Max Verstappen chasing history, McLaren’s recent form, and more storylines for the Dutch Grand Prix

Welcome back Formula 1 fans! Did you miss me?

Probably not, but odds are if you are reading this, you certainly missed the action on the track. F1 went quiet after the Belgian Grand Prix, for the annual summer shutdown.

However, we are back at it this week, with the Dutch Grand Prix. Here are the major storylines this week as the grid roars back to life.

Will we finally get some “silly season” news?

Typically, the summer shutdown signals the start of the F1 “silly season,” as media changes focus from the results on the track to the rumors off it.

However, this silly season was rather ... underwhelming. There were some early rumors, such as a finalized deal for Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes or a “2+3” contract extension for Charles Leclerc with Ferrari. Yet, as this week unfolds, there has not been much of anything on the contract front for 2024 and beyond.

Perhaps all of the teams are waiting to break relevant news this week?

Can McLaren keep up their recent form?

When I spoke with Lando Norris ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, McLaren was still looking for answers with the MCL60.

It would seem McLaren found those answers over the past few weeks.

The team entered the Austrian Grand Prix with just 17 points on the season, which placed them sixth in the table. Since then McLaren have moved past Alpine and into up to fifth, and are now 88 points behind Ferrari for fourth place.

Stranger things have happened in F1.

Both Norris and rookie teammate Oscar Piastri have enjoyed tremendous success in recent weeks. Norris notched back-to-back P2 finishes at Silverstone and at the Hungaroring, along with a hard-fought P7 at the Belgian Grand Prix. Piastri had successive top fives at Silverstone and Hungary, and he retired from the Belgian Grand Prix early after starting the race fifth. But Piastri qualified second for the F1 Sprint race at Spa, and his P2 finish in the Sprint race gave him his best result of the season.

Can they keep up this recent success, or will they return to Earth, much like Aston Martin?

After a great start, can Aston Martin get back to how they began the season?

Speaking of Aston Martin ...

Aston Martin were the darlings of the early season. Veteran driver Fernando Alonso began the year with three-straight podium finishes (all P3 results) and finished third in four of the first five races. With teammate Lance Stroll working back from a training injury to score points in three of the first four races as well, it put Aston towards the top of the table as the year began. They left Miami behind in second place in the Drivers’ Championship, six points ahead of Mercedes.

Since then, however, the Silver Arrows have not only caught Aston Martin, but they are starting to pull away from them. Mercedes now sits 51 points clear of Aston Martin for second place, behind only Red Bull.

Making matters worse, Ferrari is now in their rear-view mirror, just five points behind.

Team Principal Mike Krack, speaking exclusively with RaceFansrecently, put an interesting spin on the start of the season for Aston Martin. In his view, it was not that the team over-performed, but rather everyone not named Red Bull under-performed.

“I don’t think that we over-performed. I think others under-performed to start with,” said Krack.

“You monitor your gap to the fastest, so we made a good step towards them compared to last year. So there you see that you performed well, but we did not expect that, even with the steps we have made, we would be quick enough to be second,” added the Aston Martin boss. “I think it’s a combination. I don’t think we over-performed. I think we performed well, but others under-performed and they are getting their act together later over the season and then they go in between. We have not managed to close that gap. In fact, it has become a little bit bigger.”

Whether Aston manages to close that gap will be a big story in the second half of the season, and that effort starts this week.

The looming Felipe Massa legal action

While there was not much in the way of “silly season” action during the shutdown that does not mean that there was no drama away from the track these past few weeks.

Far from it, in fact.

Former driver Felipe Massa is reportedly bringing legal action against F1 for the results of the 2008 Drivers’ Championship. Massa has long maintained that he was the rightful Drivers’ Champion that season, which went to Hamilton over Massa by a single point.

Massa’s contention? That the crash by Nelson Piquet Jr. at the Singapore Grand Prix that year — an event now known as “CrashGate” in F1 circles — robbed him of the title. As outlined here, Piquet crashed under team orders to assist teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.

Massa, who made a pit stop after Piquet’s crash, exited the pits with the fuel hose still attached and finished outside the points despite qualifying on pole.

The former driver believes not only that the event robbed him of the title, but that F1 knew about the plan that season, instead of the following year when the incident was at the center of an FIA investigation. Massa believes that F1 had the power to simply nullify the results of the Singapore Grand Prix and chose not to, to avoid a scandal at the time.

His position is bolstered by recent comments by then-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, comments the former head of F1 has denied.

How this legal action, which is reportedly in its initial stages, unfolds could have a massive impact on the sport. If allowed to proceed, could it open to door to additional challenges? There are some F1 fans who would love to revisit the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, for example.

Expect this to be a part of the conversation in the coming days.

What awaits Alpine?

If nothing else, the second half of the season should be quieter for Alpine.

After all, it would be hard to top the chaos that unfolded for the French organization over the first half of the season.

First, it was the news of a new ownership group, that included American actors Ryan Reynolds, Michael B. Jordan, and Rob McElhenney. That move was announced to the media, including SB Nation, at a press event at the end of June.

Making the announcement was then-CEO Laurent Rossi, who would be pushed out of that role weeks later. Rossi had not been shy about his frustration at the team’s inconsistency through the first half of the season, perhaps marked by a brutal result at the Australian Grand Prix where Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly collided into each other following a late-race restart, knocking both out of the points.

Rossi has not been the only departure, as Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane were the latest departures, with both leaving the team following the Belgian Grand Prix. For Permane, it drew to a close over thirty years of service to the organization.

Spa was not without some bright spots, as Gasly delivered a shock podium with his P3 in the F1 Sprint race that Saturday. Still, it has been a dark few weeks for the team. Now we will get to see if there is some light at the end of that tunnel.

And what is this about a taxi driver’s protest?

Protests are nothing new at F1 races.

This week could see a protest from a group of taxi drivers.

A recent decision by authorities in the Dutch region of Zandvoort issued “passage certificates” to local residents and specific businesses within the area.

Taxi drivers were not granted those permits, effectively shutting them out of what should be a very busy weekend.

As a result, those drivers shut out of the weekend are contemplating a protest, where they would block the roads heading into Zandvoort, creating a series of bottlenecks and choking off passage into the track.

That could make for some frustration this weekend.

Can anyone catch Red Bull and Max Verstappen?

Probably not.

But until someone does, it is going to be a story.

After all, Red Bull is now just ten more wins away from sweeping the season, which would be a first in F1 history.

As for Max Verstappen, the leader in the Drivers’ Championship is seeking his ninth-straight victory. That would tie the mark set by Sebastian Vettel during the 2013 campaign, and put Verstappen just one shy of setting a new mark in F1 history.

Certainly a storyline to follow.