George Russell has revealed the defensive tactics he used to hold off a late challenge from Lewis Hamilton for the final podium place at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver started the Zandvoort race from second on the grid, but was overtaken by team-mate Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap. Russell moved back ahead after the pit stops, although Antonelli was running an alternative strategy with a tyre advantage.
Mercedes subsequently instructed Russell to move aside in the closing stages, allowing the championship leader to reclaim second place. That left Russell defending from Hamilton, who was charging through the field while leading both Ferrari drivers late in the race.
“It was tough,” Russell said after the race when asked how he kept the seven-time champion at bay.
“I think Kimi’s and my race was kind of the opposite. I had a tough medium stint, he had a very strong medium stint, then I had a strong hard stint, he was struggling. But that VSC gave Lewis the free pitstop, and obviously Kimi pitted as well.
“From there on in, I knew I was going to be under threat, but I was managing enough in the high-speed corners to allow me to be fast in sector three and defending into Turn 1. So, I was pleased with that performance.”
George Russell finished third behind Kimi Antonelli. Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
Russell expects Mercedes challenge at Monza
Russell acknowledged that Mercedes had endured a “challenging couple of weekends” after McLaren won in Hungary and then triumphed again at Zandvoort following the summer break.
Mercedes remains ahead in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, but McLaren has continued to improve through successive upgrades. Ferrari is also expected to introduce a new engine at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, meaning Mercedes cannot afford to become complacent.
“I think these coming two or three race weekends will be a challenge for us both [Antonelli and him], purely because we’re out of sync with the upgrades,” Russell added.
“I think we will be slightly more competitive [at Monza]. However, I believe Ferrari have an engine upgrade incoming, and the truth is we just don’t know. But I do believe that these high-degradation circuits [like Zandvoort] really suit McLaren very well, and especially Lando. He’s always been a bit of a specialist in those conditions. We also saw it last year. Monza may be slightly different, but I think they are the team to beat right now.”
Russell is currently second in the drivers’ standings, level with Hamilton on 183 points. Both Mercedes drivers are 59 points behind championship leader Antonelli.
George Russell has revealed how he defended his podium position from a late attack by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Russell explains how he held off Hamilton
Russell qualified second for the race at Zandvoort but was overtaken by Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap. The Mercedes driver moved back ahead of his young team-mate after the pit stops, although Antonelli was running an alternate strategy with a tyre offset.
Mercedes subsequently asked Russell to give up second place in the closing stages so Antonelli could reclaim the position. That left Russell defending from Hamilton, who was charging through the field and had already passed both Ferrari drivers late in the race.
“It was tough,” Russell said after the race when asked how he kept the seven-time champion at bay.
“I think Kimi’s and my race was kind of the opposite. I had a tough medium stint, he had a very strong medium stint, then I had a strong hard stint, he was struggling. But that VSC gave Lewis the free pitstop, and obviously Kimi pitted as well.
“From there on in, I knew I was going to be under threat, but I was managing enough in the high-speed corners to allow me to be fast in sector three and defending into Turn 1. So, I was pleased with that performance.”
George Russell finished third behind Kimi Antonelli. Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images
Mercedes faces growing McLaren and Ferrari threat
Russell acknowledged that the podium capped a “challenging couple of weekends” for Mercedes after McLaren won in Hungary and again at Zandvoort following the summer break.
Mercedes continues to lead both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, but McLaren has been improving steadily through successive upgrades. Ferrari is also expected to introduce a new engine at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, leaving Mercedes with little room for complacency.
“I think these coming two or three race weekends will be a challenge for us both [Antonelli and him], purely because we’re out of sync with the upgrades,” Russell added.
“I think we will be slightly more competitive [at Monza]. However, I believe Ferrari have an engine upgrade incoming, and the truth is we just don’t know. But I do believe that these high-degradation circuits [like Zandvoort] really suit McLaren very well, and especially Lando. He’s always been a bit of a specialist in those conditions. We also saw it last year. Monza may be slightly different, but I think they are the team to beat right now.”
Russell is currently second in the drivers’ standings on 183 points, level with Hamilton. Both Mercedes drivers are 59 points behind championship leader Antonelli.
Former Red Bull mechanic and current team ambassador Calum Nicholas has praised Liam Lawson’s “absolutely brilliant” adaptation after the New Zealander stepped into Red Bull’s Formula 1 seat at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lawson was unexpectedly called up to replace Isack Hadjar, who withdrew from the final F1 event at Zandvoort because of a wrist injury. Despite the short notice, the Racing Bulls driver delivered a strong performance alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
Nicholas praises Lawson’s Red Bull return
“He seems to have just taken everything really calmly under his wing, and he’s had a solid weekend,” Nicholas explained during the Talking Bull podcast.
“For the car that we’ve had underneath us this weekend, he maximised the results that were available with the car he had, and that would be great for him.”
Lawson’s appearance marked his first return to the Red Bull seat since his demotion from the Milton Keynes team in 2025. The 24-year-old replaced Sergio Perez for the 2025 season but was moved back to Racing Bulls after just two races.
“It was really important for him to just have a quiet weekend, but do a really, really good job. And that’s exactly what he did,” Nicholas continued.
“With all the noise about it and obviously what he’d been through before in the car. So to be able to make that hop really quickly at the last minute and do a solid job. Absolutely brilliant for him. I’m really happy for his weekend and for him.”
Laurent Mekies backs Lawson’s performance
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies also acknowledged the difficulty of the task handed to Lawson.
“It’s never easy to step into a different team, a different car for a race like that, and he’s done a good job,” Mekies said. “He was only one tenth away from Max yesterday in qualifying, and today took the points that were available to him pace-wise with seventh place.”
The FIA’s ADUO announcement—covering the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities for Formula 1 power units—had been a long time coming. After the results of the first assessment period were shared with teams and manufacturers at the Monaco Grand Prix, the press release was ready in almost exactly its final form. Only the section covering the second period was missing.
The delay was caused by Red Bull’s significant dissatisfaction with the first-period result, which was reportedly raised behind the scenes with the involvement of Oliver Mintzlaff.
Red Bull had limited options to challenge the outcome. Although the ADUO system has clear weaknesses, the teams and manufacturers agreed to its framework last year. Red Bull Ford Powertrains could request only a factual review, and that did not alter the result. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said the governing body’s measurements were accurate, despite Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies arguing that there was not a single data point showing Red Bull had the best engine.
Red Bull highlighted its deficit at power-sensitive circuits. According to Mekies, that shortfall was greater than at tracks such as Monaco and the Hungaroring, where power units have less influence. However, the performance picture at energy-starved circuits is also affected by energy management and how effectively each power unit handles that challenge.
Those factors are not included in the FIA’s ADUO calculations, which measure only the power output of the internal combustion engine (ICE). The FIA cannot disclose the precise measurement methods and data publicly because they involve intellectual property and confidential information.
“Due to the confidential nature of this information, no further details on power unit performance index measurements will be communicated,” the FIA statement reads.
As a result, the FIA announcement states only that Mercedes falls into the 2%-4% deficit category. That gives the manufacturer one upgrade opportunity in 2026 and another in 2027. Ferrari, Audi and Honda are all classified in the plus-4% deficit category, granting each two new homologations—and therefore two update opportunities—in the current season, followed by two more next year.
The ADUO system was designed to help manufacturers such as Honda that were significantly behind, but it has become a political battleground in Formula 1.
These manufacturers also receive additional financial headroom under the power unit manufacturers’ cost cap. Mercedes High Performance Powertrains can receive an allowance of up to $3 million, while Ferrari can receive up to $4.65 million.
The FIA has also introduced an additional safety net for manufacturers in serious difficulty, such as Honda. A manufacturer more than 10% behind the best ICE would be eligible for a cost-cap allowance of up to $11 million per ADUO period, plus an additional $8 million for 2026 as a whole. However, Honda was understood not to have fully met those criteria after the first assessment period.
The Japanese manufacturer can nevertheless accept the FIA’s analysis.
“I think the number we received from the FIA looks reasonable. I would say that number is fair. And also, thanks to ADUO, we are now working hard to develop our engine,” chief engineer Shintaro Orihara told Motorsport.com.
Red Bull’s opposition to championship standings may have backfired
The second assessment period produced no additional upgrade opportunities, indicating that the performance picture had not changed significantly.
For Red Bull, that could theoretically mean one of two things: either the newcomer remains at the top of the ICE ranking, or its deficit is below 2%. The latter would also produce no upgrade opportunity.
However, Motorsport.com understands that the ranking and the gaps between manufacturers remain broadly unchanged. Red Bull Ford Powertrains is therefore rated by the FIA as having the best internal combustion engine in Formula 1.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has acknowledged that Mercedes has the best overall power unit. However, ADUO assesses only the ICE, exposing one of the system’s central weaknesses: the measurement applies to just one part of the power unit, while the resulting upgrade opportunities extend further and cover electrical components as well.
Mercedes has the best power unit in F1, as Toto Wolff also acknowledged, but it has nevertheless received an upgrade opportunity.
Red Bull remains behind on the electrical side, but its strong ICE ranking prevents it from addressing that weakness under the current rules. The newcomer is therefore effectively checkmated.
That is a weakness in the system, although the FIA cannot be entirely blamed. Tombazis has told the media that he was open to including more parameters, but the teams and manufacturers pushed to keep the process as simple as possible.
One example is turbocharger size, which Tombazis wanted to include in the assessment. That did not happen, allowing Ferrari to benefit from a deliberate design choice. The Italian manufacturer enjoyed an advantage off the line at the start of the season because of its smaller turbo, but sacrificed some power as a result. ADUO now allows Ferrari to address that trade-off, particularly after it received two upgrade opportunities.
That raises questions about whether it is fair to reward or penalize deliberate design decisions, but it is how the current system operates.
The FIA also intended to factor championship standings into the ADUO calculations. The system was not designed to give the dominant manufacturer even more opportunities to develop, but insiders say Red Bull was among those that opposed including the championship position.
That stance was understandable based on the circumstances at the time, but it has proved counterproductive for Red Bull. When the discussions took place last year, the team could reasonably have thought: As a newcomer, we are probably going to be more than 2% behind, but if the chassis is good, we could still be relatively high up in the championship standings. In that case, it would logically be advantageous if the FIA did not take that aspect into account.
The reality has been the opposite. Red Bull’s ICE is highly competitive, but its chassis was below par at the beginning of the season. As a result, the championship standings are unfavorable from Red Bull’s perspective, and including them in the ADUO system could have provided the team with a lifeline.
Red Bull’s chassis has been below par, meaning that, with hindsight, the team would have benefited if championship standings had been included.
FIA acknowledges ADUO weaknesses as Red Bull faces final opportunity
The ADUO results explain why Red Bull is the only manufacturer prohibited from developing its power unit during the season. There is still one opportunity to change that: the third assessment period, which concludes after the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Red Bull does not control its own fate, however. Its position depends on its rivals. If they do not use their upgrade opportunities on the ICE—Mercedes in particular—and do not suddenly extract more performance from it than they have so far, Red Bull will remain unable to develop its power unit.
The ADUO results have therefore revealed more than Red Bull’s position in the rankings. They have also exposed weaknesses in the system, something the FIA readily acknowledges. Motorsport.com asked Tombazis in Hungary whether ADUO was currently working as intended.
“I think our measurement, in my opinion, has proven to be very accurate,” he replied. “With that said, has everything worked fine? No, because obviously people are not happy and so on. Do we need to think about improvements in the future? Yes, I would say so.”
When announcing the results, Tombazis again indicated that the system could be revised in the coming years:
“This is the first year of ADUO so naturally there are areas which we may evolve over time, in discussion with all the PU manufacturers.”
Behind the scenes, that process remains at an early stage and will need to produce more concrete proposals in the coming months.
The current outcome is perhaps the clearest illustration of ADUO’s weaknesses. The manufacturer with the best overall power unit receives development opportunities based on its ICE deficit, while a manufacturer that is weaker on the electrical side cannot address that problem because of its ADUO classification.
That issue will require consideration over the longer term. For now, however, the teams and manufacturers—including Red Bull—must also accept responsibility, having agreed to the system last year.
Isack Hadjar’s decision to withdraw from the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix because of a wrist injury showed confidence rather than weakness, according to former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas.
Hadjar had made an impressive start to the 2026 Formula 1 season alongside four-time world champion Max Verstappen at Red Bull. However, he stood down for the Zandvoort race after sustaining the injury, allowing Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson to take his place at short notice.
Lawson finished seventh in a chaotic race after Verstappen’s Red Bull crashed out on the opening lap.
Hadjar’s Dutch Grand Prix absence praised
Speaking on the latest episode of the Talking Bull podcast, Nicholas praised Hadjar for prioritising his fitness and the remainder of the season.
“To take the week out as a precaution to make sure that he was fit for the rest of the season actually shows the confidence that he’s had all year,” Nicholas explained.
“He’s been doing an incredible job. It’s a real sign of the confidence that he’s got to be able to just say, ‘Look, I’m not 100%. I’m going to take this week out as a precaution.’ And yeah, hopefully we see him back in the car in Monza.”
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing. Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
It has not yet been confirmed whether Hadjar will return to the cockpit for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which takes place from 4 to 6 September. The Red Bull driver was nevertheless present with the team at Zandvoort.
“We also had Isack with us this weekend even though he couldn’t be driving,” team principal Laurent Mekies said. “He was with the team trying to take the learning and trying to make sure we can push all together as strongly as we can next week in Monza.”
In his first season with Red Bull, Hadjar sits eighth in the drivers’ championship with 68 points. Verstappen is sixth with 112 points.
The FIA has published the latest Additional Upgrades and Opportunities (ADUO) evaluation for Formula 1 power units, with the Red Bull-Ford internal combustion engine still ranked as the benchmark.
The analysis covers every race from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix through the Hungarian Grand Prix. According to the FIA’s findings, Red Bull-Ford currently has the most powerful internal combustion engine in F1.
Mercedes is estimated to be between 2% and 4% behind Red Bull-Ford on power. Audi, Ferrari and Honda are more than 4% adrift. Honda’s updated power unit, introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix, was not included in the latest assessment.
No additional power unit homologations awarded
Following the first quarter of the season, Mercedes was granted one additional homologation for each of 2026 and 2027. Audi, Ferrari and Honda were each awarded two additional homologations for both years. The allowances include extra cost-cap capacity and additional dyno testing, although no official announcement had been made at the time.
While the FIA confirmed the latest ADUO ranking, it did not award any further homologations in this evaluation period.
Mercedes expected to lead F1 power unit rankings
Mercedes had widely been considered to have the strongest power unit in Formula 1, rather than Red Bull-Ford. The ADUO system has faced criticism because it evaluates only the internal combustion engine, which is not the sole performance differentiator in F1’s current hybrid power units.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has also acknowledged the strength of the team’s power unit, although his comments were not made specifically in reference to the ADUO system.
“The FIA has undertaken thorough and exhaustive analysis as part of our ADUO review process,” said Nikolas Tombazis, FIA director of single-seater. “With the release of the findings of period two, we are confident that, based on the quality of the data, its analysis is incredibly robust, giving us a high level of confidence in our findings. We also have to respect the confidentiality and intellectual property of the teams and their power unit manufacturers in disseminating any details from the findings.
“This is the first year of ADUO so naturally there are areas which we may evolve over time, in discussion with all the PU manufacturers.”
Red Bull questions ADUO opportunities
Red Bull has been particularly frustrated by the limited opportunities provided by the current ranking system. The team requested a review of the results issued after the Canadian Grand Prix, but that appeal was unsuccessful.
Speaking after the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said:
“Toto is right. I also think that they have the most powerful power unit,” team principal Laurent Mekies said following the Belgian GP. “And certainly they had a sizeable advantage on the straight this weekend again.
“But it’s not the first weekend. They have an advantage on the straight most weekends. And this weekend a bit more with the track sensitivity.
“As you said, the second period closing in Budapest in a week’s time. We’ll see what’s happening.”
With Red Bull-Ford still at the top of the ADUO rankings, the system is expected to become a major topic of debate during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
Mercedes has launched a “deep dive” into Kimi Antonelli’s performance at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix after the championship leader reported a “difficult second half” of the race while struggling with the balance of his W17.
Antonelli made a strong start at Zandvoort. After qualifying third, he overtook Mercedes team-mate George Russell off the line to take second place before the end of the opening lap. However, the championship leader encountered increasing problems with the car after each tyre change.
“It was really weird because I felt good with the medium. I felt decent on the first hard, but then on the second one it just felt really odd,” Antonelli explained after finishing runner-up to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Mercedes is now investigating the issues Antonelli faced to understand what went wrong before the next round of the Formula 1 season in Italy.
“Each tyre had a bit more oversteer than the tyre before it and we’re trying to understand why that was,” explained Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin in the team’s Dutch GP debrief video.
“Now, we didn’t change the car, we didn’t add any aero balance, which is the sort of thing that could have explained it. So, we’re having a real deep dive into the data and try and get to the bottom of that because it’s important to solve those sort of things ahead of the next race.
“It’s obviously getting really tight now in terms of performance. We’re still waiting for our major update to land and that will help but in the meantime, it is going to be a bit of a fight.”
The championship leader settled for second in the Netherlands
Antonelli said the problem left him with “little confidence in the car” during the closing stages, when he was defending against Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc while also closing on Russell.
Because Antonelli and Russell were using offset strategies, Russell allowed his younger team-mate through. The move helped Antonelli secure second place and extend his championship lead.
“George, you know, I have to thank him because he made my life a lot easier,” Antonelli explained. “But I still think probably could have stayed out and gone until the end with the same set because it put us a little bit at risk. Also, I feel we put George at risk with having to let me by and everything.
“But I still think, at the end of the day, it was a great team execution with how things were, and I think today P2 was the maximum we could have done because the pace of the McLarens, especially in the second half, was just too strong.”
Mercedes will hope to identify the cause of Antonelli’s handling problems before his home race in Italy. The team has already confirmed that he will take an engine penalty at the event because of reliability issues earlier in the season.
Esteban Ocon defended his controversial overtake on Alexander Albon during the Dutch Grand Prix and criticised the Formula 1 rule that sent him back behind the Williams driver for the second race start.
Max Verstappen crashed out and Gabriel Bortoleto spun 360 degrees on the opening lap at a slightly damp Zandvoort circuit. As the yellow-flag zone ended, Ocon accelerated faster than Albon and moved into 13th place shortly after crossing the start-finish line. Albon objected to the move over the team radio.
“I’m sorry, but what Esteban did is crazy,” Albon ranted on the radio. “He’s overtaking me in the middle of the crash.”
Although Albon was not asked about the incident during his post-race media session, Ocon was questioned about the overtake and insisted that he had not breached the rules.
“I overtook Alex, yeah, but I had the right, because it was green,”
the Haas driver said. However, the grid for the second start was determined by the classification at the end of the first lap, making Ocon’s overtake irrelevant to the restart order.
“What was a big shame is that you have to take all these risks, you know?” Ocon added. “You’re playing with either getting a penalty or not. I was not having a penalty, but it was very tight, because I just passed him when it was green. And then they put you back at the race start.
“It’s been like that forever, but… Really, if that was 20 metres earlier, then I was having the place. But we still raced, like, for one-and-a-half sector. The red flag only came after Turn 5, you know? So, we passed sector one, and we were getting into sector two. So, I should have started in front of Alex – because that changed my race.”
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team — Photo by Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Ocon spent the early stages of the race behind Albon before making an early pit stop on lap 16 in an attempt to find clear air. He had returned to 14th when he retired on lap 53 with a power unit problem.
“After that, obviously, there’s a lot of things that maybe we could have done differently, with strategy, etc,”
the Frenchman admitted.
“Fernando [Alonso] did a really, really good strategy, I don’t think we could have done the same one without degradation. But there are things that we can look into to do a better job.”
Ocon said Formula 1 should be able to use a more current race classification when forming the grid for a restart, rather than relying on the order recorded at the end of the previous lap.
“We are not going to believe that in Formula 1 we don’t have timing loops every 20 metres, you know? It’s a very old-school rule, really,”
he continued.
“I said it on the radio, let’s not make Alex go in front again at the restart. Because that should not be the case. And for some reason I felt it, that they were going to put him in front again. They still take the line, which is like two kilometres back. It shouldn’t be like that, it should be the last moment.”
McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella has dismissed Toto Wolff’s claim that Mercedes lacks the budget to accelerate its car development programme.
Ferrari and McLaren have made major gains with their 2026 cars in recent weeks. Both teams have taken two victories, increasing the pressure on Mercedes after its earlier dominance.
Mercedes delays major F1 upgrade package
Mercedes has introduced only a limited number of aerodynamic upgrades compared with its rivals. The team is instead planning to bring a larger package to the October Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The delay could leave Mercedes vulnerable during the next three September races in Italy, Spain and Azerbaijan. Asked by Motosport.com after the Dutch Grand Prix whether the development strategy was becoming more difficult to justify amid McLaren’s rapid progress, Wolff said Mercedes was constrained by how its Brackley operation had allocated its $215m cost-cap allowance.
“We haven’t got the money to put developments on the car. I said before that we are trying to evenly split that through the season based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points. But we just can’t do what we can’t do,” the Austrian said.
“You will see towards the end of the season whether they are going to be able to deploy as much stuff onto the car as they do now.
“Someone might have a different strategy in spending more at the beginning and the middle of the year than towards the end.”
When asked about Wolff’s comments, McLaren chief Stella expressed strong doubts about Mercedes’ financial explanation.
“I would like to believe you, but I actually don’t believe you.”
Andrea Stella cast doubt on Mercedes’ claims
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
McLaren points to additional 2026 cost-cap allowance
Stella’s scepticism relates partly to changes in the 2027 power-unit regulations. The rules will move Formula 1 towards a 57-43 split between combustion power and electrical energy, while also affecting specific areas of car design.
Teams have been granted an additional $3m cost-cap allowance that can be used in their 2026 or 2027 reporting to prepare for those changes. Stella said Mercedes could use that allowance to manufacture upgraded car components if it chose to do so.
“All teams will have an allowance in their reporting for the cost cap,” Stella said. “And if I’m not wrong, it’s like three million that you can use in the 2026 reporting for cost cap calculations. And I’m sure that Mercedes, having seen that their rivals are kind of elevating the game, I’m sure they will now cash in on their development that surely is happening in the ground.
“I’m sure the car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track and they will want to now convert some of this potential into upgrades that make it to the real car. So, I’m just pretty sure that they will have upgrades. Obviously, it would be good if not, but I don’t even want to think about it…”
Fernando Alonso credited his driving ability after turning an unexpected one-stop strategy into a points finish for Aston Martin at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
The Spaniard finished ninth at Zandvoort on Sunday after starting 18th, securing his second points result of the 2026 season following 10th place at Monaco in June.
Alonso’s recovery was particularly impressive because he completed 34 laps on a set of soft tyres before switching to hard tyres for the remaining 38 laps of the 72-lap race. While several rivals used at least a two-stop strategy, the Aston Martin driver waited patiently behind competitors who had yet to pit before taking advantage of the overcut in clean air.
“I’m a very good driver,” said Alonso, when asked how he made it work. “That was not the plan. I think the plan was two stops and to go more conventional.
“But we need to sometimes deviate a little bit from what is normal. When we are in traffic, we cannot use our potential.
“We are faster in the corners and the people in front of us, we are slower on the straights, and we’re stuck behind.
“So, as soon as we have free track in front of us, we try to use it, even if it’s not the optimal performance and the optimal strategy and it’s what we did today.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Alexander Albon, Williams. Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Aston Martin upgrades deliver another step forward
Alonso’s result followed Aston Martin’s introduction of a radically different chassis at the previous round in Budapest and the arrival of an upgraded Honda engine in the Netherlands.
The updates have helped the British team move away from its previous position as Formula 1’s slowest outfit, a tag now held by newcomer Cadillac. However, Aston Martin’s Zandvoort weekend began with significant difficulties.
Alonso qualified last for the sprint race, while team-mate Lance Stroll started 19th. Alonso experienced driveability problems because his straight-line mode was not working, contributing to a lock-up at Turn 1.
The two Aston Martin drivers eventually finished the sprint in 17th and 18th. They then secured more respectable qualifying positions for Sunday’s race, starting 18th and 19th ahead of Haas and Cadillac.
Alonso expects Aston Martin to be uncompetitive at the low-downforce Italian Grand Prix in Monza, the next round of the season, but said the Dutch Grand Prix still marked “another step forward” for the Silverstone-based team.
“Especially on the chassis side,” he added. “We brought four or five components here.
“Also, the Budapest package was understood in the break and with all the data available after the race, we fine-tuned a little bit the set-up around that new spec, plus the new parts.
“I think, now, we are optimising the chassis side and we are able to extract the maximum.
“On the engine, it’s more difficult. I don’t think we can be black and white on if we have more power or not.
“From the driver’s side of things, you change circuit one month after the other race, so the drivability has been a difficult weekend.
“We’re struggling with the downshift again and we’re struggling with the engine braking corner to corner. So, it was a challenging weekend in that regard.”
