Holland, McLaren knocks out Red Bull: Norris’ pole telemetry

McLaren outclasses Red Bull

Qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix provided some surprises, but not in terms of overall performance on the track. McLaren confirms itself as the leading forcewith a stoic Verstappen, who tried, with a lap strongly on the limit, to contain a potential supremacy of the Papaya team. One could say “mission accomplished” once again for the Dutchman, thanks to a bad performance by Oscar Piastri which opened the doors of the front row to the host, at least temporarily changing the path of a weekend that seemed already written all in orange, but not in the shade hoped for by local fans.

Significant gap, a signal not to be underestimated

The gap inflicted by Lando Norris on his opponents, however, is one of those important and deserves a more in-depth reflection. The Zandvoort track is certainly technical but still short, with a lap time of 1 minute and 10 and a length of just over 4,200 meters. The 3 and a half tenths that the Englishman has put behind his closest pursuer, namely the home driver Max Verstappen, are a truly significant gap, of a good 0.8 tenths per kilometera much broader figure than what we have seen so far this season and which should not be easily filed away as a super performance by Norris (which, let’s be clear, was there). The reality that seems to be starting to emerge (and which we will see whether the race will confirm or not) is the one we have referred to several times in the first part of the season. The Woking team was already expressing the best overall performance on the track despite lacking a second step of updates unlike the whole plethora of opponents. A further step forward in the performance of the MCL38 like the one we can sense in Zandvoort could leave its mark on the second part of the season with less balance than seen so far and a significant advantage for the team led by Andrea Stella, perhaps significant enough to “survive” any errors, given that the McLaren pit wall has accumulated quite a few so far. Obviously, Max must always be reckoned with, but, as we saw in Holland, the driver’s talent can make up for it within certain limits, after which even the best have to settle. It remains clear that Piastri’s poor performance still leaves some doubts, but the impression is that the young Australian has stumbled into a not particularly happy Q3. Looking at the data from the direct comparison between Verstappen and Norris, we can note a series of details that we consider interesting.

McLaren: qualifying with Norris plus exhaust, but what a performance in traction

Compared to the data from the first day, we note first of all that Norris’ car seems to have decreased some of the aerodynamic load. Evidently with the track having more rubber and in terms of race pace, the Woking engineers thought that the ideal compromise was with a car that was faster also on the straights and the result so far certainly proves them right. During qualifying the impression was also that the two McLaren drivers themselves do not have the same level of load, with Norris in fact slightly more unloaded than Piastri, perhaps also with a view to rubber managementwhere English is still significantly superior to teammate. The Turn 7 once again highlights the RedBull’s qualities in fast cornersalways strong of a particularly rigid set-up to roll, but the McLaren leap forward that we seem to be able to deduce from Norris’ data is both from a technical point of view of efficiencybut above all with a car that is decidedly reactive on the longitudinal axis: in the first sector, in fact, Norris puts two and a half tenths ahead of Verstappen not with any particular higher cornering speeds, but with deeper braking and significantly faster exit restarts. In the central sector Verstappen tries to give it his all and recovers something, but the Dutchman then commits a small mistake in the third sector and the gap, which had reached around 1.3 tenths at the exit of turn 12, quickly reached 3 and a half tenths of the finish line, with the McLaren relying on its brilliance in traction along the entire parabolic section.

Mercedes far away, Ferrari very far away

Norris’ pole seems to have somehow extended all the gaps on the grid. Mercedes looked decidedly out of step on the flying lap, with Hamilton even out of Q3. Russell’s fourth place sees a W15 with good feedback on fast corners but particularly struggling on slow sectionsespecially at turn 9-10 in the central sector, where the British rider took 3 of the almost 6 tenths he gained on the finish line. A very tough day for Ferrari toobut as expected. Sainz He failed to get into Q3 but he can be defined blameless in this case, given the problems of the free ones, while Leclerc did what he could with an SF24 in enormous difficulty, almost a second away from the top, although still in sixth position. The Maranello team’s car appeared particularly weak on all fronts compared to the first ones: in the first sector it is evident the suffering at Tarzan and turn 3in the second sector the sequence of fast corners first and then long, slow corners leaves Leclerc half a second behind the best only in that stretch. Only in the final part of the lap does the Monegasque somehow manage to defend himself, but never like this weekend the SF24 had shown such important limitations from every point of view. Until they arrive the new parts being defined in Maranello for the reds there is very little to do considering also the progress of competition. The lack of load and support in long curves have now become characteristics of the car compared to its rivals who have improved in the meantime, and destroy any hope of performance from the single-seater, with the team, also according to Vasseur (who continues to call for finding a solution to score “good points even on the most difficult weekends”), trying to rely on good tyre management in the race to limit the damage and try to seize any opportunities that may arise, and little more.

McLaren are the clear favourites for the race, but the track is unpredictable. Can Norris win this time?

For the Grand Prix victory Lando Norris is the clear favouritebut the Dutch track presents more than one risk: Safety cars, accidents and variable weather are typical of Zandvoortso it might not be a walk in the park for the Englishman, assuming he finally manages to hold on to first place after the start, something he has never managed to do so far. Also important for McLaren will be Piastri’s performance: if the Australian will be able to seriously worry the home driver Max Verstappen the race for Norris will become easier. The variables mentioned above for Norris remain valid for everyone, so we will see how the race will develop, also from a technical point of view. strategicwith the doubt that remains between a soft tyre that collapses quickly and a hard one that might not get up to temperature and suffer from grainingleaving the strategy open, therefore, also from the point of view of the compounds.