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Despite the soaring wind’s best efforts on Dutch Grand Prix Friday, we did get to see a representative sequence of laps from the whole Formula 1 field around the tricky sweeps of Zandvoort.
The picture which emerged might be a slightly worrying one for the Max Verstappen fans crowded around the track. But not a despondent one.
McLaren and Mercedes looked to be vying as the fastest cars in the place, with George Russell narrowly fastest from Oscar Piastri in the low-fuel running for Mercedes, a couple of tenths clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Max did, however, set the fastest average sequence of laps in the race stint simulations (narrowly from Lando Norris’ McLaren) but that needs to be treated with some caution as Verstappen (like Norris, but unlike Piastri and the Mercedes drivers) was on the most flattering combination of soft tyre and low fuel load in the way the various runs were sequenced. Norris was by some margin the fastest on the mediums, half a second or more clear of the Mercedes and Verstappen.
As for Ferrari, prospects look a little bleak. Carlos Sainz sat out most of the afternoon session with a gearbox problem, leaving Charles Leclerc to do the programme alone. He was around 0.7s adrift of Mercedes over a single lap, and a similar margin shy of Norris in the long runs.
Mercedes ran both cars with the floor which had been introduced then removed at Spa, the team now confident said floor is working properly and that it had not been the problem on Friday in Belgium. McLaren was running with its much-improved new high-downforce rear wing. The Mercedes was faster at the end of the straights, albeit not by much. The McLaren’s tyre degradation looked better on the long runs on both tyres.
BEST LONG-RUN AVERAGES
Verstappen 1m15.440s (9 laps - softs)
Norris 1m15.491s (6 laps - softs)
Norris 1m15.530s (9 laps - mediums)
Russell 1m15.700s (9 laps - softs)
Piastri 1m15.780s (4 laps - mediums)
Hamilton 1m16.010s (8 laps - mediums)
Verstappen 1m16.130s (7 laps - mediums)
Piastri 1m16.210s (11 laps - softs)
Leclerc 1m16.370s (11 laps - mediums)
Perez 1m16.500s (9 laps - mediums)
Verstappen’s low-speed understeer cost him a little time to the Mercedes and McLaren over his low-fuel lap and the degradation on the medium was worse relative to Norris than when both were on the soft, again a possible consequence of that slight understeer balance.
Both Red Bulls were back in their Hungaroring high-downforce bodywork specification.
Sergio Perez appeared to be struggling over both low and high fuel running, but he insists it’s not as bad as it looks. “We have been testing quite a few things, it looks a bit better than it shows in terms of order,” he said. “I did a mistake in Turn 12, I went off and lost a couple of tenths but overall we have some work to do especially in the long-run pace to match the cars ahead. We have run both cars very differently so we have some work ahead.”
Verstappen acknowledged the car’s apparent small deficit here, saying: “A bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long runs, so a bit of work to do. At the moment [we have] no clear answer as to how to improve that specifically and we will look into things. It is where we have been the last few races, so it is not a surprise but we will try to find a bit more performance for Sunday.”
Norris sees Mercedes as the main challenge: “A bit of progress needs to be made before tomorrow. Are we the strongest? Probably not. Mercedes look a bit quicker but it is close.
“I don't think there is a quickest [car]. It depends on different factors. We have been in good form since Miami but not brought any updates since Miami. This weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car.
“We are optimistic but have no idea whether it’s working or not how it’s performing at the minute, today was a reasonable day and we are there or thereabouts. A little bit more to find tonight hopefully and we can challenge the Mercedes.”
Russell seemed to be in broad agreement with Norris’ assessment.
“The car was performing really well,” he said. “We’ve got the [Spa] upgrades on, which seem to be working as expected. It looks like quite a close battle with the McLarens, with Max, but it could all be different again tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton’s running was a little messier but the underlying performance suggests he can be right in the thick of the battle at the front.
“There’s a big, big difference compared to last year,” he said. “The car is feeling more alive… We understand the car so much better now so to start off on the right foot from the get-go and making small tweaks from there is very helpful and makes our job more enjoyable.
“I didn’t get the most out of it [on the single lap], there is still performance left. I just have to work on set-up. I don’t know if I looked particularly quick [on the long run] but the set-up I had for a single lap was hindering the long run.”
