Sergio Perez
What a feeling to be the leading driver in Formula 1 again for a few laps, even if it is due to the rain chaos and an early pit stop. Pretty quickly, however, the Mexican slipped back into the role of understudy at Red Bull. That’s what the team wants, but unlike Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez allows himself too many whims and mistakes. The commitment of Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko that Perez has his job for 2024 is tied to the clause: if he performs.
The 33-year-old has been in a crisis since the beginning of May. Seventh place in qualifying and fourth place in the Zandvoort race underline the bitter trend. Sure, everyone looks bad against a Verstappen at their best, but only one has the same car. When the heavy rain came to an end, Perez first spun, then hit the pit wall and was faster than allowed in the pit lane. The five-second penalty finally robbed him of the podium. Fourth instead of second. What is he supposed to say? “A pity.”
Max Verstappen
It’s rare for Fernando Alonso to put a colleague’s driving skills ahead of his own. But after the ninth win in a row, the two-time world champion began to praise the soon to be three-time title holder: “What Max is currently delivering is sensational. In my opinion, it is underestimated how great this achievement is. To be so dominant in this sport, this is not a self-starter. On the contrary!” The Dutchman was even more happy about a bag of sweets than about the third home win in a row and the setting of Sebastian Vettel’s record win from 2013.
Food for the nerves, because it was close at the back. The tire warm-up problem, which is perhaps the only weakness of his Red Bull race car, could have ended up costing him the win. But once he’s warmed them up, he seems to be able to walk on water. He himself calls it, fairly detached: “risk management.”
Fernando Alonso
In the paddock they call him the matador, and Fernando Alonso, at 42, shows that top performance is not a question of generation, but of attitude. With the Aston Martin, the Spaniard was the surprise at the beginning of the racing year, and another sporting spring seems to be beginning in the fall. Second place could well have been first, when he restarted he had already settled down on leader Verstappen, pressed the accelerator pedal, although the tires were not yet up to temperature.
But he was one with his car and that’s what matters in the Champions League of motorsport. Alonso looked for his own, sometimes idiosyncratic lines, but he could only approach, not overtake. Not yet: “This year a win is possible,” he says. He won the vote for driver of the day in Zandvoort, and Fernando Alonso also benefits from Verstappen’s recent over-performance: “Being able to drive with him at the same level gives you a lot of self-confidence.”
Nico Hulkenberg
The freight forwarder’s son from the Lower Rhine region took his first steps as a racing driver in the Netherlands, which is why the country is particularly close to his heart. This weekend, perhaps, his heart rose a little more, because in the week after his 36th birthday, the Haas racing team extended the late returnee’s contract prematurely for the coming season, like teammate Kevin Magnussen. “It’s good to know that you’re in demand and wanted,” says the man who has chosen to live in Mallorca.
That shouldn’t have come as a real surprise to him, there were probably corresponding clauses – and for both sides there are currently hardly any more promising alternatives. Car and driver are often competitive for one lap, unfortunately things look a bit different over the distance. In the end, it’s twelfth place, “no man’s land,” as Hülkenberg puts it: “We left something behind. It’s frustrating. It was just a struggle for survival.”
Daniel Ricciardo
Ironically, the two Australians crashed into the barriers every second on the training day in Zandvoort. Daniel Ricciardo, who has only been a regular driver in Formula 1 since Hungary, has to avoid his compatriot Oscar Piastri, who ousted him at McLaren last year – and that has consequences: a fracture of the left metacarpal bone. Apparently he couldn’t take his hands off the steering wheel before the impact.
The 34-year-old was flown to Barcelona on Saturday, where he was operated on by Xavier Mir, who is considered a miracle doctor by professional pilots and who had made Lance Stroll fit again before the season started. Apparently, the procedure was more complicated than expected because the bone had splintered. Possible compulsory break: eight to ten weeks. But in Formula 1 everything always has to go a little faster – Ricciardo is already planning his comeback in three weeks, as he is concerned with a cockpit for the coming season.
Zandvoort
Miami may be the self-proclaimed party capital of Formula 1, at least for North America. The European counterpart on the North Sea coast is in no way inferior to Florida, on the contrary: the beach on the border between North and South Holland is absolutely real. Music is made from eight to eight, which is no wonder given the density of DJs in the Netherlands. André Rieu moves Queen Maxima and 80,000 grandstand guests to a choreography in blue, white and red and also fiddles the national anthem “Het Wilhelmus”.
In the downpour and during the three-quarter hour break, the partying just keeps going. Max Verstappen has something of the Taylor Swift factor – 100,000 of his fans transform the small seaside resort of Zandvoort into a sea of orange. And do something for the sustainability of the premier class: 40 percent of all spectators travel by train, another 30 percent come by bike. The roads will remain closed to all non-residents for four days. A model for the future of the series, which aims to be climate-neutral by 2030.
Liam Lawson
New Zealand may seem exotic as a Formula 1 nation, but Liam Lawson, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, is the eleventh Kiwi to make it to the premier class. And with Dennis Hulme in 1967 in the team of his compatriot Bruce McLaren, the country from Oceania even provided a world champion. The only goal of the talent from the Red Bull youth development program: “I want to learn as much as possible, absorb everything and, above all, reach the finish line.”
He did that in a chaotic race, 13th place – despite a ten-second penalty for a handicap. The 21-year-old, who otherwise drives in the Japanese Super Formula, drove pretty ripped off and was even able to overtake Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. This experience stays forever.