ROUND 12 | NETHERLANDS

"A valuable reward for everyone's efforts""A valuable reward for everyone's efforts"

GRAND PRIX REACTION

In the final Dutch Grand Prix, Fernando claimed a top-ten finish by the seaside.

Read on for all the team's thoughts and reaction from the Netherlands.

Rain hit the track ahead of Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix, but Circuit Zandvoort had started to dry out ahead of the race start, where both drivers began on the Soft compound – Fernando from P18 and Lance in P19.
At the end of the first lap, a Red Flag put a pause to running. The session resumed with a standing start, and by Lap 10, Fernando and Lance had climbed to P14 and P15.
Lance picked up some damage early into the race, resulting in a handling issue. He made two pitstops, both for Hards; the first came at the end of Lap 15 and the second on Lap 36. Unfortunately, Lance had to retire nine laps later due to the issue.
After 30 laps on his Softs, Fernando made his first pit for Hards. He continued to gain positions and made his way into the points, successfully defending to secure P9 and two valuable points.
Next up, we're making our way to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on 4-6 September.

THE LATEST FROM THE TRACK

Ready to meet the challenge

Zandvoort kicks off the second half of the 2026 season, providing a refreshing blast of salty air for anyone still sleepy after their summer shutdown. With the wind whistling-in off the North Sea onto the dunes of North Holland, the sinuous circuit has delivered better races across its five-year residency that most people honestly expected: the new, banked sections have done their job, and Tarzan corner has been every bit as dramatic as it was in the golden age of F1.

For us, it's been a strong track in the past, and the team's upgrade package, delivered just before the summer break in Hungary, provided a genuine performance leap and a signpost to better second half of the season. The challenge now is to learn from that, consolidate and push-on over the next few races. Doing so at Zandvoort will be a tough ask, given the Sprint weekend format is back with us here, reducing practice to just a single hour.

We also have the F1 ACADEMY back in action for the first time since the British Grand Prix. Mathilda Paatz had an unlucky weekend at Silverstone but will be hoping to get back to winning ways at will be her home race this season.

RACE STARTS IN:

days

hrs

mins

secs

Session Times

FP1

SPR

Quali

Race

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
Straight Mode
Overtake Mode

The banking at the end of the circuit is very special. The change of elevation is unbelievable and provides possibilities to overtake.

Mari Boya – Driver Academy member

Number of corners
14
Number of laps
72
Race distance
306.587km

NEED TO KNOW: DUTCH GP

THE CIRCUIT

THE GRAND PRIX

THE STRATEGY

THE FACTS

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

LAST TIME OUT IN ZANDVOORT

THE CIRCUIT

Zandvoort is narrow and it is twisty. It's a high downforce track and there is barely a straight line in sight. The high-speed Scheivlak (boundary ditch) corner is one of F1's all-time greats – though there's a few bumps to negotiate that provide the metaphorical headache for race engineers and the real thing for the drivers. The new (for 2021) banked sections of track do their job and ensure the Dutch Grand Prix isn't a procession – but it's still a very tough circuit on which to overtake.

The circuit is… quirky. Most of the corners are right-handers, which makes for very uneven tyre wear; the dunes and grandstands shelter some parts of the track but not all, which means wind speed (usually high) and direction have a great influence on the performance of the cars. It also influences the grip level, with sand blown onto the track making the sessions early in the day something of a sweeping exercise. Teams will be mindful of that this year with Formula 2 and Formula 3 not in attendance to wield the broom. F1 ACADEMY and the Supercup are in attendance – but they don't have quite the impact of the F3 and F2 cars.

Zandvoort also features one of the shortest pit-lanes in F1. The garage complex has been extended since F1 came back, but it's still a cramped place to work: difficult for the cars to get in and out of the boxes, which are more raked than usual. It makes the pit-loss time for individual stops very small, but strategists also have to factor-in the potential for queuing should the pit-lane be busy.

And then there's those banked sections. They weren't implemented as a cruel and unusual way of torturing Pirelli but rather as the only way of creating overtaking opportunities without fundamentally changing the layout of the track. The banking at T3 creates a high-line and a low-line, which makes it very difficult to defend, while the banked section through the final corner allows cars a much longer full throttle section and a better chance of making a move stick into T1.

THE GRAND PRIX

This is the final year of Zandvoort's current run, and while there will be considerable relief among the trackside teams to not have to work in the thimble-sized paddock and tiny pit-building, it's a great loss for F1 to not have this boisterous, loud, impossibly-crowded shindig out on the dunes.

The atmosphere at Zandvoort is truly astounding, done by the simple expedient of taking a crowd nearly as big as Silverstone's, and packing it into a circuit about a quarter the size. The pretty, coastal town can't possibly cope with this many people, but the train links to Amsterdam and Haarlem are excellent, as are the bike paths for those who love a positive stereotype.

The party lasts all weekend, with DJ sets including Afrojack on Friday, La Fuente on Saturday and Martin Garrix bringing this era of the Dutch Grand Prix to a close on Sunday evening.

THE STRATEGY

Strategy for last year's Dutch Grand Prix was dominated by Ferrari – though not in a way the Scuderia would have chosen. The favoured approach pre-race had been a Medium-Hard one-stop, with a prime stop window between Laps 28-34. However, a Lewis Hamilton crash on Lap 22 and subsequent safety car dragged most of the leaders in early. That would have made for a long second stint, but a crash for Charles Leclerc on Lap 52 and another Safety Car period converted the race to two stops, with the leaders again diving into the tight pit-lane before the bunched restart.

In and of itself, the two-stop race wasn't far off in terms of total time – it was less favoured more because overtaking is difficult on the narrow Zandvoort circuit and pit-stops can be fraught in the compact pit lane – and it's reasonable to expect this year's race will hover again between one and two stops. If Overtake Mode makes passing easier than it was with DRS, then two-stops gains favour; if it doesn’t, then the advantage swings to one-stop and holding track position. The Sprint weekend format will allow teams to gain a good appreciation for this in the Sprint, before making plans for the main event.

THE FACTS

1 | This is the 36th World Championship Dutch Grand Prix. They've all been held at Zandvoort. Races in 1950 and 1951 were non-Championship, with the Dutch Grand Prix gaining World Championship status in 1952. The race was not held in 1954, 1956-7, 1972, and then had a prolonged hiatus after 1985, only returning in 2021. This is the final year of its current stint.

2 | Aston Martin made its F1 debut in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, with the DBR4 driven by Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby.

3 | For a race traditionally held mid-season, The Dutch Grand Prix features an unusually high number of firsts. Debuts for, among others, Innes Ireland, Jim Clark, Clay Regazzoni, Peter Gethin, François Cevert and, of the current grid, Liam Lawson, and debut victories for Jo Bonnier, Wolfgang von Trips, Graham Hill and James Hunt. It also features a conclusion: Niki Lauda took his 25th and final F1 victory at this circuit in 1985.

4 | We took our first fastest lap point (and, indeed, our first fastest lap) at this circuit in 2023, courtesy of Fernando.

5 | The 1961 Dutch Grand Prix was the first time the entire F1 field was classified as finishing the race. This was also the first race to feature no pit-stops.

6 | The 2023 Dutch Grand Prix holds the record for the most pitstops, with 89. Seven of those are for Lance, in what is a record for a single driver.

7 | The '23 race also holds the record for the most overtakes (in a wet race) with 186, and most overtakes on a single lap, with 63 on Lap 3.

8 | Lance is a previous Zandvoort race winner, having taken victory on this track while on his way to clinching the 2016 F3 European Championship.

9 | Johannes Hugenholtz (often anglicized as John Hugenholtz) was appointed director of the new Zandvoort Circuit in 1949. He went on to design the F1 circuits at Zolder, Jarama and Nivelles, plus the Motordrom section of Hockenheim. His most famous work in the Suzuka Circuit: squint hard enough and you can see the influences of Zandvoort's layout in the design of Honda's home track. He gets a corner here named in his honour: T3 is called Hugenholtzbocht.

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

While the North Sea weather can give the Dutch Grand Prix a bit of a buffeting, the same traits make this part of the world a popular spot for watersports, with boating, kitesurfing and paddleboarding enjoying huge participation – best at this time of year, where water temperatures are reaching their warmest. Sheltered lakes provide good nursery conditions, but for those with a bit more experience, heading up the coast from Zandvoort to the West Frisian Islands and the Wadden Sea provides rather more of a challenge.

If the grandstands have provided enough salt air, then Zandvoort isn't very far from the big city. The Dutch Grand Prix isn't classed as a city race, but to all intents and purposes, this patch of North Holland is part of Amsterdam's metropolitan belt, with trains to and from the city centre every 15 minutes. It's perfectly possible to be back from the track and into the heart of the city before nightfall – but realistically tacking a couple of extra days onto a Dutch Grand Prix trip is a worthwhile expenditure of time..

The city is, of course, famed for its museums: The Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the modern art-oriented Stedelijk are all found on the appropriately-monikered Museum Square, while Rembrandt's house is closer to the centre of the city. There is also the Tulip Museum and, for those prepared to venture further afield, historic windmill tours. On the other hand, there are plenty of tours willing to explore alternative Amsterdam, with its leading-edge music scene and vibrant nightlife.

Whatever you wish to see, the best way to do it is from Amsterdam's concentric canal rings. The Grachtengordel, with its four main arteries of Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht and their 1,500 bridges form a UNESCO World Heritage site and are both tourist attractions and working waterways at the same time: there are luxurious canal cruises, but also hop-on, hop-off services around the city, allowing anyone with a few hours spare to see Amsterdam at its elegant best from the water.

LAST TIME OUT IN ZANDVOORT

Zandvoort is where it all began for Aston Martin in F1, with the team fielding two cars at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix. Carroll Shelby qualified P10 with Roy Salvadori in P13. Five of the 15 starters retired during the race, including the DBR4s, both of which had engine issues: Salvadori after three laps; Shelby after 25. The team returned the following year, with just a single car for Salvadori. He qualified 18th but was unable to start the race.

In the modern era, the Dutch Grand Prix has been up and down for us. When the race returned in 2021, Lance and Sebastian both went out in Q2 and, in a race where overtaking proved near-impossible, came home 12th and 13th respectively. Things improved a little in 2022 with Lance recording our first Zandvoort point, starting and finishing 10th.

2023 gave rise to the sort of race for which Zandvoort is famous: the wind was pounding in off the North Sea, with torrential rain interspersed with periods of sunshine. The alternating weather led to a crazy race that tumbled many records (see above) but Fernando kept his cool, kept his car on the tarmac, and rose from P5 on the grid to P2 at the flag, having survived a slow pit-stop and very challenging conditions. In 2024, we returned from the summer break and got both cars into Q3 for the first time at Zandvoort, with Fernando starting P7 and Lance P8. Sadly, a tough race saw the drivers drop down the field, though Fernando hung on to finish tenth and bring home a point.

Last year was a very happy race, with both drivers scoring. Fernando had a good afternoon, starting P10 and finishing P8, but Lance made one of the great recoveries, finishing P7 from 19th on the grid. Both drivers offset their strategies and profited from the race being brought back together several times by Safety Cars – though they made their moves on track, with neither pitting under a caution.

Mathilda Paatz

In Michael Schumacher's wheel tracks

As she turns 18, Mathilda reflects on the journey that took her from karting at Michael Schumacher's circuit in Kerpen and spending nights supporting her father at the Nürburgring to becoming an F1 ACADEMY race winner – and explains why 'The Green Hell' will always be 'The Green Heaven' to her.

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