2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix highlights

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

A dramatic afternoon in Zandvoort saw the team drop to the back, recover to the top ten – and then finish in the points with a single car after a chaotic wet sprint to the flag.

Lewis Hamilton

It was a non-eventful race for me today, with not a huge amount going on. I was unable to keep up with the cars ahead of me and was struggling in the beginning. We know the rear end is our biggest issue, and then we had some bouncing this weekend. In the end, I was keeping the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc within a few seconds, but I couldn’t get any closer. It was nice to have the gap to the car behind and to attempt to go for the fastest lap. It was gusty out there today, and difficult to keep it on the track, but my lap was decent.

We know we have more work to do to close the gap to the front. We’ll work with all the data we’ve accumulated and try to figure out what we can do for the next race after the summer break.

George Russell

That was a tough one today – I went into the race expecting to fight for a podium, and I ended up P17. We were expecting the rain to stay for just a few minutes, and it ended up being close to ten. It was ready for inters, but I thought I could brave it out for another lap or two if it was only going to be short – but that’s not what happened. We’d rather have a fast car and a bad day than the opposite, but it was a missed opportunity today. In the end, I was side by side with Lando into the chicane at the end of the lap. Then we had contact. It cost a few points, and it was a shame because we had such a fast car today, and then our decisions on the weather went against us. But there are still positives to take away from the base pace we showed. We knew this circuit could be strong for us – and looking at Monza, it’s a totally different beast. We will clear our heads, go in with some new ideas and the learnings from this weekend, and see what we can do.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

That was a difficult day for us. In the opening 15 laps, we got pretty much everything wrong that we could have done – and that cost us any chance of fighting for the podium. For the next 50 laps until the red flag, it was pretty much business as usual: the car was quick on every tyre compound, we made the right calls, and the drivers made a great recovery to P6 and P8. In the final laps, George was unlucky to fall to the back after contact, while Lewis tried everything he could on Sainz, but there was no way past. In the end, I’d rather we have a quick car and a bad result than the other way round. It was an entertaining race for Formula One – and the kind of day when we should have been part of the action at the front. But if, but and maybe don’t count for anything in this sport. Now, we need to regroup, understand why we as a team got things wrong today, and go again to Monza next weekend.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

Not a good day for us. We didn’t anticipate how heavy the early shower was going to be, which meant we’d dropped both cars to the back from the very early stages. The decisions we took after that, however, were good, and we managed to get both cars back into a reasonable position when the race got red-flagged. Unfortunately, Lewis couldn’t find a way past Sainz in the short intermediate stint at the end, and George picked up a puncture fighting Norris, so we leave here with just eight points, making it our worst points score of the season. However, we can take encouragement from the fact the car has been good this weekend. Although we’ve struggled in certain conditions, the pace in the race was strong, and we’re going in the right direction. We’re very happy that we’ll get to hit the track again in five days’ time, as we want to put this result behind us.

Mercedes-AMG F1 Team best pictures:

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Thursday – Sam Bloxham

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Thursday – Sam Bloxham

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Friday – Jiri Krenek

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Friday – Sam Bloxham

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Saturday – Jiri Krenek

2023 Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix, Sunday – Jiri Krenek

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