Dutch Grand Prix Practice: Drivers & Teams report from Zandvoort

A wet and cold turn dry and summy between sessions. FP1 was largely wet and meaningless running unless race day is to be similarly affected. However, FP2 was dry, which allowed drivers to get down to the serious business of going fast, after the summer break.

P2. Oscar Piastri: “It’s been a good Friday. The pace looks pretty solid over one lap and the long run pace looks decent so far. It’s nice to be back in the car and it’s always fun driving around here. It’s been a good first day.”

P4. Lando Norris: “A pleasing first day back on track. We made some good progress, and the car is in a strong position ahead of Quali tomorrow. It’s close towards the front of the pack, so we’ll be working hard overnight as a team to get everything out of our package.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “Zandvoort today allowed us to test the car in all conditions, going from the Wet to the Intermediate to the dry tyres in FP1, and then in FP2 we had good running on the Soft and Medium tyres to compare them with a view to their potential usage in the race. It’s been a very useful day, not only for race preparation but also for gathering good data and performing checks on the aerodynamic upgrades we have this weekend. We’ll now focus on maximising our performance for the rest of the weekend. We know the weather is a variable, so we need to ready for anything – but day one in the Netherlands seems very encouraging.”

P1. George Russell: "It was good to get back in the car and into the swing of things with the first day of running here in Zandvoort. It was difficult out there due to the windy conditions. It is perhaps the windiest conditions I can remember driving an F1 car in over the past few years. Nevertheless, the car was performing really well and the updated floor we brought to Spa seemed to be working effectively. The pack at the front seems to be quite close once again. We expect to be facing another fascinating battle across the rest of the weekend for the podium spots. That said, it could all be very different tomorrow as the conditions likely change once again. I'm excited to get back in the car tomorrow and see what we can do.

P3: Lewis Hamilton: "Today wasn't a bad start to the weekend. Everything went well, the car was feeling alive, and we were near the front of the field on the timing screens. We understand our car and that is making starting each weekend on the front foot much easier. We can make small tweaks from there, rather than big changes, and that is making it much easier to find performance. That was the case today and sets us up well for the rest of the weekend. There's still more time to find out for sure. I didn't get the most out of my lap on the Soft compound tyre so that's encouraging for qualifying. We will go through the data on the long runs this evening and see if we can make further improvements overnight."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: "Today was an encouraging start to the weekend. The conditions in FP1 were particularly tricky with very strong winds and heavy rain making it difficult to get a good read on the updated floor we brought to Spa. Nevertheless, what we saw looks in line with expectations, so we'll continue the weekend with that fitted to both cars. Across both FP1 and FP2 the car has been working well. The single lap performance looks solid, although it's likely to be tight with Verstappen and the McLarens in qualifying as they all looked strong today. We have a few areas we can improve in that regard but no doubt the others are in a similar position. Our long runs weren't quite as strong. We can certainly find a bit of pace with tyre management and an improved balance, but Norris looked very good this afternoon and we will need to take a step to get on his pace. We'll work hard overnight to find those gains; we've shown in recent races that, if we get the car in the right window, we can be competitive and on the basis of today, it looks like we will should be in the fight near the front tomorrow."

P9. Charles Leclerc: "It was tough, as expected I would say. We don’t quite match the pace of our competitors in front, but I think it’s better than what it looks like on the timesheets today. We have work to do in order to be in a place where we can fight for the win. I will do everything to extract the maximum in qualifying, but the gaps we are looking at for the moment are too big to do anything special. If we can get to within 2 to 3 tenths, then maybe we can fight for a good spot in qualifying, otherwise, I predict a difficult weekend for us."

P19. Carlos Sainz: "Today was not an easy day. This morning, due to bad weather, we weren’t able to run properly and unfortunately, during FP2 we had a problem with the gearbox in the first run, so overall I couldn’t do many laps. Tomorrow we’ll try to make up for the time lost and build confidence around the track. We have work to do to close the gap to the top."

P17. Esteban Ocon: “It was not the easiest day for us today, where we have started slightly on the backfoot and need to find some improvements. We will need to turn things around overnight and there is lots of work ahead of us before tomorrow to improve and get us to a better position. We have seen some inconsistency in terms of our performance over the course of the last couple of races and we are prepared to put the work in. We made quite a few set-up changes after Free Practice 1 so we will need to review where our lack of performance here comes from, but we already have some pretty good clues as to what is required to improve so that we can be more competitive during Qualifying tomorrow. Congratulations to Jack [Doohan] on the news of his race seat in 2025. I’m delighted for him, he’s a top guy and he definitely deserves an opportunity to race in Formula 1.”

P14. Pierre Gasly: “It’s been a pretty challenging first Friday back after the summer break here in Zandvoort. The conditions were certainly tricky with the high winds and rain but the track did dry quite quickly. I missed out on some running in Free Practice 1 and the feeling in the car in Free Practice 2 was not too great, so I’m sure we will have a good look through everything tonight and see what we can improve. It looks like the conditions will continue to be tough for the rest of the weekend. That’s not a bad thing as I do quite like mixed conditions. Finally, I am very happy for Jack [Doohan] after today’s announcement. I’ve seen him evolve within the team over the last 18 months. He works very hard, he’s very involved and it’s a great opportunity for him, so I’m looking forward to continuing our work together as team-mates.”

P20. Nico Hulkenberg: “It was a very unexpected, very sudden rear lock event that I didn’t foresee and didn’t expect in the way that it happened. It was definitely a wind gust that caught me out; I had a little more brake pressure than before but I didn’t brake later. It was on the edge, and two or three more circumstances tipped it over the edge and made it look quite dramatic. Luckily, it wasn’t a big impact and there was next to no damage, but obviously the lost time is the prize that we pay. The midfield – or second pack where we are – looked close together and compact, so we’re definitely in the mix but I’ve made it harder for myself with less preparation time.”

P8. Kevin Magnussen: “The conditions aren’t necessarily representative as FP1 was wet, but we got a little bit of running in the dry, although it was kind of still damp. FP2 was good; I had good pace and a good feeling in the car so that’s positive. These days it’s so close that if someone ran five or 10 kilos less or more fuel, it changes the picture, so I’m always cautious. I think compared to last year, this car is quite different in certain areas, and I definitely feel an improvement. There are still issues we want to improve but that’s normal.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “The day was a mixture. FP1’s conditions were tricky, but I think we managed the session well; that level of wind gust is extreme. When we managed to run on inters and slicks, the car balance was a bit off, but it was a decent start. It was dry for FP2 but Nico’s session was cut short unfortunately because he locked up, so we’re looking into that. Looking into what Kevin has done – both his quali sim and long run – he was pretty decent. We’ve got fine-tuning to do tonight to improve a bit more but from Kevin’s side we got decent data and it was a good Friday.”

Team Report: Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber returned to action after the summer break with two sessions of practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. Rain affected the first of the two, while sun shone over the second – but both featured strong, gusty winds that created difficult conditions for the drivers. Rookie Robert Shwartzman did a fine job in FP1, standing in for Valtteri Bottas, who returned for FP2: while Zhou Guanyu completed both sessions in a productive fashion as the team worked to set up the cars for the rest of the weekend ahead.

P18. Valtteri Bottas: “Coming back to the car after a few weeks off and finding these blustery conditions was definitely tricky! It was not easy to find the right balance today and, with the conditions changing so quickly, it was difficult to find the rhythm you needed to get into the flow, especially on such a track. However, we have one more practice session tomorrow on top of the work we are going to do tonight: our job will be to find a bit more stability, and that will translate into more performance. We know we are still lacking something in terms of pace to be in the top ten, but tomorrow the conditions will be difficult again and, together with some luck, that could help us. For now, we need to focus on doing our part to get a better overall balance.”

P16. Zhou Guanyu: “It feels great to be back on track – and Zandvoort always brings good energy. Today was quite a smooth day for us overall: the track and wind conditions were quite challenging, but we still managed to complete two clean sessions that allowed us to collect valuable data and information. It looks like we are not too far off, but we still need to find more pace, especially on high fuel. As in previous races, we’ve seen that our chances are better when conditions are mixed compared to a fully dry track. With some rain and wind likely tomorrow, we’re hopeful for a good day that will allow us to seize our opportunities, putting us in a good position for Sunday’s race.”

P15 in FP1. Robert Shwartzman: “First of all, I would like to thank Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber and Ferrari for this opportunity. The team was super welcoming to me right away, and I also got to see some familiar faces as well, people I worked with at Ferrari before. It had been nearly a year since I last drove a Formula One car, back in Abu Dhabi, and once I got here, I knew I had to adapt quickly. On top of it, Zandvoort is possibly one of the most challenging racetracks, although a very enjoyable one to drive, and with today’s mixed conditions I needed to be on it straight away. Overall, I can say I am happy with today’s performance: it’s been a good learning session despite the rain and strong winds, and the car felt good. I got stuck in some traffic towards the end, which made me lose some time and made it difficult to put in a better laptime – I think I could have improved even further on the slicks had we had one extra lap. Still, it’s been a good day, and I am happy with how things have gone.”