🏁🇳🇱 A castle made of Zand | Pit Lane Chronicle

QUICK QUIZ QUESTION – Lando Norris now has 13 Formula 1 Grand Prix victories to his name, but how many pole positions has he secured over the years? The answer is at the bottom of this newsletter.

The main headlines and stories from the Formula 1 paddock this week:

🏆 Lando Norris said he thinks he is outperforming everyone else on the grid right now after securing his second Grand Prix victory in a row, in a McLaren car he says is still inferior to the Mercedes – Scott Hunt, Press Association

🏎️ He is now 83 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli and, despite his pride in his own performance, Norris said he doesn’t think the car is good enough yet to propel him into that championship fight – Andrew Benson, BBC Sport

🤷 George Russell pointed out that Norris is “a bit of a specialist” on high-degradation circuits like Zandvoort and the Hungaroring, where he won before the summer break, and thinks Mercedes will be stronger next time out at Monza – Haydn Cobb, Motorsport.com

🟠 McLaren team principal Andrea Stella thinks Norris is “driving at the level of a world champion”, which he is, of course, adding that the Brit’s performance levels have increased as the season has gone on – Formula1.com

🥇 While Norris has downplayed his title chances, Toto Wolff thinks he and Lewis Hamilton are genuine threats to Kimi Antonelli and said he is “absolutely conscious” that even a comfortable-looking lead like the one the Italian has can soon disappear if things go wrong – Giles Richards, The Guardian

🤔 In the other McLaren, Oscar Piastri was more than 30 seconds behind Norris at the end in sixth place. He admitted afterwards that he is in something of a rut at the moment, telling reporters: “Unfortunately, it’s not the first race where the pace just hasn’t been there” – Christian Nimmervoll, Motorsport.com

💰 Wolff has claimed Mercedes don’t have the money left in their budget to introduce any more significant upgrades packages other than the ones they already have in the pipeline, warning that the Silver Arrows cannot match Ferrari and McLaren’s rate of development – Silja Rulle, Speedweek

🔄️ Mercedes made an odd team order towards the end of the race, asking George Russell to move aside for Kimi Antonelli to chase down Norris, even though he never really had a chance of catching Norris. And, because Lewis Hamilton was immediately on Russell’s tail, they never got the chance to swap back and so the orders saw Antonelli finish ahead and extend the points gap between them. Surprisingly, though, the Brit said he was happy with the decision – Valentin Khorounzhiy, The Race

👏 Wolff said the strategy call was “not a difficult decision”, and praised Russell for his “exceptional” defending against the Ferraris behind him – Sky Sports

🇮🇹 Russell will get the chance to gain some ground on Antonelli next time out, though, Wolff confirming the Italian will take new engine components and their associated grid penalties at Monza – Laurence Edmondson, ESPN

🤑 Red Bull happily confirmed before the Zandvoort weekend that Max Verstappen has signed a new contract. Obviously, the terms are private, but there are claims that his new base salary might have reached $100million per year, before bonuses – Shanna Lutgert, Yahoo! Sports

👀 But that extra cash doesn’t seem to have come as the cost of the flexibility he enjoys in terms of potential exit clauses, his father Jos confirming that his son is still protected on that front, though he insisted they are confident Red Bull will provide a title-winning car again – Ashley Hambly, F1 Oversteer

🇳🇱 It was a final home race to forget for the Dutchman, though, as he crashed out early on. Afterwards, he revealed he had been suffering from illness and is looking forward to a weekend off to recover – Samuel Coop; Sandor Meszaros, RacingNews365

🚑 Isack Hadjar sat out the weekend having injured his wrist in training, and heeded the advice of MotoGP legend Marc Marquez who used his own experiences to tell the Frenchman not to risk causing further damage – Ronald Vording; Teha Courbon, Autosport

👍 Liam Lawson was promoted from Racing Bulls to fill in and performed well to banish the ghosts of his ill-fated two-race spell with the team last year, saying afterwards he was far more comfortable already with this Red Bull car than he ever was with its predecessor – Owen Bellwood; Ronald Vording, Motorsport.com

🥈 Lewis Hamilton felt he could have finished ahead of both Mercedes cars and in second place at Zandvoort had Ferrari not been too slow to move Charles Leclerc out of his way when his strategy saw the Brit stuck behind his slower team-mate for a perio in the middle of the race – Andrew Benson, BBC Sport

📻 Radio transcripts showed Leclerc resisted two orders to pit and get out of Hamilton’s way, for fear of “f***ing” his race, before eventually acquiescing to the request – Keith Collantine, RaceFans

🔴 Former Ferrari team manager, Peter Windsor, said he feels the team is unwilling and potentially “scared” to tell one of their drivers or the other to move out of the way to benefit the other, suggesting that the driver line-up was more balanced when Leclerc was partnered by Carlos Sainz – Lewis Larkam, Crash

🙏 Hamilton, for his part, later said he had listened back to his criticism over the radio and said he didn’t present “the best version of me” at those points, suggesting his stance has since softened and that he is not longer as frustrated with Ferrari as he was at the time – Sky Sports

🙌 And finally for this section, we should this week have a final say on the outcome of the Monaco Grand Prix as the case, taken to the FIA international court of appeal by McLaren and Red Bull, will be heard this week – Alan Baldwin, Reuters

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Here are the main stories around F1’s seven midfield teams this week:

DUTCH GP RESULT
Pierre Gasly – 10th
Franco Colapinto – 14th
Constructors’ championship – 6th (63 points)

😡 Both Alpine drivers were pretty angry after Sunday’s race. Gasly scored a point but spent 17 laps stuck behind Arvid Lindblad after his first pit stop and 10 more laps behind Yuki Tsunoda after the second, prompting frustration from the Frenchman aimed at Racing Bulls’ tactics against their midfield rivals – Ben Vinel; Ronald Vording, Motorsport.com

🚫 Colapinto has harshly punished for overtaking under yellow flags after Max Verstappen’s early crash, though he argued that there was a significant speed difference between his car and the one he moved past and that he had little warning of the yellow flag. But Sean Summers, chief marketing officer of his main sponsor Mercado Libre, took things too far by accusing the stewards of “incompetence” and “dishonesty” in a social media post – Lewis Larkam, Crash

🤦 In a statement released on Tuesday, the FIA said its stewards had been “targeted with online abuse” as well as “threats and personal attacks” over the incident – Keith Collantine, RaceFans

DUTCH GP RESULT
Fernando Alonso – 9th
Lance Stroll – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 10th (3 points)

💪 It was a strong result on the first weekend of Aston Martin’s new Honda engine, with Alonso admitting his surprise over those two points scored at Zandvoort on Sunday – Balazs Szabo, F1 Technical

🔙 But the engine itself was not without issues, with Alonso saying it felt like they went “back to square one” on the setup front and warning that it will take a few weekends for them to dial it in – Jamie Woodhouse, PlanetF1

💥 Stroll was particularly critical of it after qualifying, pointing out that it “rejected” a lot of his downshifts and describing the engine braking as “inconsistent” over one flying lap – James Phillips, Motorsport Week

💰 The team has a new minority investor after it was confirmed that former US Ambassador to the UK, ‘Woody’ Johnson, has bought into the team – Aston Martin F1 Site

DUTCH GP RESULT
Nico Hulkenberg – 8th
Gabriel Bortoleto – 13th
Constructors’ championship – 8th (16 points)

😰 A strong result for Hulkenberg who had to produce a brilliant bit of instinctive driving early on to avoid slamming into the side of team-mate Bortoleto after the Brazilian’s spin early in the race. Replays showed just how close it was between them as Hulkenberg was left to guess which way to turn as he went through a cloud of smoke – Silja Rulle, Speedweek

🌍 Technology funded by the Audi Environmental Foundation was in use at Zandvoort which filtered microplastics coming from the the tyres and cars to remove them from the track before they entered the water cycle, helping to reduce the amount of pollution created by the event – Audi.com

🗣️ Meanwhile, Bortoleto has declared he will race for Audi for the next few years at least, verbally committing his immediate future to the project after his first-half season with the team under its current guise – Jack Oliver Smith, Motorsport Week

DUTCH GP RESULT
Sergio Perez – 15th
Valtteri Bottas – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 11th (0 points)

😅 It was an eventful debut at the helm for Marcin Budkowski, who replaced Graeme Lowdon as team principal over the summer break. He felt Perez, who finished two laps down, was hampered by the timing of a virtual safety car, while he confirmed it was a hydraulics problem which forced Bottas to stop late in the Grand Prix – Balazs Szabo, F1 Technical

🤝 Cadillac are said to be trying to sign Craig Skinner, who is on gardening leave after ending a 20-year stint with Red Bull where he was most recently chief designer – Ludo van Denderen, GPBlog

🔎 Meanwhile, a close eye will be kept on the Cadillac F1 project in the coming weeks and months after it was reported that billionaire owner Mark Walter’s business empire is the subject of a large-scale FBI investigation. He recently sold his shares in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball franchise, though the team has denied any suggestion that they might be put up for sale too – Ben Hunt, Yahoo! Sports

DUTCH GP RESULT
Esteban Ocon – DNF
Oliver Bearman – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 7th (21 points)

📉 Haas showed no signs of their competitive decline abating and Bearman declared they are now the “10th best team” on the grid, ahead of only Cadillac, after Aston Martin’s improvements – Ed Hardy; Stuart Codling, Motorsport.com

🥳 Bearman’s own talent continues to get rave reviews from his boss, Ayao Komatsu, who has said in a new interview that he is sure the Brit will “excel” when he eventually gets behind the wheel of a top F1 car – Press Association (via ESPN)

👀 Ocon, however, has come in for some criticism from his former race engineer, Mark Slade, who has described the Frenchman as being “uncoachable” and “defensive” during their time working together at Renault in 2020 – Simmey Hannifin Donaldson, GPFans

DUTCH GP RESULT
Yuki Tsunoda – 11th
Arvid Lindblad – 12th
Constructors’ championship – 5th (66 points)

❌ No points for Racing Bulls on Sunday but Lindblad felt he would have been eighth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg were it not for a “harsh” penalty he received for a yellow flag infringement early in the race – Formula1.com

👋 Hadjar’s injury and Lawson’s promotion to the main Red Bull outfit meant it was a return to the grid for Tsunoda! And he did pretty well considering he’s never driven this generation of cars before, declaring himself “super happy” with his qualifying result especially, even if it did not translate into points in the Grand Prix – Doris Ivandic, Motorsport Week

🏎️ Formula 2 driver will get his first experience of F1 machinery this week in a test at Imola, Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer confirmed – Samuel Coop, RacingNews365

DUTCH GP RESULT
Carlos Sainz – 16th
Alex Albon – DNF
Constructors’ championship – 9th (11 points)

📝 Their on-track performance is pretty awful right now, but Williams secured the signatures of both their drivers over the summer break, much to the relief of team principal James Vowles who has now admitted he feared he could lose both his drivers who were previously out of contract at the end of the current season – Ben Waterworth, Speedcafe

👎 Sainz believes they are quicker than only Cadillac right now, challenging Bearman’s view that Haas are 10th in the pecking order. In truth, they are both really slow at the moment and Sainz thinks Aston Martin “are in a different league now” thanks to their upgrades – Fleur Rogerson, Motorsport Week

🙇 Both Sainz and Albon issued apologies after the collided at Zandvoort, the latter taking it in good spirit after the former said he had locked up which caused the collision and that it was not intentional. The stewards ruled that Sainz was “wholly to blame” and handed him a 10-second time penalty – Keith Collantine, RaceFans

Here are some of the F1-related posts I enjoyed elsewhere on Substack this week:

✍ This piece from Joli Does F1 is a fun way to wrap up Sunday’s action, and also provided the image of Fernando Alonso being a lookalike of Liam Gallagher which I now cannot unsee. Thanks for that.

✍ More on that story of Aston Martin’s big new investor in this piece from Vincenzo Landino’s Business of Speed.

✍ This is a great interview with John Watson from Elizabeth Blackstock’s Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys about the joy and pain that his first victory in Formula 1 brought for his Penske team.

QUICK QUIZ QUESTION ANSWER – Lando Norris secured his 18th career Formula 1 pole position at Zandvoort before converting that into victory on Sunday.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s edition of Pit Lane Chronicle. This newsletter is FREE for all to enjoy. Please do let me know what you think, with any tips, comments and suggestions always welcome!

✍ My name is Daniel Moxon and I’ve been an F1 fan since I was old enough to listen to my dad’s tales about Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. I clearly caught the bug as I now work as the senior Formula 1 correspondent across Reach PLC’s titles including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. I live in Merseyside, in the north west of England, with my fiancée Abby and our two-year-old daughter Eve, who likes to watch races while sat in her ride-along Mustang.