Dutch Grand Prix: Formula 1's double-edged sword

One could write “History beckons for Max Verstappen” as a headline each time before a Grand Prix, he has been unbeatable in the remarkable Red Bull RB19 for the past eight races of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship.

[This post will be updated with the Dutch Grand Prix report at the end of the race at Zandvoort. Please refresh page for the latest version. Enjoy the GP!]

Sebastian Vettel, now retired, is the only driver to have won nine races in a row during a single campaign and he did it on his way to a fourth F1 title in 2013; all with Red Bull too. Today Max can match Seb, and even has the great German’s blessing to beat the record!

And betting against the soon-to-be triple F1 World Champion winning today – and turning his home Zandvoort deliriously Orange – is foolhardy, as he is every bookies’ outright-outright favourite (yes two times it!)

Even his rivals wait for him to make a mistake, a small slip-up but they wait in vain as the Dutch ace delivers near perfection every weekend these days, in a near-perfect car for him executed by his near-perfect RBR team. Arguably the very best combo ever witnessed in F1 history, up there with Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes; Michael Schumacher at Ferrari; Ayrton Senna at McLaren. Namely up there with the Gods (and their teams) of our sport’s history.

The Dutch driver has so far won 10 races in 2023. He has 45 wins from 175 starts and is fifth on the all-time list. Alain Prost, with 51, is fourth.

Red Bull have won every race this season (10 for Verstappen, two for Perez) and a total of 13 in a row dating back to Abu Dhabi last year. No team has ever won every race in a F1 World Championship season.

But with all this F1 greatness comes a huge sacrifice to the sport too

Verstappen’s rule is a double-edged sword if you wish, as Verstappen’s dominance has turned the sport predictable once again. The double F1 World Champ is in a phase of greatness that it is no longer a matter of “if he will win, but rather by how much”; and Max relishes not only going for the gap but also how big the gap is to P2 at the end of the race.

Thus this preview asks the two questions, whose answers will determine the result today at Zandvoort: By how much will Max win the 33rd running of the Dutch Grand Prix today? Does Fate plan to intervene?

If you (aka Fate) take pole position starter Max out of the equation, his teammate Sergio Perez is nowhere. With his teammate able to claim pole in the same car, seventh on the grid for the Mexican and the 1.3 seconds deficit to the #1 car is hard to ignore.

Either the wheels are falling off Checo’s career or Verstappen is simply unbelievably good at the moment. Probably a combo of both, as one driver struggles to make the podium, and the other will struggle not to be on the top step of it!

The good news is that behind Max we have one great race in the making!

The McLarens have been impressive all weekend. Lando Norris, the only driver to push Verstappen, will start from the front row and fancies his chances of an upset despite the odds. These are not all pro-Max, because each time he wins, he is one race closer to the inevitable race he won’t win.

Norris is smart, driving with gusto and dare while shining in a car he deserves to have under him. Because the better the cars get, the better the Englishman drives. Further inspired to raise his game by feisty teammate Oscar Piastri, we have the best Lando emerging every session.

Two young guns capable of causing a big upset in Orange-land by painting it Papaya, if you can’s tell the difference.

With Max on current form and luck on his side, expect him to win this 72-lap race by over a minute. Behind him, good money would go on Norris on the podium, with P3 up for grabs by half a dozen drivers.

George Russell is due a strong result in the Mercedes. The Williams in Alex Albon’s hands looks destined for a big moment as the darling of the show so far at Zandvoort. Of course, Fernando Alonso is always good value in the Aston Martin. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is capable of a podium but probably will go backwards.

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• Dutch Grand Prix
• Circuit Zandvoort
• Lap distance: 4.259km. Total distance: 306.587km (72 laps)
• 2022 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 10.342 seconds.
• 2022 race winner: Verstappen
• Race lap record: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:11.097, 2021
• Start time: 1300GMT (1500 local)
• The race returned to the calendar in 2021 for the first time since 1985.
• Verstappen won in 2021 and 2022, both times from pole position, making him the only current driver on the grid to have won the Dutch Grand Prix.
• Zandvoort opened in 1948 in the coastal sand dunes and is often described as “old school” — a quick and flowing circuit with high-speed changes of direction and much of the lap spent cornering.
• Overtaking can be a challenge, putting an emphasis on qualifying.
• It is roughly a half-hour train journey from Amsterdam.
• The last two banked corners have an angle steeper than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 235 metre pit lane is the shortest of the season, and the speed limit is lowered from the usual 80kph to 60kph.
• The narrow and twisty track, with 14 corners, is the second shortest on the calendar and the race has only six laps less than Monaco. Only 55% of the lap is spent at full throttle.

• Verstappen has won the last eight races and can equal the record of nine successive wins in a single season set by Sebastian Vettel, also with Red Bull, in 2013.
• The Dutch driver has so far won 10 races in 2023. He has 45 wins from 175 starts and is fifth on the all-time list. Alain Prost, with 51, is fourth.
• Red Bull have won every race this season (10 for Verstappen, two for Perez) and a total of 13 in a row dating back to Abu Dhabi last year.
• No team has ever won every race in a F1 world championship season.
• Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 322 starts but has not won since Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
• Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has 32 wins, most recently in his home Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 with Ferrari, from a record 367 starts.
• Hamilton’s pole in Hungary last month was the record-extending 104th of his career and ended Verstappen’s run of five in a row.
• Red Bull have been on pole in nine of the season’s 12 races, with Charles Leclerc taking the top slot in Azerbaijan and Belgium and Hamilton in Hungary. Verstappen has seven poles for 2023.
• Six teams and eight drivers have made a podium appearance this season: Red Bull, Alpine, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. Verstappen has yet to finish outside the top two.
• Verstappen holds the record for most podiums in a season — 18 in 2021.
• Michael Schumacher is the only driver ever to have finished on the podium in every race of a season, in 2002.
• Five different drivers have taken fastest laps this season – Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou, Verstappen (6), Perez (2) and Mercedes’ George Russell and Hamilton (2).