Ferrari: A Surprise in Store on Max Verstappen’s Big Sunday
Max Verstappen will be the most anticipated star of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where Ferrari, however, hopes to pull off a legendary upset against him. Over a weekend that began with the announcement of his historic contract renewal with Red Bull and will culminate in his final home race (the track will be removed from the calendar starting next season), the four-time world champion will have to contend with the particularly determined Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The two Ferrari drivers are, in fact, absolutely convinced of the outstanding work done in recent weeks at Maranello.
“Zandvoort is a track where I’ve never won,” Hamilton recalled. I’ve managed to win practically everywhere else, and this is a situation I absolutely want to change on an absolutely incredible circuit with an amazing crowd. I’m really proud of how much Ferrari has grown since the start of the season and throughout the championship. It took me a year, but now I’m in perfect sync with this car and I feel better than I’ve ever felt in 20 years. I love being part of the team—we’re innovators. We’ve introduced innovations that everyone else has followed.”
Hamilton’s optimism is one that Leclerc also shares. “I think the work Ferrari has done on the updates is impressive,” the Monegasque driver emphasized. “We’ve had—and still have—a very aggressive plan, which is really good in a season like this, so full of regulatory changes. This approach really makes a difference, and we’ll continue down this path in the second half of the season as well. Our plan is very clear, even if I can’t be specific about what we’ll be doing in the coming months.”
Verstappen’s contract extension with Red Bull through 2030, announced just this weekend, definitively closes the door on any alternative scenarios, including that sensational move to Mercedes that had fueled the paddock’s speculation all summer long. “I’m really happy—we have the best people, and I’m excited to continue working with everyone to get back to the top,” the Dutch driver said in the official statement from the Milton Keynes-based team, which described the extension as “one of the most successful and significant partnerships in F1 history.” The announcement comes after weeks of persistent rumors—fueled in part by photos of Verstappen on vacation in Sardinia with Toto Wolff and their respective partners—and puts an end to all speculation about a possible star duo with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli himself is the notable absentee from the anticipated showdown between Verstappen and Ferrari, though certainly not due to any lack of sporting merit: the young driver from Bologna, racing for Mercedes, leads the world championship standings with 219 points—50 more than Hamilton and a full 81 ahead of Leclerc. A lead built race by race in the first half of the season, highlighted by six victories—including the Grand Slam in Monaco and the triumph at Spa-Francorchamps—which made him the first Italian to win at the Belgian circuit since Alberto Ascari in 1953. At Zandvoort, the nearly 20-year-old—who will turn 20 on August 25—is considered the top favorite even by industry insiders: former Haas team principal Günther Steiner has no doubts, stating that “this young talent is doing an incredible job” and that “he’ll take home the title.”
For Ferrari and its fans, therefore, Zandvoort represents much more than just a race: it’s an opportunity to close a gap in the standings that has become concerning, following a Hungarian Grand Prix best forgotten, in which Leclerc finished fourth—far from the podium battle—and Hamilton fifth, penalized yet again. The Monegasque driver’s outburst over the radio with his engineer Bryan Bozzi—“Could you give me some more advice? Something isn’t right at all with the car”—went viral on social media, summing up the discontent of fans who expected much more from the Scuderia. The weeks of intense work in Maranello during the summer break—celebrated with great enthusiasm by Hamilton and Leclerc—will serve precisely to provide a concrete response to that criticism.
The format of the Dutch weekend adds extra excitement to the challenge: in addition to Sunday’s race scheduled for 3:00 p.m., the program also includes Saturday’s Sprint Race—the fifth of the season—which will award valuable points in a standings race that remains wide open. The weekend kicks off on Friday, August 21, with the sole free practice session at 12:30 p.m., followed by qualifying for the Sprint Race at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, qualifying for the main race is scheduled for 4:00 p.m., while the Grand Prix will start at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 23. All sessions will be broadcast live on Sky Sport, with TV8 airing the Sprint live at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday and the Sunday race on a delayed basis at 6:00 p.m.
