F1 Manager 24: Season One, Round 15: The Netherlands

By Anthony Alessio Tralongo – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114859498

After taking a summer break, Formula 1 returns, and it heads to the Netherlands, and to Zandvoort, for the Dutch Grand Prix. Like most European circuits, Zandvoort has undergone significant changes down the years, and had a lengthy absence from Formula 1, until it was restored to the calendar in 2021. The current circuit yields 72 laps of fast-paced racing, along some of the steepest banking of any F1 track. In particular, the final turn is a fast, heavily-banked curve, providing some of the most exhilarating racing action of the season. The approach to turn 1, and the race through the banking at turn 3, and the run to turn 7 across quick, snappy curves, add to this classic track’s charm.

Coming into this race, Max Verstappen enjoyed a one hundred record at Zandvoort, winning in 2021, 2022 and 2023. He held a 118-point lead in the standings, a lead that he would have expected to extend, having qualified, yet again, on pole. Joining him on the front row was Oscar Piastri, though the McLaren was more than half a second off Verstappen’s Red Bull. Verstappen would have an early fight on his hands, grappling not with Piastri but with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Whilst his battle with Sainz would rage for several laps, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton had an early problem, sandwiched between the Meerkats of Lawson and Pourchaire, following a poor qualifying.

Hamilton did not need an early delay in his race.

Before long, the race settled into what has become a very usual pattern. Verstappen began to pull away, disappearing toward victory. The Ferraris and McLarens fought, along with Sergio Perez. Further back, the Racing Bulls and Aston Martins battled for the lower rungs of the points, along with the two Mercedes. It seemed that Verstappen would further extend his championship lead, right up until lap 48, and a display of absurdity that may not affect the title’s ultimate destiny, but certain stalled Verstappen’s momentum.

Verstappen was **very** unhappy over the radio.

He came to lap the Williams of Logan Sargeant at turn 8. Sargeant not only did not move to get out of the way, but heavily braked into the corner, leaving Verstappen to go into the back of him. Verstappen slid off for good measure, and thumped his front-left suspension against the tyre wall. The incident triggered a safety car, with a scramble to put on fresh rubber, and the race descended into a straight fight between Carlos Sainz, and Lando Norris.

There would be further late drama, when Piastri clipped the rear-left tyre of Perez as the latter made an audacious move around the outside of turn 1. Both drivers complained the other had not left enough space; the stewards decided neither had a case to answer, though the incident would leave Perez with a puncture. He would plummet down the order, slipping all the way to 11th.

The stewards decided this was a racing incident.

In the end, it would Norris who would take command of the race, seeing out a rare McLaren victory, in a race that saw Red Bull leave with no points whatsoever. It remains Verstappen and Red Bull’s championship to lose, but what the Dutch Grand Prix has proven is that F1 remains exciting.