PRIXVIEW – Dutch Grand Prix

Round twelve brings F1 to the seaside in Zandvoort to end the summer break with the final running, at least for now, of the Dutch Grand Prix. The circuit returned to the calendar on a five-year deal following a thirty-five-year hiatus thanks to the success of Max Verstappen, but the organisers have decided not to continue for commercial reasons.

Over the last five years, the circuit has been popular with fans and drivers because of its old-school nature, where the grass and gravel make mistakes more common, with the tight, twisty circuit providing limited overtaking opportunities. This means finding the right set up difficult, and even more so this weekend, being a sprint weekend.

Although often credited with designing the Zandvoort circuit as well, the layout was largely dictated by the existing road layout, with Sammy Davis acting as the principal design consultant. The first sector largely follows the original layout before the newer section was first built in the 1980s after F1 left the circuit.

Tarzan, the first corner, was reprofiled for the sport’s return with banking, which provides drivers with several different lines. But it has other banked corners, Gerlanch and the almost bowl-shaped hairpin Hugenholtz, as well as Turn Twelve.

The origins of the modern circuit began during the Nazi occupation when the mayor convinced the local administration to construct a straight road through the dunes down which the Germans could hold impressive parades once victory had been achieved. Soon after the war, the circuit was built using existing roads before moving to the purpose-built circuit in 1948, before becoming a World Championship round in 1952.

Throughout its history, Zandvoort has been a popular circuit with drivers, as it’s an old circuit, meaning the risk versus reward is higher because of the fast sweeping corners. But it’s also a circuit where you need a bit of straight-line speed for the final sector and main straight, making it a circuit of conflicting demands. The circuit is also where drivers need to be careful, as it has retained much of the grass and gravel, which means mistakes can be more costly.

It’s a medium-speed, flowing circuit similar to Suzuka. But that shouldn’t be a surprise because the two circuits were designed originally partly by the Dutch journalist-turned-designer John Hugenholtz. His son was the designer of the basis of the modern circuit, which was built in 2019.

The circuit has always been popular with drivers because of its conflicting demands, and it’s a high-risk, high-reward circuit, with drivers needing to build confidence in practice as the weekend goes on. That was retained when Hugenholtz Jr modernised the circuit in the late 2010s. Overtaking is more challenging but also rewards bravery.

Although often credited with designing the Zandvoort circuit as well, the layout was largely dictated by the existing road layout, with Sammy Davis acting as the principal design consultant. The first sector largely follows the original layout before the newer section was first built in the 1980s after F1 left the circuit.

Tarzan, the first corner, was reprofiled for the sport’s return with banking, which provides drivers with several different lines. But it has other banked corners, Gerlanch and the almost bowl-shaped hairpin Hugenholtz as well as Turn Twelve.

Although the race debuted in 1948, it became a non-championship race in 1950, and featured something similar to the sprint format we had in 2021-22, with the top ten in ‘SQ1’ and ‘SQ2’ taking to the grid for the sprint, which then set the grid. The Grand Prix was won from pole by Prince Bira despite engine problems; he held off Tony Rolff to take victory by just a car’s length.

The first championship race took place in 1952; Ferrari dominated the weekend with Alberto Ascari winning from pole, ahead of teammates Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Villoresi, who finished in second and third. Ascari overtook Fangio’s record for the most race wins, scoring his seventh at this race.

1955 Mercedes continued the domination of the season, with Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss dominating the proceedings; Moss followed Fangio closely all the way. Moss would win the following year, and in 1958, while Jo Bonnier took his only win in 1959.

In the mid-sixties, the race was dominated by Jim Clark, with the Lotus 49 taking victory on debut in 1967. The DFV engine became hugely popular and is the most successful power unit in F1 history, remaining in use for the next eighteen years. But tragedy came for what became Williams, when Piers Courage crashed and was hit by a tyre. The car, with Courage still in it, then caught fire and burned to the ground. The 1971 event saw Jacky Ickx win in a Ferrari after a spirited battle with Mexican Pedro Rodriguez in a BRM in rain-soaked conditions.

The first redevelopment of the circuit took place in 1972, but the following year’s race descended into chaos following another fatal but avoidable crash. Roger Williamson (in only his second race) crashed heavily near Tunnel Oost, and his car caught fire while scraping along the tarmac. Williamson was uninjured during the crash, but time was running out; he could not free himself from the car. Williamson’s countryman, David Purley, stopped alongside, crossed the track and ran over to the burning March. Purley tried in vain to turn the car upright.

There appeared to have been ample time to right the car and pull Williamson out, but as desperately as he tried, Purley was unable to do it by himself, and the marshals, who were not wearing flame-retardant overalls, were unable and unwilling to help due to the intense heat. Race control assumed that it was Purley’s car that had crashed and that the driver had escaped unharmed. Purley was awarded the George Medal for his bravery by Queen Elizabeth II for his actions, with Jackie Stewart setting the then record for number of wins.

1974 saw the re-emerging Ferrari team dominate with Niki Lauda winning; and 1975 saw James Hunt win his first championship race in his Hesketh. 1976 saw Hunt win again while Lauda was recovering from his dreadful crash at the Nürburgring. 1977 was probably remembered for an incident between Hunt and American Mario Andretti. Andretti attempted ambitiously to pass Hunt at the 180-degree Tarzan corner; the two cars touched, and both were out of the race.

Andretti took his final win in 1978. 1979, there was another series of accidents Gilles Villeneuve crashed there while battling ferociously with Alan Jones and damaged his left-rear suspension. The damage to Jones wasn’t apparent straight away, but was forced to retire at half distance.

1982 was won by Didier Pironi in a Ferrari; his countryman René Arnoux had a dreadful crash at the end of the pit straight, going into Tarzan; his front suspension failed on his ground-effect Renault, and he went head-on into the barriers; fortunately, he was uninjured.

1983 saw a clash between Prost and title rival Nelson Piquet. Prost tried to pass Piquet at Tarzan, but the Frenchman punted Piquet off, and Prost crashed soon afterwards. 1985 saw Lauda take his final Grand Prix victory while holding off his charging McLaren teammate Prost near the end of the race

The success of Max Verstappen saw the race’s brief revival for the 2020s, and the Dutchman has won three of the four races. The 2021 race saw him undercut championship rival Lewis Hamilton to dominate the race with a twenty-second win; the Belgian-Dutch driver looked unstoppable as he steadily managed to grow the gap through the opening stint. Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas tried to go after Red Bull.

Verstappen would win in both 2022 and 2023, the latter after overtaking Hamilton with ten laps to go. The Dutchman undercut the Mercedes using the undercut during the safety car, then launched his way passed Hamilton. Mercedes looked to have been on course for their first one-two of the season as the car showed to have better pace in the latter stages of the race, but it resulted in Hamilton dropping to fourth while Russell couldn’t chase down Verstappen on the final restart. Charles Leclerc also found his way past Hamilton to take second.

Pole again was taken by Verstappen in 2023; he was half a second ahead of Lando Norris. His record-breaking season continued with his ninth win in a row, equalling Sebastian Vettel as well as his third win in a row at Zandvoort, but it was one of the smallest winning margins in 2023. Fernando Alonso was second, the Aston Martin driver finishing two seconds behind Verstappen and setting his own record for the longest gap between his first and latest podiums, dating back to Malaysia 2003. Alonso, in the closing sprint, couldn’t get close enough to stop Verstappen from claiming another home win at Zandvoort.

2024 saw Norris beat Verstappen to pole in mixed conditions, taking McLaren’s first pole at Zandvoort in forty years. Norris set 09.673, stopping the Dutchman from taking a fourth home pole in a row, while Piastri was third in the mixed conditions.  Norris converted pole into an early lead; from then on he put in a dominant performance despite being bogged down at the start and losing out on the lead. He managed to catch Verstappen and pass on lap seventeen before winning by twenty-two seconds.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• The first Grand Prix at the track, during the pre-F1 era in 1948, was won by Prince Bira – the only Thai driver to race in F1 until Alexander Albon made his debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
• Jo Bonnier recorded the only win, podium and pole position of his F1 career at the Dutch Grand Prix in 1959. It was also the first of 17 wins and 11 pole positions for BRM.
• In the track’s first stint on the calendar, Carel Godin de Beaufort and Gijs van Lennep were the only Dutch drivers to have scored a point in their home race, after finishing sixth in 1962 and 1973 respectively.
• Jim Clark has led the most laps of any driver at Zandvoort, leading 370 laps. Max Verstappen moved up to second on the list in 2023 – but still sits almost 200 laps behind Clark!
• Max Verstappen gave the Netherlands their first home winner at the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix. The nation became the 12th to have a home winner in Formula 1. It was the first time a new country joined that particular list since Fernando Alonso won his home race for the first time at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix.

Event timetable

What happened in 2025?

FP1 was topped by Lando Norris, who led a McLaren one-two after setting a 10.278, which put him nearly three tenths faster than his teammate Oscar Piastri. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin third as he went nearly three tenths off Piastri, and he had the same advantage over his teammate Fernando Alonso.

FP2, Norris continued to lead the way, setting 09.890, as Fernando Alonso narrowly split the two McLarens after going two thousandths of a second faster than Oscar Piastri. Norris was nearly nine hundredths faster than the Spaniard and his teammate, George Russell, put his Mercedes fourth but was nearly two tenths behind Piastri in a session which proved chaotic as drivers tried to maximise running in case the threat of rain developed

Qualifying saw Piastri pip Norris by a hundredth with a 09.662 to take pole. McLaren looked unthreatened throughout qualifying as Piastri showed his true form to narrowly beat his teammate. Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third, but the Dutchman was over a quarter of a second off the McLaren’s. A brilliant effort saw Isack Hadjar from Red Bull’s sister team Racing Bulls go fourth; the French rookie delivered a strong final lap to move himself just under half a tenth ahead of George Russell and the two Ferrari’s.

Piastri delivered a strong defensive drive to beat Max Verstappen by just over a second to win the Grand Prix. The Australian spent much of the race battling with Norris, whom he fended off with the answer until the Englishman was forced to retire because of an engine failure with six laps to go. Verstappen finished ahead of Isack Hadjar, the Racing Bull driver jubilant as he finished almost two seconds behind the four-time champion as he scoring his first podium.

Championship Standings

What to watch for?

After the summer break, there will be a lot of questions to answer, but unlike during the spring break, the teams haven’t had free rein for development, given they are forced into a two-week shutdown. There will, however, be some upgrades either this weekend or next, as teams will wait until Monza because it’s the only ‘traditional’ circuit and format until Sepang in October, and this is a sprint weekend.

Zandvoort over the last five years has been a race where you need the right balance of speed for the straights balanced with downforce for the corners; this makes it a very interesting weekend, and the teams only have one practice session at a circuit where set-up can be tricky. Overtaking can be difficult but not impossible, as the circuit is narrow in places and is lined with grass and gravel, thus meaning there is a risk of red/yellow flags in qualifying sessions and a VSC or safety car in races this weekend.

Drivers don’t have the time to build into the weekend, which the sprint format doesn’t lend itself to, and that could be more difficult to build into this weekend, meaning they need to be cautious. We know that practice will be an incredibly busy hour, as they will have a lot to adjust to going into sprint qualifying.

I think while Mercedes may be the fastest team, they need to look over their shoulders, as this is a tricky circuit, but they have been hit and lost a lot of points over the last two months, mainly due to reliability issues, but also mistakes, which has opened the door slightly to Ferrari and McLaren to take wins. McLaren have also been impacted by the Mercedes power unit woes; they also need to be careful, but I don’t think realistically they could fight for the championship as we move into the second half of 2026.

This is Max Verstappen’s possible last home race, but I think it will be difficult for him to be able to fight given the issues Red Bull has. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he does decide to launch another attack on these regulations, but given the reason mentioned above, they could be the most scathing yet.

Some teams will bring upgrades either this weekend or a ‘Monza special’ for the next weekend. Monza, I think, is more likely after next weekend; we are then into three street circuits and Sepang. Madrid a new street circuit; Baku is unpredictable. Then the heat and humidity in Sepang; the data is nine years old, and Singapore, we also have the added combination of a street circuit, sprint race and a night race.

The midfield fight remains close among Haas, Alpine and Racing Bulls, but Haas need stronger points if they are to seriously fight for fifth. There will be opportunities for everyone as we have a variety of different circuits coming up over the rest of the season, which we could see big fluctuations in that group.

If you expect the variations to continue, we could end up with very tight margins to progress through qualifying, and the short lap around here makes the lap times even tighter.

2024 vs 2025 Race Data

2025 Lap time comparison

Tyres