Piastri vs. Norris, Garage vs. Garage

Coming off the summer break, just nine points separate the two McLaren drivers at the top of the standings with Piastri narrowly ahead of Norris. It’s the closest gap between the leader and P2 driver in the standings at the summer break since 2021, when Hamilton had an eight point lead over Verstappen.

And last time out in Hungary was arguably our first real demonstration of a competitive split forming not only between the drivers, but also between their teams and garages. Both drivers showed an awareness that despite a threat, at a point, from Charles Leclerc that their real challenge and threat was coming from each other.

The split in strategies perhaps exaggerated this, as Norris ran the one-stop while Piastri ran the more conventional two, but it left us with a real taste of what could be coming over the final ten races of this intra-team title battle.

Speaking on media day in Zandvoort, Lando Norris said that the “risk element” of the fight between the papaya cars is also becoming more apparent given how tight their battles are.

“I think we know when we need to take it, like in qualifying and things, and we also know during a race that maybe for one more point, you might not risk anything, but for the win you would risk more.”

With both drivers being given equal opportunities by the team each weekend, and equal chances at the win, fighting out on track and being aware of the risk vs. reward balance will be a critical factor for both heading into this final stage of the season.

Oscar Piastri said today that who earns the title is “just going to be who can do the best job possible” – an exciting prospect for us to watch…

Ferrari’s ride height issues continue…

Ferrari, and Charles Leclerc more specifically, suffered an issue last time out in Hungary that effectively removed his chance at a pole to win conversion and left him down in P4 by the flag.

Post-race analyses showed that the issue was perhaps exacerbated by a change following his last pitstop, as his pace dropped dramatically. Reports, and even quotes from George Russell, suggested that this centred around the team potentially raising the tyre pressures for Leclerc’s last stint to balance out a ride height issue – the kind of which we’ve seen them suffer earlier this year too – to prevent them falling on the wrong side of the plank wear regulations.

Following their own analyses over the summer break, Ferrari have said that changes made during that pitstop had an adverse impact on the car’s handling and balance that triggered the pace drop-off. But speaking to Russell’s theory on media day today, Charles said “the situation is a lot more complex than what he portrayed”, but declined to comment anymore.

But that in and of itself suggests that it links to an inherent issue with their SF-25 that perhaps has plagued them over the season, as their ride height issues have. Going forward, the problems are unlikely to be fully remediated, but Leclerc is hopeful that additional efforts to fix them could bring them an opportunity to challenge McLaren as much as possible on the way to Abu Dhabi, starting this weekend…

Potential for Williams?

Despite how it might look on paper as a higher-downforce circuit, and how Williams typically fare at those, their form around Zandvoort has been strong in recent years.

Alex Albon qualified fourth here in 2023 and was set to start from eighth on the grid last year before he was disqualified from the qualifying session due to a technical noncompliance. It meant he was pushed down to P19 but made it back to P14 over the grand prix.

As a result of this performance pattern, Albon called it “a bit of a bogey track” for the team.

“It’s an interesting track for us”, he said on media day. “It doesn’t necessarily suit our car but every time we come here we seem to be okay.

“I think the wind comes from one place and that place is quite beneficial for our car. And we’re quite good at wet/slick transitional races.”

That has been the case so far this year – in Australia, a wet grand prix, Albon finished P5. In Silverstone, a very mixed grand prix weather-wise, again Alex finished in the points in P8 after moving up from his P13 starting position.

With the weather forecast looking pretty gloomy for this weekend, Williams could be hopeful of another solid point-scoring performance!

Can Verstappen get back on top at home?

Despite a very strong few years at his home race as he claimed three back-to-back victories, last year Max Verstappen had to settle for P2 in front of his ‘orange army’ of fans as the pace of the McLaren of Norris was frankly unbeatable.

But coming in to this weekend, and his penultimate home race as Zandvoort is set to drop off the calendar after 2026’s race, Verstappen says it remains a “very special” weekend.

“It brings a smile on my face, seeing that amount of orange [here] is very special,” he said on media day. “It’s not only about the driving, there is quite a bit of a party going on across these three days – unfortunately not for me!”

Back to the on-track focus, and Verstappen isn’t filled with hope that Red Bull could overcome their poor weekend in Hungary with a better performance here.

“I don’t think this is going to be our best track in the remainder of the calendar, but then again there might be some weather coming in as well,” he said.

With the chaos that usually brings, and has done in the past at Zandvoort, it could be all to play for on Sunday…

An opportunity for Aston Martin

Aston Martin have struggled for consistency so far this year, but are still entering this final half of the 2025 season with 52 points on the board – owing, at least in part, to an incredible performance in Hungary before the break.

Alonso and Stroll crossed the line in P5 and P7 respectively, as the high downforce demands of the Hungaroring clearly brought their car to life. But just a week earlier in Belgium, the team had suffered their worst joint grand prix result since Miami as Stroll finished P14 and Alonso was P17.

Speaking today in Zandvoort, Alonso said, “I think we understand it’s going to be some bad weekends and good weekends.”

“We have to accept that and we have to be aware of that and on the bad weekends we need to still try and score the last few points available.”

But equally, as Alonso went on to mention, they also need to maximise the good weekends. “And on the good weekends we can not make any mistake,” he said.

“We need to be ready for those, we need to execute well those weekends and score as many points as possible as we did in Hungary.”

With Zandvoort being another higher downforce circuit, there is hope for a repeat of Hungary for Aston Martin this weekend. It’s also a circuit where they, and Alonso, have performed well in the past as he took to the podium steps back in 2023 and last year finished P10.