72 laps of the 4.259km circuit Zandvoort 29th August Practice 1 11:30 - 12:30 29th August Practice 2 15:00 - 16:00 30th August Practice 3 10:30 - 11:30 30th August Qualifying 14:00 - 15:00 31st August Race 14:00 - 16:00 All times are UK times Poll closes before Quali. Summer break over, so who has managed to magic up an upgrade or just understand how to improve their cars or drivers?
Ref your last sentence Ched . I didn’t think they were allowed to do anything ref improvements . I thought it was a complete shut down ?
I believe it's 4 weeks between races and the mandatory factory shutdown is 2 weeks. So they will have had some time back at the factory plus I can't imagine the engineers minds not thinking about work when on 'holiday'
That’s my understanding too. Although the design teams will now be 2026 focused, I guess we’ll see a few more upgrades that were in the pipeline. In these reg changeover periods, where the cars are mostly stable, it’s always a bit shocking to me how much performance the race team can add through setup/understanding. Might be a little less so this year though because RedBull Friday to Saturday has been a constant reminder!
Aston looking fast, obv not quite McLaren fast, but they look the clear 2nd fastest. I hope they can keep it up through the weekend.
Astonishing how well the Macca is hooked up around Zandvoort. An absolute league of their own when it comes to balancing high DF and efficiency- they’ve made an absolute mockery of Mercedes Red Bull and Ferrari this year, they have had no answer. Wonderful to see McLaren back- now with a full title sponsorship from Mastercard from 2026 (worth a reported £100m a year)- let’s hope we have cars that don’t need to weight save from paint and we get some decent liveries. Unfortunately for this season, aside from probably Monza and definitely Vegas (cold tyres will bring Mercedes into play), you’re not gonna see much close racing at the front, except for Lando v Oscar.
I wonder if Piastri will be so wrapped up in what Norris is doing and vice versa , that it will allow Max to take the lead at the start ?
Well, I would have thought Norris would have got past by now and as I write this he finally has done. Let Oscar build a big gap though
I get the impression Piastri drives his tyres for track position at the start, and Lando drives them for the stint.
