Lando Norris remarked after clinching victory at the Dutch Grand Prix that it was “pretty foolish” to entertain thoughts of winning the world championship. However, his dominant win at Max Verstappen’s home track certainly has the Red Bull team feeling uneasy.
Red Bull’s motorsport adviser, Helmut Marko, described Norris’s victory as “alarming” and made it clear that he was referring not only to the constructors’ championship, where it has become evident that Red Bull is struggling, but also to the drivers’ championship, where Verstappen maintains a significant 70-point lead.
Verstappen, who has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix five races ago, echoed this sentiment.
“This weekend was just a bad weekend overall,” Verstappen stated. “So we need to come to terms with that.
“However, the last few races weren’t really fantastic either. So that, in a sense, is already somewhat alarming.
“But we know we don’t need to panic. We are just focusing on improving the situation, and that’s what we’re striving for. Formula 1 is very complicated.”
Norris’s victory was the second-most dominant of the year in terms of the time gap to his nearest competitor. Only Verstappen’s win at the season-opening Bahrain race, where he finished 25 seconds ahead of the first non-Red Bull car, surpassed Norris’s 22.9-second lead over Verstappen.
The way Norris achieved this win was particularly impressive. Although he and McLaren botched the start—allowing Verstappen to take the lead—he quickly showed that this wouldn’t impact his chances in Zandvoort.
Norris remained close to Verstappen and expertly overtook him before the first pit stops, then sailed off into a comfortable lead. To further emphasize his dominance, he set the fastest lap on the final lap of the race, earning an additional point.
This meant that Norris gained eight points on Verstappen instead of seven.
Importantly, this was slightly more than the 7.8 points per race that Norris needed to average in order to catch up to Verstappen over the remaining ten races before arriving in the Netherlands.
However, Norris was cautious not to get carried away.
“I’ve been in this championship fight since the first race of the year,” he explained. “There’s no sudden shift in focus to doing better now.
“I’ve been putting in the effort all year, and I’m still 70 points behind Max. So it’s pretty foolish to think too far ahead right now.
“I just take it one race at a time and continue doing what I’m doing because there’s no point in worrying about the future. It doesn’t need to be a question that comes up every weekend.”
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F1 in 10 Years: Lando Norris on his vision for the future of Formula One
Another Effective McLaren Upgrade
Norris acknowledged the potential significance of this victory. He noted that McLaren had been the fastest car on average since the Miami Grand Prix in May, following an upgrade that transformed the car from being the third-fastest to a regular contender against Red Bull.
Despite his earlier success, Norris had not secured another win since then, admitting after Sunday’s race that “we probably should have claimed two or three more victories as a team, but we didn’t.”
The pressure to convert their strong performance into victories was mounting. McLaren arrived at Zandvoort after the summer break with their first performance upgrade since Miami.
They downplayed this upgrade, claiming it was not as significant as the one in Miami, estimating it to be about 30% of that size. Nevertheless, it showed a notable improvement.
Norris captured pole position with a stunning margin of 0.356 seconds on the year’s second-shortest track.
This margin was the largest for a pole-winning driver since Verstappen’s in the fourth race of the season in China. Back then, Red Bull seemed poised for another triumphant season.
Then came the race.
“We worked hard over the summer break to reset and come back stronger,” Norris commented. “Yes, we’ve had a fantastic car. This was our first time adding good upgrades to the car since Miami. They showed great results once again.
“However, there’s still a long road ahead. We need to keep working hard because Zandvoort is just one location. Monza (coming up next) is a completely different track. So we will keep our heads down and continue pushing.”
‘Something in the Car Has Made It More Difficult’
Red Bull’s situation contrasted sharply with McLaren’s. They have had less success in reliably upgrading their car.
Back in Canada in June, Mercedes technical director James Allison suggested that an update from Red Bull, introduced in Imola in May, may have actually downgraded their performance. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner refuted this assertion.
Yet in Zandvoort, Verstappen was using a version of the initial design introduced this year, rather than any of the later revisions. His teammate, Sergio Perez, was driving a later version.
This highlighted the perception that Red Bull is struggling to enhance their car’s performance this season.
Verstappen emphasized this further, discussing some “balance challenges” with the car after the race.
“That wasn’t an issue in the first few races,” he said. “However, something in the car has made it harder to drive. It’s very difficult to pinpoint where the issue lies at this moment.
“This is affecting our one-lap performance and our long-run pace.”
Can McLaren Perform Strongly at All Tracks?
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella pointed out that Zandvoort is a circuit where he predicted their car would excel.
“The performance from team to team appears to be very track-dependent,” Stella stated.
“If we race at tracks that align with our strengths—like those with high downforce and long corners—we can be confident about performing well. But at circuits with high-speed corners, like Silverstone, we know Red Bull is exceptionally strong.
“Even at Austria, I believe they would still have the advantage; they pulled a 0.4-second lead in qualifying there.”
“However, thanks to our upgrades, we would be more competitive in situations where Red Bull previously had the upper hand.”
McLaren’s Continued Start Challenges
McLaren has its weaknesses as well. While a poor start didn’t hinder Norris this time—his pace was simply too strong—it did affect his teammate, Oscar Piastri.
Both McLarens struggled off the line, with the Australian, starting from third, losing ground to George Russell’s Mercedes while Norris fell behind Verstappen. Piastri never fully recovered.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc managed to overtake Piastri at the pit stops, having stopped first. McLaren opted for a longer strategy, giving Piastri a tire advantage. He passed Russell easily, causing Red Bull to worry that he might catch Verstappen—he had the pace. However, he got stuck behind Leclerc, finishing in fourth.
McLaren recognizes they need to improve on their starts. The challenge is that every situation has been unique.
Norris, who this time suffered from excessive wheel spin, noted: “We know what it takes to achieve a perfect start. We’re talking about very fine margins here.
Because neither of us executed properly, it might appear there’s an underlying issue, or perhaps we simply misjudged something while others did better.
Oscar is one of the best starters on the grid. I’m not quite at his level, but I’m near it. I can’t say I’m a poor starter, but I’m not on par with what we need.
Once again, this was a race that nearly slipped away right at the start, but today was different from what we’ve experienced before. We need to find more consistency, and we believe we’ve improved, but clearly, that didn’t manifest as we hoped.”
Image source, Getty Images
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Norris secured McLaren’s third win of the season
More McLaren Upgrades Are on the Way
Overall, McLaren is starting to look formidable. It may take a few races to determine if this upgrade has significantly affected their performance. If Norris can maintain his winning streak, he stands a real chance of challenging Verstappen in a season that previously appeared to be a lock for him.
Adding to this is the possibility of Piastri joining the fray—after all, he did win in Hungary—and that Mercedes, despite their struggles in Zandvoort for reasons they haven’t fully understood, had previously won three of the four races before that. This makes that 70-point gap look less imposing.
In just three races, Formula 1 returns to Singapore, where Red Bull faced considerable difficulties last year, even during their record-setting season, and where there’s no indication that history won’t repeat itself.
Stella remarked, “The constructors’ championship game was already in play before this event. We aimed to remain focused on the drivers’ championship, acknowledging that it was a possibility.
We feel that, in its current configuration, our car may not deliver the performance needed to be the best at every event. That’s why we plan to introduce more upgrades before the end of the season.”
How do you think the upcoming races will impact the standings in both championships?
