A very orange weekend is ahead
I'm excited to get back to racing with the orange haze that is Zandvoort
We get back to racing after summer break with one of the most insane tracks on the F1 calendar. Circuit Zandvoort, located in Zandvoort, Netherlands, is the home of Max Verstappen’s orange army, which means we’re going to be seeing plenty of orange flares this weekend (every year the security threatens to “crack down” and every time there are enough flares to create an orange haze across the track). It’s also the track with the steepest banking and the only track I can think of that’s consistently covered in sand.
This week Circuit Zandvoort hosts the recently revived Dutch Grand Prix. Zandvoort is a very old track, having hosted its first F1 race 1955. It’s a well-known track to the history of F1 since it was a permanent figure on the calendar from 1958-1985. After it was redesigned it stayed as a lower-series track for a while before being reintroduced to the F1 calendar in 2020, only to be pushed to 2021 thanks to COVID.
This gap in its history has led to a fun stat for Max Verstappen: he has never lost his home race. It also means his name ranks up there in Dutch Grand Prix winners with the likes of Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Lauda and Prost, and Hunt. It’s mostly a fluke of timing, but it’s a very fun place for your name to be!
Dutch GP quick facts:
Held 34 times
The record for most driver wins is 4, held by Jim Clark
The record for most constructor wins is 8, held by Ferrari
The race is 72 laps long
The lap record is 1:11.097, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2021
In 2022 Max Verstappen took pole, fastest lap, and finished first. George Russell and Charles Leclerc finished the podium in second and third, respectively.
Zak Brown had a very strange summer break.
He has once again become embroiled in a contract dispute, only this time taking place in IndyCar instead of F1. Mclaren, and Zak Brown specifically, has a long history of dangling a potential F1 seat over the heads of IndyCar drivers in order to get them to drive for the Mclaren IndyCar team. This has, predictably, backfired in spectacular fashion.
Alex Palou, who is currently leading the IndyCar championship by a wide margin, has long been considered the favorite to make the jump from IndyCar to F1. Of course, that’s when Zak Brown came around and attempted to pry Palou from his team, Chip Ganassi Racing, and get him to come to Mclaren for the next year. Allegedly, to sweeten the offer, Zak Brown hinted at a potential seat in F1 for Palou eventually. Also allegedly, Palou agreed to this through a handshake deal.
However, Palou very quickly put out a statement saying he would not be racing for Mclaren next year, in a reversal of Oscar Piastri. This made Zak Brown angry, of course, and he and Palou’s PR have been going back and forth—with Chip Ganassi himself chiming in to shame Zak Brown (notable because Ganassi very rarely makes public statements). Now, they’re going to court in Indiana (IndyCar doesn’t have the same contract arbitration system as F1). We’ll see how it goes!
In other Zak Brown news, he, the CEO of Ford, and Adrian Newey all had dinner together the other day… Will Mclaren be a customer team of RBPT for 2026? Only time will tell, but that’s the main suspicion right now.
A big question right now is who will be the first non-Red Bull driver to win a race this season? Will a non-Red Bull driver win a race this year? Eyes are on a lot of drivers and teams to make it happen.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the favorites to make it happen, being one of the few to steal pole from the Red Bulls this season, but in order to do so he’d have to overcome the Mercedes’s poor race pace. The same holds true for his teammate George Russell.
Charles Leclerc with Ferrari is another favorite. Honestly, if everything comes together with Charles and the car and he manages to drive it perfectly on the limit, I can totally see Charles pulling out the win. The only issue is everything has to be absolutely perfect for it to happen.
Finally, Mclaren have had a rapid comeback from their tough first couple of races, and with their new speed it’s easy to say one of them will be the next driver to win a race. This one is a bit more tense because the two driver are so evenly matched. So, will Oscar win a race during his rookie season, before his much more experienced teammate? Or will Lando finally get his first win?
Of course, there’s the chance that none of these guys will get it and Red Bull won’t drop a race this year, but let’s ignore that for now.
Aston Martin fell behind after a very strong first few races. It’s incredibly ironic that their slump happened right after Alonso told the media he wouldn’t miss another podium but you know how that goes. After that, Aston Martin faded into the background despite bringing upgrades and big promise from the people in charge.
There’s reason to be hopeful after summer break, however. Team Principal Mike Krack has told the public that they finally understand what caused their slide back into the midfield and have spent the break addressing it. They’re hopeful that this will return them to top form and get Alonso back on the podium.
That would be a relief after a terrible time in Spa for Alonso. But that wouldn’t fix the other issue for the green team—their second driver. Lance Stroll isn’t terrible, which is good because he’s not going anywhere. However, his small points hauls aren’t exactly shooting Aston Martin up through the rankings. So it seems the only option is, really, for Stroll to up his game.
Some small things to leave you with:
Perez finally did his job, finishing second in Spa (his first second in three months) even if he did get crushed by Verstappen. But I can’t imagine how depressing that must be for Checo—that finishing second is “his job” and that he can so easily be outpaced by his teammate. This was followed by Zak Brown dogging Perez severely, saying:
If they had two Sergios in the car, with all due respect, this championship would kind of be wide open. So you’ve got something pretty special going on with Max and Red Bull.
…ouch.
Daniel Ricciardo had struggles in Spa, but he didn’t fall apart or struggle with the car the way he did at Mclaren. Honestly, with the AlphaTauri car the way it is, that’s a true miracle. If he keeps it up, he could keep the AlphaTauri seat for 2025.
Liam Lawson was set to pull ahead in the Super Formula championship after an excellent qualifying when there was a heavy crash this season. It put Liam out of the points, but he finished the race, and there’s still one more chance for him to get the win.
Max Verstappen ARRESTED? Nah, not really. But he will almost certainly get a fine after a video revealed him driving his Aston Martin Valkyrie dangerously on public streets. As an American the details did make me laugh—he was far safer than 99% of the people I avoid on the interstate every day—but I do get it. This is just another fine in a long line of “F1 drivers fucking around with cars kinda dangerously"(Lewis is the most recent one I can think of) but it did spice up a very boring silly season.
Good links:
Alonso reveals the one thing he would change about his F1 career if he could go back in time - Formula1.com
Short but sweet interview with Fernando Alonso, who’s been driving on the grid longer than anyone. Tl;dr: he wishes he had won the championship with Ferrari.
How Ferrari’s ‘next Leclerc’ is shaping up - Josh Suttill, The Race
It feels wrong to call Ollie Bearman the “next Leclerc”—he’s Ollie Bearman guys, he’s impressive enough on his own. This is a great look at all his accomplishments in the lower series, and how he might have an impact on Ferrari in the future
James Vowles on a rejection-filled route to F1, half a year as Williams’ team boss and his top tips for F1 Manager - Mike Seymour, Formula1.com
A profile on my favorite team principal, James Vowles. They also ask him for advice on the F1 Manager game and he seems to take it seriously, which is hilarious.
Mercedes is bouncing ‘hugely’ again – but it’s not F1’s problem - Edd Straw, The Race
George Russell was complaining about the Mercedes bouncing after Spa, and within that he seemed to imply that it was up to F1 to make changes to fix it—again. Well, Edd Straw from the race disagrees, and I’m in the same camp. F1 has done as much as it can, it’s on the teams now.
Vowles: Five-year plans "remarkably meaningless" in F1 - Filip Cleeren, Motorsport.com
Yeah this feels like it was a shot at Otmar/Alpine. But also, it’s true! F1 is so volatile, anything beyond two or three years is mostly just a guessing game.
The Verstappen blueprint Norris is gambling on replicating - Scott Mitchell-Malm, The Race
The blueprint is becoming a franchise driver and letting them build around you. But Mitchell-Malm also has some thoughts on what would happen if Norris eschewed that track and decided to leave.
School is back, racing is back, and this newsletter is back—yes, really. Thank y’all for reading! Let me know what you’re most excited for at Zandvoort.
