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The biggest winning margin of the 2024 Formula 1 season has to count as Lando Norris and McLaren trouncing Max Verstappen and Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Was McLaren's dominance an outlier or the start of a new trend? What does it mean for the title fights? And how worried should Red Bull be?
Here's our take:
McLaren can't count on this being the norm
Scott Mitchell-Malm
It’s a big, statement win especially to dominate like that after losing track position. But that doesn’t mean McLaren and Norris can count on this being the norm - and they made it harder than it needed to be.
Initially, I thought Norris had botched the start and feared the whole 'first lap loss' narrative might have got in his head too much. Then I saw the replay with a wider shot showing Piastri doing much the same.
Maybe both drivers got it wrong, maybe McLaren simply misjudged its start settings for here. Whatever the cause, it was another case of McLaren and Norris letting Verstappen get ahead and that has happened too many times. Usually the margins are so fine that the lost track position has been decisive.
It wasn't here, where McLaren was - like in Hungary - untouchable. Maybe this is the norm on such high downforce tracks now. Still, though, weaknesses in a key phase like the start cannot persist.
Generally it has been punished and while ultimately it didn't matter at Zandvoort it might in the future. If this sounds hyper critical, remember there are world championships on the line and this is F1.
McLaren hasn't improved as rapidly as it has under Andrea Stella by taking such things lightly.
Red Bull looked in real trouble
Ben Anderson
Back on a high-downforce track, more like Budapest than Spa, it was perhaps not surprising to see McLaren have the edge over Red Bull given recent form.
The fact the weather was so mixed and Red Bull didn’t really have the chance to hone the set-up through practice probably exacerbated the gap.
But even so, it was an absolutely crushing victory for Norris - not even the advantage of track position, normally so crucial on such a twisty circuit, was enough for Verstappen to pull off one of his miracle victories against the odds.
Red Bull looked in real trouble here. With this latest upgrade McLaren seems to have pegged Red Bull on straightline speed/rear wing efficiency, which was probably the main deficit McLaren still had post-Miami.
And the ease with which that car hit the track, with its upgraded parts, was fast straight away and relatively easy to drive - if that translates to every circuit from here on out, and Red Bull can’t get a proper handle on its own aero problems, then McLaren probably has to be considered favourite to win the constructors' championship.
Just what McLaren needed - now it must string together wins
Edd Straw
Zandvoort was exactly the way McLaren needed to kick off the run-in to the end of the season in terms of performance, even if the imperfections of losing the lead temporarily at the start and only having one car on the podium weren't ideal.
However, it's important not to jump to conclusions based on this one race. Red Bull struggled, particularly in the windy conditions, while the fact Verstapen was running an early-specification floor shows that it's a team that's having to do some remedial work on its car. Just because it was this way at Zandvoort doesn't mean this will be repeated at Monza next weekend and beyond.
However, taken as part of the general trend stretching back to Miami, it is very encouraging for McLaren. It has a car that should be capable of winning the constructors' championship with the gap now down to 30 points.
But there will be tougher days than Zandvoort and given McLaren's victory strike rate wasn't good enough in the run-up to the break, what matters is that it can string together wins and triumph on the days when it doesn't have such a big advantage.
One key area for McLaren to work on
Gary Anderson
I'm pretty sure that this is the first weekend in a long time that Red Bull and Verstappen have been comprehensively beaten. The 0.3-second advantage in qualifying and a winning margin of 22.8s just shows the development work McLaren has done over the season and how mature Lando Norris has become.
He was beaten off the start line by Verstappen but kept his cool and retook the lead as Verstappen's tyres started to degrade, and from there on in he was simply faster than the rest and ended up taking his second win of this season and his career.
With nine more races to go, the championship battle for the drivers' and the constructors' titles is still very much alive. Norris pulled back eight points in the drivers championship leaving a deficit of 70, and in the constructors' McLaren pulled back 12 points and is now just 30 behind Red Bull - so it needs to be heads down and make every one of those nine races count.
For McLaren, start strategy - whether its driver or team set-up - needs some attention. Not for the first time, both drivers lost out this weekend off the line and they really can't afford for that to happen again.
One title is lost, another is slipping
Josh Suttill
A weekend that confirmed two things for me.
Number one is that the constructors' title is absolutely McLaren's to lose right now. This weekend's upgrade working has removed one of the last obstacles that stood in McLaren's way. McLaren will overhaul Red Bull and will probably wrap up that title with a round to spare.
And now drivers' title-wise, even with a 70-point gap, Verstappen and Red Bull are in seriously uncomfortable territory.
All it's going to take is one blown engine, faulty gearbox or needless clash for Verstappen and Norris will have a quarter of a sniff at a title that nobody else other than Max Verstappen has had any right winning all season.
You really can't help but feel how small that gap would be had McLaren and Norris won the races they should have in 2024.
Verstappen is still the overwhelming favourite but his championship lead is no longer anywhere near bulletproof for the first time in three years.
