An uneventful summer break is done and we are officially in race week once again after a three-week gap. Racing returns this weekend as Formula One heads to the Netherlands for the Dutch Grand Prix 2026. Before going into the break, a couple of teams showed improvement with their upgrades, most notably McLaren as Lando Norris finally picked up his first win of the season to get the defending world champion on the board for the season.
Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix 2026, here’s our race preview and predictions.
While Mercedes and Ferrari have been the two teams to beat, over the course of the last couple of race weekends, McLaren have found themselves in the fight right at the front of the grid. Upgrades in Hungary worked like a charm as the McLarens were on the pace from the get-go with Lando Norris being on the pace from the Free Practice sessions and he ended up topping FP3 in Hungary. Norris ended up taking pole position as well while Oscar Piastri managed to out-qualify Max Verstappen and George Russell.
Piastri led the race for the early part but a stellar stint on the old tyres combined with Piastri suffering a gearbox problem, Norris took the lead and held on it as neither the Ferraris or Mercedeses could get close to him with Norris finishing more than 15 seconds ahead of second place Max Verstappen.
Ferrari already have two wins this season, courtesy Lewis Hamilton’s triumph in Barcelona and Charles Leclerc’s win in Silverstone while Red Bull have been showing strong pace as well with Max Verstappen picking up a third place in Belgium and following it up with a second place finish in Hungary. With multiple teams getting close at the front, the reigning Constructors’ champions needed a strong weekend to put their name in the title fight again and while they are a good 150+ points off in the Constructors’ battle right now, the upgrades were a positive sign and McLaren will hope to continue to close the gap to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari at the top.
While Mercedes and Ferrari will start as the favourites, don’t count out McLaren from being in the fight for the win in the Netherlands, especially on a track they have won in 2024 and 2025.
Pole prediction: Kimi Antonelli / George Russell
Race winners prediction: Mercedes / Ferrari
With three wins at Zandvoort, Max Verstappen is already the joint-second most successful driver at the venue and one more win in Netherlands will see him tie with Jim Clark for a record four wins in Netherlands. Verstappen has always been strong in the Netherlands. Verstappen has been leading the charge for Red Bull one again, having picked up all of the team’s podiums so far and has scored back-to-back podiums heading into the Dutch race.
A third place finish in Belgium saw Verstappen finish ahead of a Ferrari and both McLarens while his second place finish in Hungary saw him finish ahead of both Ferraris and both Mercedes. Despite not having the strongest car, Verstappen has put his Red Bull machinery in places it should not be in and while on sheer race pace, they might not be able to be on the same league as Mercedes just yet, Verstappen and Red Bull have aleady started reducing the gap to the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. It was a slow start to the season but it looks like they are taking steps to fixing the balance issue of the car, consistency and also the downshifts, expect Verstappen to have a strong weekend in front of his loving home fans.
Dark Horse: Max Verstappen
Aston Martin was one of the teams along with Cadillac and Williams who had a rough start to the season with Aston Martin suffering to even get out of Q1 until Hungary while failing to see the chequered flag in the opening two races. Prior to the Hungarian race weekend, Aston Martin brought a big upgrade package and are expected to bring another big engine upgrade from Honda in Zandvoort. The upgrades showed results immediately in Hungary as Fernando Alonso got the Aston Martin out of Q1 for the first time this season and Lance Stroll and Alonso managed to finish ahead of an Alpine and the Haas duo.
The signs look positive for Aston Martin with the upgrades as they look like they might have pipped Cadillac, Williams and Haas initially although it might be too early to call on that. Given the improvement made already from where they were at the start of the season, Aston Martin’s Honda upgrade for the Dutch Grand Prix will be one to keep an eye out for and expect Alonso and Stroll to move just a bit up ahead from the bottom of the grid.
Circuit: Circuit Zandvoort
Venue: Zandvoort, North Holland, Netherlands
Practice Session 1 time: 16:00 IST, August 21, 2026
Sprint Qualifying time: 20:00 – 20:44 IST, August 21, 2026
Sprint time: 15:30 IST, August 22, 2026
Qualifying time: 19:30 IST, August 22, 2026
Main race time: 18:30 IST, August 23, 2026
Where to watch: F1 TV Pro / FanCode
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