Dutch Grand Prix: Stage Preview

Orange sky
orange sea,
Orange Greens,
Orange camel.
Orange mothers
For the orange boys
Orange songs
They sing orange.

While in other countries fans support different drivers, the Dutch have one hero. They stick together, buy tickets through the same company, wear the same symbols, sing chants in harmony in the stands – and light fires with orange smoke, which they have tried to ban more than once. They behave like football fans, and they are that outside the Grand Prix days too. Max Verstappen calls them, like herself, the ‘orange army’.

But love is fickle, victories become boring. There have been no German stages on the calendar for a long time, although previously it was necessary to hold two to accommodate everyone. So in the Netherlands they began to say that there is no money, interest rates are falling and there is a very lack of government support, and that in the future it would be nice to alternate stages in Belgium and the Netherlands on the calendar, especially since these two routes are only 300 km apart and there is a long summer holiday.

But while the break after the Belgian Grand Prix is ​​behind us, there are still ten Grands Prix before the end of the season, three of which are in the Saturday sprint format. The next ten days will see Zandvoort and Monza round off the European part of the season, after which Formula 1 will go on tour and in the winter the Abu Dhabi leg will be put to the test.

There was no intrigue after the summer break last year. Almost everyone finished the season in the same positions as before Zandvoort – with a few exceptions, including a magnificent breakthrough by McLaren, but this was not about the battle for leadership. Red Bull Racing won the Constructors’ Championship ahead of schedule in the fourth stage after the break in Japan, and Max won the title in Qatar in the fifth.

In 2024, the regulations remained virtually unchanged, as did the composition of the teams, but the situation turned out to be completely different.

Successes and failures in Formula 1 are always relative. When someone takes a step back, others take a step forward. When this happens without any apparent reason, “conspiracy theories” appear, sometimes based on prior knowledge that can only be expressed in the form of rumors, and sometimes without any credibility. And everyone must decide for themselves whether to believe these rumors or not.

During the summer break, the unexpected demise of Red Bull Racing was discussed, after which the reigning champions had to give everything in every stage to participate in the fight for victory, although victories were achieved quite easily in the spring, the Italian press wrote about a certain “secret agreement” between the FIA ​​​​and Red Bull Racing. Reportedly, the parties agreed that the federation would not provide details and that the team would correct everything, as was once the case with the secret agreement between the FIA ​​​​and Ferrari.

There were rumors that it was all about the design of the brakes, a system that allowed the creation of asymmetric moments on a certain axis, which was banned in July. It was suggested that such a system would be installed on the RB20 of champions Red Bull Racing, and it was this ban that caused the team to lose speed. But both the team and the FIA ​​​​denied this, and the loss of advantage occurred before this ban. Apparently this is not the case.

Without information about the violation by the FIA, other teams will not be able to contest the results of the competition, which in this case can be considered a reasonable compromise. Disqualification in commercial sport can lead to very serious consequences, but without factual information, what happened can only be reported through yet another “conspiracy theory” that has always surrounded the championship.

It’s great that the end of the season will be interesting, especially in the fight for the Constructors’ Championship. The last time it went to McLaren was more than a quarter of a century ago – in 1998, thanks to the efforts of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. There is something to fight for!

The next two weeks can change a lot. The races in Zanforte and Monza are on completely different circuits, in different conditions, which could tip the scales one way or the other. It will be interesting!