Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Dutch Grand Prix

Photo from Planet F1

A dreary weekend by the sea led to a fairly interesting race in the Netherlands.

Here are the winners and losers from the weekend.

Losers

5. Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel just sort of has to be checked out at this point.

Which I don’t necessarily blame him considering it was revealed McLaren had a deal with Oscar Piastri before they even spoke to Daniel about things, but it won’t help get him a seat for next year.

4. Haas

Tough weekend overall for Kevin Magnussen, but a good qualifying from Mick Schumacher was hurt with a rough pit stop.

And considering how hard it is to overtake here, it ruined his race entirely.

3. Alpha Tauri

Yuki Tsunoda came out of a pit stop saying his wheel wasn’t put on correctly.

Alpha Tauri said “yes it is.”

Which I guess it was? But something else was wrong? But we don’t know what and he still had to retire?

I don’t know. It was really weird.

But neither driver ended up in the points, so a tough weekend overall.

2. Ferrari

Boy oh boy Ferrari was at it again!

First, they ruined Carlos Sainz’s chance at a podium because they were missing a wheel for his pit stop.

Then, on a later pit stop, they ruined Sainz’s chance at points with an unsafe release.

What a disaster. If only some other team made a questionable call that affected the race to let them off easier.

1. Mercedes

Oh. Right.

Look, I’ll start with a disclaimer. I think Max Verstappen would have won the race regardless.

But on a difficult track to overtake, Mercedes was running 1-2 with about 13 laps left and Verstappen in third. They had a very good chance to at least attempt to hold off Max to get their first win of the season.

And then, one lap later, they pit George Russell for softs which put him behind Verstappen. Meaning Verstappen was directly behind Lewis Hamilton on the restart.

Go ahead and guess what happened next.

Yep. Verstappen blew by Hamilton on the very first corner, then Russell passed him and then Leclerc as well.

A chance at a win turned into Lewis Hamilton not even being on the podium at all.

All because of one pit stop.

Winners

5. Sergio Perez

Was Perez quick this weekend and even close to matching his teammate in terms of pace? No.

Did his spin in qualifying and good defense of Lewis Hamilton help Max Verstappen get pole and win the race from his other challengers? Yes it did.

I think that’s all Red Bull really wants.

4. Lando Norris

I can’t tell if Ricciardo is not performing well in a good car or if Lando is outperforming a very slow car.

Regardless, it was a good weekend for Lando as he came home 7th.

3. George Russell

Mercedes shouldn’t have listened, but Russell was firm with the strategy he wanted to give him the best possible chance at a win.

He didn’t get the win, but it did get him to finish 2nd.

That’s worth something.

2. Alpine

On the same weekend they lost their young talented junior driver Oscar Piastri to McLaren, they had both drivers go from outside of the points to in the points to extend their constructors standings lead over McLaren.

That has to feel kind of good.

1. Max Verstappen

The record for most wins in a Formula 1 season is Sebastian Vettel with 13 wins in 2013.

Max currently has 10 wins and there are 7 races left.

I’d put money on him breaking that record.