels and Dutch techno, the promoters slowly bumped the prices up to make life more difficult for the average attendee and in the end, lead promoter Jan Lammers knew the writing was on the wall and didn’t chase an extension, despite leaving a heartfelt letter about the passionate nature of being a fan.
And nothing for me summed up Zandvoort more than a weekend where we had a terrible Sprint Race, followed by a solid Grand Prix.
A grid which looked very promising on paper (George Russell on Sprint pole and the Top 4 covered by less than a tenth), turned completely stale as the Medium tyre was able to comfortably go the distance, cars couldn’t run close enough to think about a pass beyond Lap 1, with maybe two meaningful passes across a pretty shitty excuse for a 24-lap race. Charles Leclerc passed Lando Norris late on to take second place, but that was about it.
Later that day, McLaren got the Parc Ferme adjustments right for Lando Norris to take pole position for the Grand Prix ahead of Antonelli, Russell and Piastri all within two tenths of each other, setting the table for what turned out to be a surprising Grand Prix…
Stratagem 101
Did I mention it rained pretty hard about half an hour before the race? Annoyingly, Zandvoort dries pretty quickly with its bankings and excellent drainage, so by the time we were getting underway, the track was (mostly) dry anyway. The reason I said mostly? Luyendyk claimed two victims on the opening lap, as Max Verstappen made a rare mistake – Dipping his tyre on the wet paint on the edge of the track, losing the front and going into the outside wall at over 150 miles per hour. His day was done with a hard impact, leading to a Red Flag for the clean-up. Gabriel Bortoleto also spun out making the same error, doing a full 360 but somehow not being hit by anyone. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg narrowly missed him in a pile of smoke by maybe a foot, at the most.
The red flag led to the Top 3 all changing their tyres, Norris going to a used soft, while teammate Piastri moved to his hard set. Refreshing to see McLaren switch strategies for once and split the running. Think of it like the Tour de France. McLaren are over 150 points off the top of the standings after their dreadful start. They’re not in the general classification fight right now, they’re best shot is stage wins, so why not cover more ground and have two guys in the fight?
The problem for Lando was that despite his soft tyres being better of the line in theory, because there was an extra formation lap before the standing start (Ollie Bearman’s car failure), getting the tyres up to speed was easier, Antonelli got the better launch second time around and took the lead, with Piastri snatching third too.
I thought there was a genuine chance that Piastri was going to try a 65-lap run on the Hard tyre (Ollie Bearman did a 60-lap stint from pitlane in 2023 to finish in the Top 6), but when George Russell was first to blink on an undercut, McLaren likely seeing his micro-sectors, boxed Piastri to cover him off, only for him to lose the place due to a six-second stop. Whoops. Antonelli and Norris boxed together, with Hamilton trying to extend on his softs, unsuccessfully. Turns out the new rubber was really powerful, remember that it becomes important later.
The middle portion of the race was Lando Norris staying within a second of Antonelli but not having the delta to get close enough for a move, with inevitable traffic and a couple of twitches hurting Lando whenever he was within that second. Antonelli’s medium tyre was in no-man’s land in terms of durability or pace. With 32 laps to go, Antonelli went for the undercut to protect track position, while Norris was running long doing what McLaren have done many times before when fighting for wins – Build up a tyre delta and go on the attack.
Norris was able to go seven laps longer, and Antonelli got butchered in the aftermath, with Norris over a second a lap faster when he emerged from the pits. Matters were only made worse for the Italian when he was caught as the meat in a British sandwich, with Lewis Hamilton running long on his hards on an alternate strategy. Norris took advantage of a block from Hamilton when Antonelli was attacking him for the net lead, for Norris to go around the outside and pass him for what ultimately became the race-winning overtake.
But it wasn’t without some late drama. Just a lap after that pass, a Virtual Safety Car was declared for Esteban Ocon’s Haas dying. With it, all the leaders came in again except for Lando, because you only lost 9 seconds under a VSC stop compared to 20 under green. Antonelli thought a final swing on used softs might bridge an 11-second gap to Norris. It didn’t, but it did lead to an awkward finish where George Russell was given a team order to move aside for Antonelli in a fight for second, while at the same time making him vulnerable to a late attack from both Ferrari’s.
Surprisingly to me, Russell obliged, despite the title battle going on. I think Mercedes wanted Antonelli in front just in case we got a late Safety Car to rebunch the field up (And we very nearly did when the Williams drivers hit each other, Carlos Sainz outbraking himself into the side of Albon at Turn 1). Why did Russell do it? I suspect he wants some goodwill in the bank so that he can get the rub of the strategic green down the road if an inverse situation like it happens in the long run. I like George playing the long game here, even if he’s running out of races to swing a two-race deficit.
Regardless, Lando Norris whopped serious ass. An 11 second win that never looked in doubt after taking the lead. If Hungary was anything to go by, McLaren’s got an ace in the hole. They’re excellent on harder tyre compounds and tracks that have slower corners that help their mechanical grip. These highly technical tracks, alongside Lando’s excellent ability to extract pace in lower-grip races, has been outstanding. It also helps that McLaren has a shorter gearbox than their rivals, allowing them greater acceleration on corner exit and shorter straights. This however, will hurt them down the road as its a very track-dependent setup tweak.
For example – It’s Monza next. Regen will be in short supply, there’s lengthy straights everywhere, and there’s a lot more medium speed corners that favour Mercedes and Ferrari. I think that’s where the happy fun times will end for the Papaya, because I don’t think there’s a lot of other tracks that suit McLaren’s characteristics as much as this purple patch. I wonder, given how I was asked what Lando’s required run rate would be from 83 points down (6.9 if we get all 24 races by the way), says that we as an audience badly want another 2025 title chasedown. I think we need to be a little more cautious on this one. Take the fun as it is at face value.
The Lightning Round
As Lewis Hamilton made very clear on the radio, Ferrari really don’t like swapping their cars around these days if strategy warrants it. Seems to be a Fred Vasseur trait as team principal. On this weekend, I don’t think it would have made a difference to the result, Ferrari were always third in the pecking order to McLaren and Mercedes over longer stints, and I think Ferrari were pretty pragmatic on deciding when to stop, the all-in Hamilton push to “stay out” at the end I liked, just one of those unfortunate races where both cars are close running on the day.
Carlos Sainz celebrates a new multi-year extension by driving into the side of his teammate. I think there’s a visual metaphor there somewhere.
Two points for Fernando Alonso in ninth place. Brilliant work from Unc division to get 32 laps out of the Soft tyre and be one of the few to turn the race into a glorified one-stopper. And that was with the jury more than still out about Honda’s power-unit upgrade.
With Isack Hadjar breaking his hand last week, we had Liam Lawson fill in for the weekend at Red Bull, with Yuki Tsunoda back at Racing Bulls as reserve driver. Conclusions? Good weekend all round, mostly. Lawson got a needless penalty for refusing to slow down for a yellow but his outright pace was good, far closer to Max than the last time he was in blue. Yuki Tsunoda had a silly off late on but was still a solid P11, about where Racing Bulls should be. For the first weekend in six months and at short notice, he did a very good job.
The Verdict: 7/10 (Good) – A genuinely good final race from Zandvoort as strategy was the order of the day. Not knowing how the Hard was going to react, reacting to the undercut attempts and realising the soft tyre was a very viable tyre (ala Hungary), made it an intriguing race with about 20 to go. I thought it was fun. Thanks for the memories Zandvoort, it’s been real. See you in Monza.
