F1 Report Cards: The Netherlands 2021

After a wash out at Spa, the paddocked hopped on a short trek Northwest for the thirteenth round on the calendar, which took F1 to Zandvoort in The Netherlands. Round number 13, unlucky for some, but certainly not for the Dutchies. They saw the Formula 1 circus return to the sandy dunes of Zandvoort after a 36-year absence. Having the home hero snatch up pole and later convert that into a win was simply the cherry on top for the sea of orange in the stands.

Here are the top of the class contenders and struggle bus riders from the Dutch Grand Prix:

Top of the class:

Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 1^st | Race: 1^st

A driver’s Home Grand Prix usually tends to be their Achilles heel. Some thrive under the added pressure and stress which performing in front of fellow country(wo)men brings along, but far more drivers buckle under the pressure. Lewis Hamilton seems particularly good at it, considering he won 7 out of 9 races in Silverstone in recent years. Whilst Daniel Ricciardo is notoriously bad at it, with four retirements, a disqualification and not a singular podium position to his name in the 9 Australian races he partook in.

With his pseudo-home races at Spa-Francorchamps and Austria Max doesn’t necessarily have a spotless record, but he certainly has some impressive results to his name. It made people wonder and worry how things would turn out for him at Zandvoort, but turns out they needn’t have worried, considering the Dutchman was dominant all weekend. He snatched up pole with a nearly non-existent gap to Lewis Hamilton behind of just 0.038s, but it perhaps could have been a smidge more had his DRS opened up on the final straight.

Then, in the race, he managed to pull away right at the start. The team responded to Hamilton’s first stop adequately, preventing the Brit from undercutting the Dutchman – and with their calculated board radios they forced Hamilton in for a second pitstop before he was ready, allowing Max to control the race and cross the finish line in first position.

I would have been happy to have seen anyone up on that top step, as long as we would have seen a good race, but having Max up there really was something special. It was like a happy ending to a beautiful movie – to have a Dutchie up there after the pinnacle of motorsport was absent from the lowlands for so long. The movie isn’t quite over yet, however, as we still got 9 races to go and Verstappen is leading the championship with 3 points, meaning that anything can still happen between our two main characters yet.

Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 4^th | Race: 4^th

Pierre is on a roll, considering this is his 10^th points finish in 13 races. His Saturday was already impressive, qualifying ahead of both Ferrari drivers which allowed him to park his car fourth on the grid at the race start. This performance was maintained throughout the race, holding Leclerc at bay and passing Fernando Alonso to bring home 12 points for the team.

The Frenchman boasted that he was flying, disclosing in his post-race interviews that the team had to ask him to slow down a couple of times to look after his tyres. With his fourth position AlphaTauri close the gap to Alpine in the Constructors’ standings to six points.

Considering he really seemed to have found his flow with AlphaTauri, he must be looking forward to Monza. There he stood on the top step just last year, and with all the pace he’s finding in his car his third weekend of this triple header is looking rather positive.

Fernando Alonso: Qualifying: 9^th | Race: 6^th

The Spaniard pulled off his third top-six finish of the season. In the opening lap, he managed to overtake both Esteban Ocon and Antonio Giovinazzi by turn 7. Three different moments of contact could potentially have ended his race, as he had contact with Esteban in Turn 1, with George in turn 2, and with Antonio in turn 6, but instead he managed to pull away to drive in clear air.

He then had a relatively uneventful race, only to rev up the tension again towards the end. In the closing stages of the race, he closed in on Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz only to overtake him on the pit straight in the last lap. Fernando himself had to admit luck was on his side during that overtake, however, as he didn’t feel in control of the car whilst brushing past the wall during his overtake.

Then for honourable mentions. Without any regular mileage in the car, Friday practice sessions or prior experience of the track in its current state, Robert Kubica deserves a commendation for his performance on the Saturday and Sunday. Points were never in the cards, but his pace was competitive and he kept his nose clean to earn himself a top-15 position.

The Pole was called in as replacement for Kimi Räikkönen, who had tested positive for COVID-19 after Friday’s sessions. Robert was pleased with his performance and the opportunity to race the cars around him, which wasn’t the case in his stint with Williams back in 2019.

Alright, to be frank with you, Sergio Pérez doesn’t deserve an honourable mention for the Saturday. As he went out in Q1 after failing to start his final flying lap in time. It is hard to pinpoint whether that was on the team, on Sergio himself, or on drivers in front being slow to start as well, as everyone is pointing fingers but nobody is doing it with any conviction. Case in point is, Pérez was out early. One upside to all this was that he could capitalise on this by taking his penalty for the engine change now, meaning it won’t have to happen during a weekend where he has a better Saturday.

Locking up and getting a massive flat spot on his tyres, which should have lasted the better part of the race, also isn’t anything to write home about – but all trouble was left behind as the Mexican pulled off a superb recovery drive. He managed to elbow himself all the way to P8 with every overtake being on the limit. It is then no surprise that with him being the focal point of so much on-track action he was voted driver of the day. Well-deserved I’d say, if only because it’s driver of the day and not driver of the weekend. Hopefully, the Mexican can take some of this momentum with him to Monza and have a strong weekend all around.

The final honourable mention is a nod to Zandvoort and the renovations made. Yes the race may not have been a classic but we still got some decent action and the added banking at turns 3 and 14 made for some really intriguing viewing across the weekend. It is also not a forgiving track as Carlos Sainz found out during qualifying. Hopefully the changes coming in 2022 may make it easier to promote racing through more of the track.

The struggle bus:

Haas team dynamic

Another race bringing up the rear of the pack but the atmosphere at Haas has snowballed from a shambles in relation to the car performance to quite a toxic environment, particularly highlighted at Zandvoort.

Both Mick and Nikita are in their rookie seasons – but there are some basic ground rules that both of them were guilty of breaking in qualifying, what doesn’t help the bickering from their Q1 blocking is Team Principle, Guenther Steiner, having such a laissez-faire attitude in seemingly brushing it off as both of them being at fault.

Then comes the race where Nikita’s aggressive defending from Mick on the pit straight could have resulted in a disaster. The onboards are not a pretty viewing and Schumacher was understandably upset as it resulted in him needing a wing change and ruining his race.

We get it, you don’t care about 2021, fair enough, there’s widespread changes coming next year and early focus on that could catapult you back up to the highs of 2018. However, Haas are just not helping their causes.

Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel – Qualifying: 17^th | Race: 13^th

Lance Stroll – Qualifying: 12^th | Race: 12^th

Vettel’s Saturday finished disappointingly early as he had to abort his final run in Q1 when coming across Mazepin and Schumacher bickering over track position. When looking at his Sunday result, Seb’s day seems to have gone marginally better, but the truth is that he didn’t really gain much on track, as three different drivers left Zandvoort without seeing the chequered flag.

The most dramatic moment during Vettel’s race was a half-spin when attempting a manoeuvre at Hugenholtz, leaving Bottas to squeeze past (with blue flags) rather precariously whilst the German came to a stand-still on track. In the final stages of the race the German seemed to have gotten in a flow, as his pace was more competitive, but it was not enough to squeeze out a better track position at the finish line.

There actually isn’t much to say about Lance’s race, except for the fact that the Canadian found himself staring at the back of George Russell’s Williams for the majority of it.

With both Aston Martin drivers failing to score points, and with constructor rivals Alpine and AlphaTauri having no such trouble, the fight for fifth in the constructors’ championship moved further out of their reach once more.

McLaren

Lando Norris – Qualifying: 13^th | Race: 10^th

Daniel Ricciardo – Qualifying: 10^th | Race: 11^th

Another team that had a race to forget was McLaren. Whilst their papaya orange matched the sea of orange in the crowd, it sadly doesn’t seem to have the same magical effect when you’re not a Dutchie called Max Verstappen.

Ricciardo looked strong on Saturday, so it was a pity that he couldn’t make this last through the race on Sunday. He received team orders to let Lando pass due to his lack of pace and otherwise drove a rather anonymous race.

Lando Norris had a tough Saturday, and the two red flags in Q2 kept him from setting a flying lap which could potentially have lifted him into the last qualifying session, but with a bit of teamwork from Daniel, he managed to lift himself in 10^th position to bring home a point.

That wasn’t enough for the team to stop Ferrari from snatching P3 in the constructors’ championship. Still, the Briton thinks that this is the best they could have done considering the circumstances, the papaya orange team can only hope that they’ll have a better run in Monza next week.

Then for dishonourable mentions we’ve got Kimi Räikkönen. Alright, I have to admit that he doesn’t really belong here. There is nothing dishonourable about contracting Covid. Point in case is, that the Formula 1 Circus is desperate to see as much of him as possible in the upcoming months, considering he’s just announced his retirement from the sport. So to miss out on seeing him in Zandvoort was a bitter pill to swallow, and to know that he most likely won’t be joining us in Monza is equally painful for his adoring fans.

Thankfully, his wife Minttu let us know on Instagram that Kimi is in good spirits and doesn’t seem to be feeling very sick. We can only hope that the Finn will return to the Paddock soon so we can appreciate what we’ve got until he disappears from the driver line-up for what we have to assume will be the final time.

After a break-through podium in Spa’s procession, it was a crash back to reality for George Russell. He ran just outside of the points for most of the race, valiantly holding off Lance Stroll but he received a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and then later was forced to retire on the very last lap with a gearbox issue.

His venture to the Netherlands might have had a happy ending despite his race result, because he’s sealed a deserved promotion to Mercedes for 2022 to race alongside Lewis with Valtteri Bottas moving across to Alfa Romeo.

Next up is the Italian Grand Prix. The last race of the tripleheader will prove to be busy, considering this is another track where they’ll be trying out the qualifying/sprint/race format. The race starts on Sunday the 12^th of September at 2pm UK time, but if you’d like to turn in for the sprint qualifying race you’ll have to be sat in front of the telly from 3:30-4 pm on Saturday whilst ‘regular’ qualifying will be taking place at 5pm on the Friday.