F1 Dutch GP - The Title Fight Comes Alive

Race atmosphere at Zandvoort so it's packdown time at the Dutch Grand Prix um not a ton of uh kind of overtaking and action at the front but it was enough of a race a fascinating race and a fascinating fight now for the World Championship uh I'm joined with as I we like to say in the media center my colleague Ronald Ving from the uh Dutch um motorsport.com uh website obviously his local race he's been a busy man this weekend running around um you know fantastic atmosphere this weekend race back for Max how was it as a man how was the spectacle and how do the crowds take it I think it was good but I have to be honest if I go back to 2021 the first time we were back here also with a championship fight then basically every single moment felt special because it f felt like surreal to have Zan for back on the have one calendar and basically because both of us are doing many races a year it feels like just one of the many races we go to so it's kind of normalized the way uh what is maybe not normal is that's the first time that Max steppen didn't win uh I think we all saw it coming in way if you look back at what happened before the summer break that it could be much more tricky for both Max and Red Bull than it was in the past uh so I think I'm not surprised at all by the result I am surprised I think the fans are surprised by the huge gap that I'm sure we will talk about later Norris and McLaren's pace advantage yeah absolutely I mean I read a piece this morning um Landon Norris's po position Advantage was the third biggest of the season um quite impressive and the biggest by a non Max for Sten and on a really short lap and on a short lap which is quite significant but I mean I to Andreas Stella McLaren boss yesterday playing it all down said it's the perfect track for McLaren it's the kind of long medium speed Corners they excel in um the temperature they think he think came to them he was saying trying to downplay everything but it's the biggest race winning advantage of the season so far bigger even than V stappen at the season opening brain Grand Prix and critically Lando n unleashed the fastest lap on the final lap I'm told um by quite good authority that Lando did it off his own back it wasn't a discussion with the team uh I'm that if he had asked the team the team would have said no no don't risk it but he's done it he got an extra point uh and that extra point is very interesting for the championship I think because it means he took eight points off Max which is a trajectory to win if he keeps doing this yeah exactly going forwards they're quite I wouldn't say super confident they're still aware they need to bring more to the car they're pushing on but they feel the Championships in them and they feel that what Sebastian vettle did in 2013 he came back from the summer break smashed the season post post summer derailed all Fernando Alonzo's hopes they feel they can do it um from Red Bull's view on the championship fight Red Bulls perspective you spoke to hel and Marco yeah as always as always straight after what what's Red Bull's kind of feeling on where they stuck up I think it's interesting that you come up with the fastest lap because maybe out of everything that's what maybe scares Red Bull the most yeah uh because I talked to helmet Marco immediately after the podium ceremony immediately after the behind the red bull pit box and he said yeah the final lap on used tires very old tires without DRS and it was going considerably quicker I mean Max did not have it in the tires at that moment so um if you look at the numbers it's quite frightening for Red Bull in overall because we were I mean searching for the numbers during the race and if you go back to you mentioned Bahrain uh the Gap from foren to the first non Red Bull car was 25 seconds the Gap from foren to lenon noris in Bahrain was 48 now he's almost 23 behind so that's more than a minute I know Bahrain is is really hard on tires Red Bull used to be with emphasis on used to be really good on tires and now they are not anymore uh but it's a it's a swing for more than a minute and that's of course really significant I asked Marco about it and he said it's alarming uh today's result is alarming for Red Bull and he said something uh needs to happen quickly within the team otherwise the championship is under threat and I asked him which Championship because for the constructors is quite obvious but he said no both also drivers so we also McLaren's poor starts should talk about McLaren the poor starts because if we go back to the start if Oscar piastri had a better start it could even be a one-w because his Pace on the hard tire was um impressive until he got stuck behind charlot Clair but I feel like with a better start it could even be a McLaren one two and Max on P3 instead of two yeah I mean I I find it it's a fascinating Dynamic now because I think you've got McLaren team that is fastest yeah we don't know by how much is it you know are they a tenth ahead and this this here flatter them are they much more ahead and I think also the cars show different strengths at Spar I think the Red Bull in clean air was probably the quickest car still the stens Pole Position showed that but dirty air is so important now and that's what derailed Oscar's race um but I think actually beyond that there's another Factor at play and that this isn't just a fight between Lando and Max and McLaren and Red Bull I think Mercedes underperformed Mercedes and Ferrari lack of pace oh yeah massively this weekend and Ferrari was was a bit mixed it was quite a strange weekend I think this we with the tires we lost Friday because of the appalling weather then Saturday morning was wet so there wasn't much running and yesterday kind of teams were in and out of tire windows um and I think we saw Ferrari had a disaster day yesterday lir was you know really down in the dumps we're not fast enough it's not happening it's not working car's a bit the same and then suddenly today they pued up it's the same story for Daniel Ricardo as well yesterday completely depressed today much better much happier and on the flip side I think Mercedes were quite strong with George Russell's hands yesterday Lewis had a you know poor qualifying couldn't get the tires on the knife edge got the grid penalty came back strong today but they were nearly a minute behind so I think I mean I think do you think that redel and Max not only have The Constructor's Championship battle to worry about not just Lando they've got to worry about Mercedes as well because if he starts losing eight points the Championships yeah you just within Lando's touch but starts losing 15 20 becomes a problem doesn't but there are two ways to look at it because on the other hand if the other teams can take points of McLaren it's a positive and that's basically what Max was thinking going into the summer break he said I've got a bit of a buffer and it's good for me if like uh Mercedes can keep winning races and they take points of Lando but looking at what happened this weekend McLaren was just not one step but like two or three steps ahead of all the others so I think that's what's worrying Red Bull the most because if uh Lando will win the upcoming races then Max has to make sure that he's second he has to make sure that he beats at least one McLaren and that's already quite a qu quite a tricky tricky task uh I think the most important element of this weekend maybe is the the upgrade they bought they always say it's not so significant but what is really signic ific is that the upgrade is working and if we go back to early in the year I mean Red Bull brought a package in Hungary they keep saying yeah it's working but it's not delivering what they expected hel Marco was talking about the correlation by the way he said that um based on their simulations it should have been a much bigger step which was not the case uh Ferrari had their development issues going back to an old floor having the bouncing when they introduced a new one in Barcelona and I think the key element for McLaren is they had the upgrade package in Miami Works straight away have the upgrade package now working straight away again and that's even more frightening for the for the opposition yeah I think that's the most impressive thing about McLaren is every step has made it worked and it not only worked they upgraded the car in Miami didn't do anything much more to it few Wing you know Wing downforce levels and they came on they've brought a little step here which they've played down quite a bit they say it's for AER efficiency they say it's not much performance and Rob Marshall their chief designer you know likened where they are now to scraping the the inside of a Jam Jar or something in the SC side little gain so we'll see and the other Williams upgrades gone wrong Danger from upgrades is I think what we saw at Williams this weekend interesting weekend so Williams you know difficult start of the Season overweight C trimmed it off but a massive upgrade package here you know big thing and it all went wrong on Saturday Logan Sergeant big crash um you know we understand the team's evaluating he blame crash for you'll be pleased that my my colleague Ronald wherever he goes out to ghost track side someone always crashes and always ends up with a flaw picture so it's me sorry so Sergeant's Futures you know being analyzed um he may or may not be a Monza it may or may not be mck shimaka we're working that out I think that'll be decided over over the next time but from willam's perspective promising pacm from Albin against Q3 but the floor was found to be illegal um there's all scans and volumes and the way cars are measured these days very complicated but it was too wide he was disqualified minor fix um but they came forwards but it's just an interesting we so upgrades can go wrong yeah um I think Haas' sponsorship woes the other talking point we kind of need to mention is the most hes just now there as H um the ongoing sponsorship issue with euro is trying to be resolved they owed 9 million pound $9 million I'm sorry uh as part of a kind of package of refund for a sponsorship deal um that was cancelled that payment has gone through uh or is going through the system but until it's kind of confirmed that it's landed uh the cars cannot be released because of a courage that's something they'll be developing tonight we believe the trucks are staying here this evening um once it's all sorted they should hopefully be on their way to Monza um yeah Italian Grand Prix last Italian GP predictions year Ferrari very strong um but I think there's a we've got a championship battle now on our hands and I'll uh finally leave it before we run out of time here con Ronald what's going to happen uh well I I mean interesting looking forward to the start the mlar start they seem quick enough to repair it no matter what happens but I mean in two we always know what happens into turn one and mon quite tricky to solve the wheel spin issues they had on both cars to get off the line better uh and for Red Bull I mean they had the evaluation of the rb2 in the summer break they thought they had a lot of ideas uh which didn't really work here in Zan for also went for the wrong setup so they have a lot to analyze and we have a lot to look forward to I think fantastic we'll be back uh monz are in uh well today Sunday so 4 days time um lots more news we're expecting a a driver announcement as well next weekend I think can all guess uh who that will be uh quite excited for next year [Music]