It is once again a race weekend for Formula 1, after its weeks-long summer break. Teams and drivers took their mandatory vacation away from the track, but have returned to the Netherlands for Round 12 of the 2026 Formula 1 world championship.
Mercedes are the current constructor’s leaders by a comfortable margin, but not enough to seal the deal quite yet due to the reawakened ferocity of Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari. Hamilton sits second in the driver’s championship with 169 points for the first time since 2021, with the Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli leading the pack (and his teammate) with 219 points. George Russell sits third with 160 points.
Alpine has brought a heavily revised car, with 8 new components. Ferrari and Aston Martin both brought 5 new components, but Aston Martin’s upgrades are more significant as the B-spec Honda engine has been installed. The Silverstone-based team hopes to retain its momentum from Hungary, where they brought 16 separate upgrades and found themselves well within the midfield.
McLaren brought 3 upgrades, notably new rear wing endplates unlike any other team’s. Red Bull and Mercedes each brought 1 upgrade, while Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi, Williams and Cadillac all brought nothing to Zandervoort. Racing Bulls did bring in their reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda to fill in for Liam Lawson, who is filling in for an injured Isack Hadjar who broke his wrist boxing over the break. Red Bull has something to celebrate however, which is that Max Verstappen has resigned with the team until 2030. This will result in the longest driver-team pairing in the sport, and pay 92 million euro a year.
George Russell topped the timing charts for Sprint Qualifying, followed by Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, Antonelli, Verstappen and Hamilton making up the top 8. While I will admit my bias towards Hamilton, I think this weekend will belong to a Mercedes-powered car. Lando Norris in his Mclaren won after an eventful race, but the Mclaren has been undeniably strong all season, sans their reliability issues. Every weekend it seems like Ferrari has closed the gap to Mercedes, but the race pace from the Ferrari is never quite there aside from very specific environments like Barcelona and Great Britain. Even so, the Mercedes is always close thanks to its stronger power unit and more efficient aero package than the Ferrari.
This second half of the season will be the crucible for our young championship leader. There are 23 races in a Formula 1 season. Antonelli’s pace is undeniable, but this is where his lack of experience could really show, and where Russell could capitalize. Look at last season, for example. The relatively inexperienced Oscar Piastri led the championship for the majority of the season, but he fell apart near the end and allowed his more experienced teammate to surpass him and ultimately win the championship. Antonelli’s mistakes will start to cost more as the end of the season gets closer, and they will weigh more heavily on him. Antonelli said himself that his trip to the gravel in SQ1 cost him “big time.”
It is hard to predict who exactly will be on the podium for the feature race, but I think this will be a great weekend for Mclaren and Mercedes, a disappointing weekend for Red Bull, and yet another “we’ll get ‘em next time” weekend for Ferrari. I am hoping for Aston Martin points, but SQ1 was not great. We will see what happens as the team gets more settled with their new engine.