Formula One: Can anyone beat Super Max at the Dutch Grand Prix?

This Formula 1 weekend will be filled with ‘Super Max’ chants and orange flares flooding the sky, as the season rolls on to the Dutch Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort.

Zandvoort, located near to Amsterdam and adjacent to the North Sea, can trace its history back to the pre-war years but it properly took off in the 1950s. It was part of Formula 1’s schedule throughout the sport’s formative years but dropped off the calendar after 1985, with Zandvoort itself undergoing layout changes and reduced track activity taking place.

Can anyone stop Verstappen at home?

The rise of Dutch hero Max Verstappen in the late 2010s provoked discussion over reviving the country’s grand prix, and in 2019 a deal was struck for Zandvoort to return to the schedule in 2020.

Minor revisions were made to the layout with the most striking change coming at the final long-radius corner, which had an 18-degree camber added - a rarity for a European circuit. The Covid-19 pandemic prompted the postponement of the Netherlands’ return but in 2021 it made a successful comeback.

Double Dutch?

Zandvoort’s return last year means there’s only one set of results to rely upon when it comes to form around the coastal circuit.

To the delight of the home crowd it was a pole/win double for Verstappen in Zandvoort’s comeback season, after the Dutch driver narrowly beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position and kept the Mercedes man at bay throughout the course of the 72-lap grand prix. 

Zandvoort’s narrow, twisty and fast nature means there is a greater emphasis on track position compared to some other venues. The top five in qualifying last year finished in exactly the same order 72 laps later, though Sergio Perez showed the strength of the alternate strategy, rising from the pit lane to eighth. 

The form guide in 2022

It is very hard to look past home hero Verstappen again this weekend. The Red Bull racer enters the orange arena 93 points clear of team-mate Perez, and is 98 in front of nearest non-Red Bull driver Charles Leclerc.

It is now a case of when, not if Verstappen wins the 2022 world title. He has won the last three grands prix, including from 10th on the grid in Hungary, and from 14th in Belgium.

That win brought his season tally to nine victories from 14 grands prix, and there is every chance Verstappen could yet threaten the record of 13 wins in a single year, currently shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. 

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