Grand Prix 2021 Dutch Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

There hasn't been a Dutch Grand Prix since 1985. This was back in the last days of the turbo monsters with Nelson Piquet on pole in the Brabham BMW, the race won by Niki Lauda in the McLaren TAG with Alain Prost second. I doubt we will see a McLaren 1-2 this weekend, but then there have been some strange things happen this season so who knows.

The new Zandvoort is very different to the old circuit. The only corner any of us who watched races in the past will recognise is the hairpin know as "Tarzan". This has created some great incidents in the past, with Prost and Piquet clashing in 1983 and Derek Daly flying through the air in 1981. It is a genuine overtaking opportunity, which many F1 tracks lack these days, although some might argue attempts at overtaking are frowned upon these days as Red Bull will lodge a complaint.

You couldn't wish for a more different location to the race in Belgium. Spa is high up (in Belgian terms anyway) in the forest, surrounded by trees and hills. Zandvoort is right by the beach, in some places is below sea level and if you stand on the banks around the track you can see the sea. Expect it to still be hammering down with rain though. Perhaps drainage in the sand will be better than it was in the hills but a note of caution, there is the new banked section of track and for some very serious reasons racing cars don't typically compete on banking in the rain.

Courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia, here's a track map.

I assume Arie Luyenduk curve has a mullet!

The race is 72 laps long and Ferrari have won it most often, with 9 wins in the 34 times it has taken place.

Enjoy!

 

[F1Brits_90]

it was a terrible race at the front because every time it became within range Verstappen quickly got out of range. & threaten to bubble, but never happened. I wouldn't say it was absolutely terrible it had some redeeming features unlike certain races of the last few years, we some fantastic overtakes at T1 T3 & the chicane Perez Norris Alonso, hopefully with the new cars we can see racing more like F3 series. the celebration when Verstappen won was something else noise fireworks. it was nearly Monza levels, would've been on a par if they invaded the track.

what on earth was that about with bottas, what on earth where they thinking why on earth would you make a pit stop to sabotage yourself & take a point of your own championship challenger. christian horner mustve been laughing his arse off. but then this hasnt changed because under pressure during the race. its always been mercedes achilles heel.

but credit where credit is due, that was boring but outstanding weekend from max, i wondered how he would cope under the biggest pressure all weekend, but he was faultless & instead of cracking under it he almost thrived knowing that all of Netherlands hopes are on your shoulders. as we have all seen what that pressure has done to likes of Tim Henman & Andy Murray at Wimbledon

saying about the Dutch pressure apparently they had a TV share in qualifying of 85%. in context the euro 2020 final the most watched program in uk for nearly 24yrs only had a tv share of 82%

 

[F1Brits_90]

listening to the chequered flag podcast & ive missed but its understandable that its gone under the radar because they are 19th & 20th every week, we dont see much of them if anything in the race. but appartantly its gotten extremely frosty, prost senna like between the teammates & vettel got caught up in Haas warring teammates that bubbled up.

it makes it interesting in the future because could schumacher be leaving alfa. because if this what they are appartantly like after 6 months what are they going to be like in 2nd season. its tough situation for Haas as we know they cant drop schumacher. a driver that performed well got potential but unfortunatly without mazepin there is no Haas