Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Recapping the winners and losers from the Dutch Grand Prix
The detractors did not go away in May.
After Lando Norris broke through with his maiden Formula 1 victory in the Miami Grand Prix, shedding the harsh “Lando No-wins” moniker, the detractors still had their lines of criticism. They pointed to an opportune safety car, which gave Norris an advantage over Max Verstappen on that sweltering Miami Sunday. While the praise poured in around the paddock, skeptics remained.
Those skeptics remained as Norris struggled to convert pole positions into victories, first in Barcelona and later in Hungary. They pointed to the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix when Norris obeyed a set of team orders to let Oscar Piastri by him in the closing stages, as evidence that he lacked championship mettle. And those same skeptics were likely ready to pounce moments after the lights went out in Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix, when Norris endured another slow start from pole position and Verstappen rocketed into the lead.
“Wheelspin,” Norris described following the race.
No matter. Norris kept his head down and remained patient, trusting in the newly upgraded MCL38 in his hands, a car that was dominant throughout the week, and on Saturday when he captured pole position in commanding fashion.
Just when it looked like Verstappen was going to pull away in the early laps at Zandvoort, Norris slowly reeled him in, knowing full well that he had the car to win.
“After getting done into Turn 1 and off the line, I was actually just surprisingly calm, maybe because I’m a bit used to going backwards at the start. I’m very prepared for those kind of scenarios,” outlined Norris in the FIA Press Conference. “And I was very calm and just, ‘OK, well, what can I do now?’ And that was just to look ahead, start saving tyres, see what I had pace wise. But really even like lap 10, 11, 12, 13, I kind of managed to catch Max a little bit again and started to gain quite a bit of optimism that actually I could almost pass him on track. So I had two opportunities. The first one, I wasn’t quite close enough. The next lap I did it and I could get my head down from there.”
Norris indeed kept his head down, ultimately building a substantial lead over Verstappen after overtaking his rival on the track. By the time the checkered flag flew, Norris was over 20 seconds ahead of his friend and rival, a dominant win much like those we have seen from Verstappen before.
Without any need for a safety car or any kind of intervention to get him there.
Criticism will likely remain, as detractors will wonder if Norris can improve his starts, or whether he can convert his current form into a championship. But one thing is clear:
At the moment, Norris is the driver to beat.
Here are the full results, and some more winners and losers from the Dutch Grand Prix.
Winners: Ferrari
Following the Dutch Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc found himself in an unexpected spot.
The podium.
Ferrari seemed on the back foot all week long, getting off to a shaky start in practice on Friday. “I will do everything to extract the maximum in qualifying, but the gaps we are looking at for the moment are too big to do anything special,” said Leclerc following Thursday’s two practice sessions. “If we can get to within two- to three-tenths, then maybe we can fight for a good spot in qualifying, otherwise I predict a difficult weekend for us.”
Saturday was truly difficult. Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to advance into Q3 and only started tenth on Sunday due to Alexander Albon’s disqualification. Leclerc did advance into Q3 but started sixth after qualifying well off the pace of Norris and Verstappen up front.
Sunday, however, was something much different.
Both drivers took advantage of strong starts, picking up positions over the opening laps. Leclerc was running in fifth when the team called him in to switch from the medium compound to the hards on Lap 24, and a well-executed pit stop saw Ferrari nail the undercut, as he picked up spots from George Russell and Oscar Piastri to settle into P3 following the cycle of pitstops. While Piastri had fresher tires in the closing stages, Leclerc was able to fend him off to capture the podium position.
As for Sainz, after getting into seventh in the early stages he picked up two more spots along the way, chasing down Russell and Sergio Pérez in due order for his fifth-place finish.
A truly “good surprise” according to Leclerc.
“Yesterday, we’ve been struggling like crazy. Today, we were strong. And these are the kind of things that we’ve got to work on. I think as much as we analyze every bad surprise we have during a season, we also need to understand when we do something good,” said Leclerc in the FIA Press Conference. “For now, I don’t think as a team we have the explanation. So it’s a great result. I’m really happy to be standing on the podium. And I think it’s a really good surprise. However, we’ve got to understand in order to perform more often at our best.”
Team Principal Frederic Vasseur hailed the result.
“So, overall it has been a good weekend and we must build on this. There are still nine races to go, some of them will suit us better than others and we must see what we can do with the new package that is coming soon, but today has certainly been a confidence boost for the team,” said Vasseur in the team’s post-race report. “Tonight we will allow ourselves to enjoy this podium and as from tomorrow we will focus on Monza.”
Ferrari desperately needed a day like this. After Leclerc’s emotional win in his home race, which pulled the Scuderia to within 24 points of Red Bull atop the Constructors’ standings, they have faded in recent weeks and entered the Dutch Grand Prix in third.
Now they head to the Temple of Speed, their home race, with some wind at their back.
Loser: George Russell
Photo by Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images
Mercedes entered the Dutch Grand Prix on something of a hot streak.
With podiums in six straight Grands Prix — and wins in three of the last four — the Silver Arrows inserted themselves into the greater F1 discussion. While George Russell’s disqualification at the Belgian Grand Prix cost him a victory and Mercedes a one-two finish, Lewis Hamilton’s promotion to the top step of the podium in Spa dulled some of that pain.
However, Hamilton’s shocking elimination in Q2 on Saturday, and subsequent three-place grid penalty due to impeding Sergio Pérez, left Russell as their best chance at a podium finish in Zandvoort.
But despite starting fourth, Russell finished seventh, one place ahead of his teammate, who started down in 14th.
And it was not for lack of trying. Mercedes fitted all three compounds on his W15, but he never quite found the pace of the cars that started up front alongside him.
Russell tried to look at the bright side in his post-race comments.
“Today’s race was an odd one. We didn’t have the pace and that was the case on all three tire compounds. It felt that I was sliding around quite a lot, suffering from high degradation, and slowly went backwards,” said Russell in the team’s post-race report. “We will have to understand why that was as we were relatively quick on Saturday. Performance does swing circuit to circuit, but we have been up near the front in the past six races. I am therefore confident that this is an outlier.”
Winner: Pierre Gasly
On Friday Pierre Gasly got a new teammate, as Alpine announced that reserve driver Jack Doohan had earned a promotion to the grid full-time next season.
On Sunday, Gasly got something else: His fifth points finish of the 2024 F1 season.
While Gasly could not quite match his podium finish at Zandvoort from a season ago, the Alpine driver stormed into Q3 and began the day in ninth position, after qualifying tenth.
He finished there, adding two more points to his tally on the year. The driver even admitted to having a little fun along the way.
“It was such a fun race today and to come away with some points is always a nice feeling. I’m really happy with the progress we made as a team since Friday and, in the end, we managed to turn things around and come away as the best team after the top four,” said Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “Off the line, I passed Fernando [Alonso] and Lance [Stroll] on the outside of Turn 1. That massively helped our race as I then had good track position and I could just manage the race and look after the tires.
“After the pit-stop we had some overtakes to make and I had confidence in the car to brake and keep a good line on the outside of Turn 1. There were some exciting moves out there and we’ve come away with two points as a result. We are continuing to show signs of progress and hopefully we can keep that going.”
It was also an impressive debut for new Team Principal Oliver Oakes, who guided Alpine to a points finish in his first race.
“I’m pleased that the team comes away from Zandvoort with points on the board in a race where we were genuinely the fifth fastest team,” described Oakes following the race.
Losers: Sauber
Sauber’s hunt for their first point of the 2024 F1 season continues, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished 19th and 20th, respectively.
Each driver was two laps down when the checkered flag flew, and the desperation is starting to sink into their comments.
“Today has potentially been the most difficult race of the season for us. Without any retirement in front of us, we finished at the bottom of the field in P19 and P20, being lapped twice – a hard picture of our current race pace. We obviously lack performance in race conditions, and we have also seen that we experience higher tire degradation than our competitors,” said Team Representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi. “So, no matter the strategy, we can’t change the result. We found ourselves in a very difficult situation and we need to understand whether today’s performance is more related to the track characteristics, due to wind conditions and corner balance.
“We must have a strong reaction as we need to change the trajectory of this season as soon as possible – starting from Monza.”
Monza may offer some hope for that elusive point, as Bottas finished tenth in the Italian Grand Prix a season ago, but that result feels miles away from where Sauber is at the moment.
