This weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix marks the return of Formula 1 from its 2026 summer shutdown with the end of the season now firmly in sight.
Zandvoort represents the halfway point of the campaign with championships being decided, legacies made and grid seats for the following season being won or lost post-shutdown.
So there’s plenty to look forward to this weekend and here are five things to watch out for.
Home stretch for Kimi Antonelli
There is seemingly nothing stopping the 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli from becoming the youngest ever F1 world champion in 2026. The Mercedes driver holds a 50-point advantage over second-placed Lewis Hamilton and never has a championship leader squandered such a large buffer after the summer break.
It’s certainly not what was expected pre-season, with Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell entering the campaign as the heavy title favourite, but since round two in China, the Italian has been a cut above.
Key to Antonelli’s form has been his one-lap pace, with six poles this season and every time the championship sophomore has suffered a setback, he has bounced back in a champion-like manner.
Think Belgium where he dominated from pole, despite failing to score in two of the prior three rounds - Barcelona and Silverstone - due to reliability woes. Antonelli is certainly looking like a champion-in-waiting and now is just the final stretch before his coronation.
What makes it even more impressive is that Antonelli has made huge strides from last year, when he endured an up-and-down rookie campaign, highlighted by that tough European run mid-season.
In Zandvoort, for example, he made a needless off in FP1 before finishing the race outside of the points after a 10s penalty for colliding into Charles Leclerc at Turn 3. There is no reason to think he’ll struggle this time around.
- Ed Hardy
Change at Red Bull
One driver who has always spoken highly of Antonelli is four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who this weekend will have yet another team-mate change at Red Bull. Only this time it isn’t performance related, as Isack Hadjar injured his wrist during a gym session.
The 21-year-old hasn’t passed fit for Zandvoort, the sight of his only F1 podium, so will be replaced by Racing Bulls man Liam Lawson. The Kiwi is set for his third grand prix at Red Bull after being demoted by the team early in 2025 following a very poor start to his first full season in F1.
He’s more mature this time though, as the New Zealander is ninth in the standings and ‘best of the rest’ behind the top four teams. His spot alongside rookie Arvid Lindblad at Racing Bulls will be taken by reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda, who took Lawson’s spot at Red Bull, only to be dropped for Hadjar at the end of the season.
It’s not exactly been the most amazing 2026 for Red Bull, which is fourth in the standings and 43 points behind third-placed McLaren, but Verstappen has scored a podium in the last two races - Spa and Budapest - while Hadjar finished sixth in both.
So, there is the opportunity for Lawson to impress and really make his mark as somebody who has bounced back from his torrid time there last year. A Q3 appearance and solid points haul should mark a good weekend for the New Zealander, who made his F1 debut at Zandvoort in 2023.
As for Tsunoda, it’s perhaps a tougher ask considering his little experience with the 2026 machines but he is stepping into a Racing Bulls car that comfortably leads the midfield with points in the last seven rounds.
- Ed Hardy
Goodbye Zandvoort
Not only will Verstappen have a new team-mate this weekend, but it will also be his final home race for the indefinite future as Zandvoort is dropping off the calendar for 2027. It’s quite a disappointing moment because the Dutch Grand Prix has offered a lot to F1 since it ended its 36-year hiatus by returning in 2021.
Most notably, giving F1’s star driver a home race. Verstappen was largely the reason for the Netherlands returning to the championship and he has certainly given it his best shot by winning the Dutch GP a record three times in the past five years.
But he has failed to win the last two due to McLaren domination - shared by both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri - and it is unlikely he’ll end that win-less streak on Sunday due to the advantage held by the Woking outfit, Mercedes and Ferrari.
Verstappen will still sport a special helmet to mark the final race at Zandvoort, which announced its departure at the end of 2024 for various reasons including financial. Instead, the Dutch seaside circuit will feature on the Formula E calendar when it introduces the promising Gen4 era in the 2026-27 campaign.
- Ed Hardy
Crunch time for Honda and Aston Martin
Did you hear that Aston Martin had a rough start to the season? It’s only been mentioned, discussed and analysed precisely 15,000 times since the team arrived late to winter testing.
Now, though, things are changing and various aerodynamic updates in Hungary before the summer break showed promise. Next up to try and turn the team around is an engine upgrade from Honda.
This vital step for the Japanese automaker will come in Zandvoort this weekend, where Honda will deploy an internal combustion upgrade that should aid performance and driveability. The target for the new parts is to help Aston Martin move back up towards the “racing field”, according to Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara.
The AMR26 needs a power boost to catch the back of the midfield, and some estimates suggest the new parts could bring as much as 30bhp to the car around Zandvoort. Now, the Dutch track isn’t the most power-sensitive circuit on the F1 calendar, but coupled with the other updates the team has rolled out, an engine boost could help Aston move clear of fellow backmarker Cadillac.
What’s more, a weekend to get to grips with the new unit in the Netherlands will offer vital learnings that the struggling team can take to Monza, the temple of speed, in a few weeks’ time. Maybe there finally is light at the end of the tunnel for Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and the rest of the Aston team.
- Owen Bellwood
Marcin Budkowski begins life as Cadillac team principal after abrupt shakeup
F1's paddock will welcome a new - yet familiar - face when it returns from the summer break, with Marcin Budkowski taking on his first race weekend as Cadillac's team principal at Zandvoort.
Graeme Lowdon was tasked with building Cadillac from the ground up. And that is meant literally, as he oversaw the construction of the new F1 team's facilities and the recruitment of key personnel, including its two drivers, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.
It was a mammoth task completed in a remarkably short timeframe – particularly by the standards and scale of today's F1 teams – and Cadillac has since enjoyed a solid debut on the grid as the 11th team. It comfortably stayed ahead of established outfit Aston Martin until the latter finally introduced a major upgrade package at the previous round in Hungary.
However, Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss decided that Lowdon's tenure had run its course and, as he later explained, made the unilateral decision to put Budkowski in charge of the outfit.
The French-educated Pole brings decades of experience and leadership roles, having worked with teams including Ferrari, McLaren and Alpine, as well as serving in the FIA's F1 technical department.
He now faces the task of taking Cadillac into the next phase of its project: becoming a genuine midfield contender, a process the outfit's management appears keen to make as short as possible.
- Federico Faturos
