Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Dutch Grand Prix

Round fifteen of the 2022 season marks the penultimate race of the European season at Zandvoort in The Netherlands. After a thirty-five-year hiatus, the Dutch town finally returned to the calendar last September following a year’s delay caused by the pandemic.

The circuit is another popular one with drivers like Spa and Monza is one of the classic circuits having made it debut back in 1951. The circuit modern Zandvoort built in the 1990s retains the sweeping and high-speed nature of the original circuit-built originally infrastructure used by Nazi Germany during World War Two.

The first race at Zandvoort was actually on a street circuit in the 1930s, In an effort to stop his townsfolk being sent to Germany to work, legend has it that the Mayor of Zandvoort convinced the Germans to allow them to construct a straight road through the dunes down which the Germans could hold impressive parades once victory had been achieved.

The first sector of the lap largely follows the original layout, before joining the more modern circuit at Masterbocht and re-joining the start-finish at Arie Luyenduk Bocht. The word bocht means bend in English with most of the corners having it on the name.

Zandvoort is very similar in characteristics to Suzuka, a tight twisty circuit through the dunes. Tarzan the first corner was reprofiled for the sport’s return with banking, it 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.

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.

These races were briefly revived as the Zandvoort Grand Prix in the three years prior to the formation of the World Championship in 1950. The 1950 and 1951 events were held as non-championship Formula One races at the current location, with Louis Rosier winning both years.

1952 marked the first running of the race as a round of the championship, both races being won by Alberto Ascari. In what was a dominant 1955 season for Mercedes saw Juan Manuel Fangio beat his teammate, Sir Stirling Moss. Moss would win the next race driving for Vanwall in 1956, Moss won again in 1958. Jo Bonnier took his only win in 1959.

n 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.

1970 saw the death of Williams, as it is now, driver Piers Courage, when he crashed at Oost with a wheel, came off and hit him on the head. The car, with Courage still in it, then caught fire and burned to the ground. 1973 saw yet another driver killed, on lap eight when Roger Williamson crashed, ultimately killing him.

The crash at Oost is thought to have been caused by a tyre failure pitching him into the barrier then the petrol tank had ignited whilst being scraped along the track, and the car caught fire. That race also saw Sir Jackie Stewart went on to become the most successful driver in the sport’s history taking a twenty-sixth career win by fifteen seconds ahead of Tyrrell teammate Francois Cevert.

1974 saw the re-emergence of Ferrari, with Niki Lauda winning, and 1975 saw James Hunt win his first championship Formula One race in his Hesketh. Hunt would win again in 1976, as Lauda recovered from his crash at the Nürburgring. Hunt’s battle with Mario Andretti was a defining movement in the following year’s race, the American attempted an ambitious move to pass the Englishman at Tarzan, they touch taking them both out of the race.

1980 saw the chicane removed and replaced by a slower chicane before Tunnel Oost. 1981 saw a big battle between Frenchman Alain Prost in a Renault and Jones in a Williams; Prost came out on top to win.

The 1982 event was won by Frenchman 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 25th and final Grand Prix victory while holding off his charging McLaren teammate Prost near the end of the race.

After a thirty-five-year hiatus, the race was due to return in 2020, however, the race was cancelled due to the pandemic. Last year’s race saw home favourite Max Verstappen take victory from pole dominating the race with a seven-second win.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• 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.
• During its thirty-one F1 races so far, fifty-two different drivers have finished on the podium.
• Carel Godin de Beaufort, Gijs van Lennep and Max Verstappen were the only Dutch drivers to have scored a point in their home race, after finishing sixth in 1962 and 1973 respectively, while Verstappen was the first Dutchman to win his home race and races back to back.
• The first Grand Prix at the track was won by Prince Bira, pre world championship, the only Thai driver to race in F1 until Alexander Albon made his debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.

Event timetable

What happened in 2021?

Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to pole for his home race after going three-hundredths faster. The Red Bull driver had appeared in control throughout qualifying but Hamilton improved on his final lap to miss out by the narrowest of margins. It put them on the front row for the first time since their crash at Silverstone.

Pierre Gasly had a strong qualifying putting his Alpha Tauri fourth, a quarter of a second behind Bottas, as well as out-qualifying both the Ferrari’s by half a second. Charles Leclerc just pipped his teammate Carlos Sainz, who had a crash during FP3 and just made it out in time for the start of Q1, by just a hundredth of a second.

Verstappen went on to dominate the race taking his seventh win of the season by twenty seconds ahead of Hamilton. The Red Bull driver controlled much of the race from the start building his lead through the traffic despite Mercedes trying to throw everything at the Dutchman.

The start had been eagerly anticipated, the first since Verstappen and Hamilton came together on the opening lap at Silverstone. However 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.

The German manufacturer tried to use him during the pit stop to hold up Verstappen allowing the Englishman to try the undercut by two stopping. The top three managed to lap the entire field with Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly capping off another strong weekend by the Frenchman, finishing four seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull – Honda, 01:30:05.395, 2) L. Hamilton, Mercedes, +20.932, 3) V. Bottas, Mercedes, +56.460

What to watch for?

Max Verstappen is going to be the driver to beat looking to repeat what he did last year winning both his home races. Throughout last weekend Red Bull just looked planted as Verstappen topped every session, and this is looking as if it going to be his to lose at every race.

In Spa, he took victory with arguably his best drive from fourteenth on the grid, while Charles Leclerc’s race just fell apart with Ferrari making poor decisions on strategy. Ferrari cannot do that as already mathematically winning this championship is getting very difficult. Starting to fight back in Zandvoort and Monza where I think Red Bull are going to be strong again and Ferrari need to cut out the operational errors.

Zandvoort is a very bumpy, undulating circuit which could cause headaches for Mercedes unless they are able to use the lessons they have learned at Spa to build themselves back towards best of the rest. Last weekend the race as well was hampered by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso crashing on the opening lap.

We know all season the battle between Mercedes, and Alpine has been tight I believe over the coming weeks that battle will be over as Mercedes are getting too far ahead. Mercedes may set their sights on Ferrari, George Russell is only a point behind Carlos Sainz and the team is fifty-nine behind Ferrari.

This weekend is another one at a circuit which is lined by grass and gravel, which means that mistakes as we saw at Spa can see cars being beached and finding it hard to get out of the gravel. We know that drivers will want to push, but they need to give the circuit respect and almost build themselves into the weekend. That means in qualifying that communication is going to be important as yellow and red flags can happen as they can be caught out.

2021 Lap time comparison

Tyres