Everything you need to know about the coming 2022 Dutch Grand Prix

The 2022 Dutch Grand Prix will be the 15th race of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship. The event will be celebrated on the upcoming Sunday at Circuit Zandvoort.

Will Red Bull Racing keep dominating?

The past race at Belgium, where many expected the field to be closer at the top due to the technical directive regarding flexible floors, showed that Red Bull might now have an even more significant advantage over its rival, with the team pulling off a tremendous 1-2, despite having Max Verstappen starting the race in 14th place.

Sergio Pérez finished second for Red Bull in Belgium and is now second in the WDC behind Verstappen, who is now 93 points clear in the drivers’ standings. Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari after a bad call for a late pit stop and is now third in the WDC standings, 98 points behind.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is now fourth after finishing third at Spa, with the Mercedes’ pair of George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton in fifth and sixth place, respectively. Hamilton will be eager to grab a good result for his team in the upcoming race, after a miscalculation on his part put an early end to his race due to a collision with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.

Can Alpine keep ahead of McLaren?

Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso) is now 20 points ahead of McLaren (Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo) for fourth place in the World Constructors’ Championship. The French team has 115 points, while McLaren stayed at 95 after failing to score in Spa.

Ocon (64 points) and Alonso (51) are now closer to McLaren’s Norris (70) for seventh place in the WDC and the unofficial ‘best of the rest’ title.

Despite Alfa Romeo (Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou) not scoring points in the last five races, the team remains sixth in the WCC with 51 points.

Haas (Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher) is seventh in the World Constructors’ Championship with 34 points but failed to score in the last three events.

AlphaTauri (29 points - Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda), Aston Martin (24 points - Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll), and Williams (4 points - Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi) all scored points with one driver at Spa-Francorchamps, but still round out the WCC positions.

Gasly, Vettel and Albon finished ninth, eighth and 10th in the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix, respectively.

2022 Dutch GP Facts & Figures

The Dutch Grand Prix will be on the Formula 1 calendar for the second time since 1985, after last year’s return.

Sunday’s race will be the 34th edition of the GP, and the 32nd that has been a part of the Formula 1 World Championship (only the first two races in the Netherlands were non-championship races).

The event has seen historical moments, such as James Hunt taking his first Grand Prix win for Hesketh in 1975 and Niki Lauda winning his 25th and final Grand Prix in 1985 for McLaren.

Tragic situations also showed up in the Dutch Grand Prix, with two-time podium finisher Piers Courage losing his life in the 1970 race after a sad crash. Roger Williamson, a British driver for March, crashed and could not escape his burning car, ultimately dying from asphyxiation in the 1973 event. David Purley, driving another March, pulled up and got out of his car to try and move Williamson’s car, which was upside-down, but all attempts were not enough.

The marshals did not do a good job, but they really could not try much, as they did not have fire-retardant overalls, proving the organisation of the race was not ideal.

The most successful driver in the Dutch Grand Prix is Jim Clark. The legendary, two-time F1 champion won the Dutch Grand Prix four times between 1963 and 1967 with Lotus. Sir Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda follow Clark in the list, with three wins apiece, while every other driver who has won more than once at the Netherlands was a World Champion.

In terms of team wins, Ferrari leads Lotus with eight victories to six. McLaren is third with three wins, while Mercedes and Williams have one win each at Zandvoort. Mercedes won with Juan Manuel Fangio in 1955, while Williams did so with Alan Jones in 1979.

Last season, Dutch driver Max Verstappen won for Red Bull in front of his home crowd, followed by Sir Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

Circuit Zandvoort track info

Zandvoort has held every Dutch Grand Prix to date, and the revamped circuit is definitely a challenging one. Most of today’s F1 grid competed in last year’s event, which saw some battles that were better than expected, given the twisty nature of the track.

The original Zandvoort was designed by Jarno Zaffelli and the track was opened in 1948.

It hosted the Dutch Grand Prix from 1950 to 1985, with the exception of four events that were not celebrated due to financial issues or safety concerns.

This year’s race will be the 34th Dutch Grand Prix celebrated at Circuit Zandvoort and the 32nd that has been a part of the Formula 1 World Championship.

High downforce is highly-necessary at the circuit due to its 14 turns, but the balance will again be key to have enough speed throughout the main straight and its 678 meters.

The final section of the circuit is an amazing one, as seeing Formula 1 cars taking the banked final corner at high speeds is truly unique. The banking on the final corner is at 18 degrees and it was initially thought as a part of the second DRS zone (main straight), but the FIA and the organizers decided against it.

The track was scheduled to make a return to F1 in 2020, with the event expected to be held in May. However, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the situation and Zandvoort made its return in 2021 with a successful event.

The current layout is 4.259-km long and the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix will have 72 laps. The race distance will be 306.587 km if the full race is completed.

The current lap record was set in 2021, with Sir Lewis Hamilton putting up a 1:11.097 min lap in the race.

2022 Dutch Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix will be the C1 as P Zero White hard, C2 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C3 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice with a simple statement in a press release: “This year there’s a bigger gap between the C1 and C2 compounds than there was previously: another reason why teams might concentrate more on the two softer compounds this weekend.

The banking on Turns 3 and 14 is around 18 degrees: by way of comparison, the historic banking on the old circuit at Monza (up next on the calendar) is roughly 30 degrees on average. Of other modern circuits, Indianapolis has nine degrees of banking and Jeddah has 12 degrees.

Zandvoort generates some big g forces all around the 4.2-kilometre track: braking into Turns 1 and 11 is a deceleration of about 5g, while Turn 7 also provides lateral forces of around 5g.
As the name suggests, Zandvoort can be affected by sand blowing onto the surface: the coastal location can also lead to frequent changes in wind direction..”

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 23.5 PSI (front) and 21.5 PSI (rear).

Pirelli’s head of F1 and car racing, Mario Isola, also offered his thoughts about the upcoming weekend and the tyres for the race: “Zandvoort proved to be a spectacular addition to the calendar last year, and the most challenging parts for tyres are the banked Turns 3 and 14, which are taken at high speed and place sustained combined forces on the car: downforce as well as lateral demands.

Along with the other overall demands of the circuit layout, this is why we have nominated the hardest three compounds in the range for only the fourth time in 2022, after Bahrain, Spain and Great Britain.

The new car-tyre package this season should make overtaking easier on a track where it was hard to pass last year: the majority of drivers stopped just once to maintain track position, but this time there could be more of a focus on the softer compounds – which might lead to more two-stoppers and drivers pushing even harder.”

2022 Dutch Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, Sep 2nd - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny and warm
Max. temperature: 25°C
Chance of rain: 1%

Saturday, Sep 3rd - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Max. temperature: 26°C
Chance of rain: 10%

Sunday, Sep 4th - Race
Conditions: Mostly cloudy
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 16%

Who will be on the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix Podium?

2022 Dutch F1 GP podium: 1. Verstappen, 2. Hamilton & 3. Bottas (Photo by Francisco Seco - Pool/Getty Images)

There are no doubts about how dominant Red Bull was at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, and the Austrian team is definitely favorite to dominate again at Zandvoort, where the team also won last year with Max Verstappen and a dominant car, which could be the same combination this year.

The Dutchman will be aiming to give his home crowd another win, but it will certainly be different, as the track isn’t as power-hungry as Spa’s first sector, and Ferrari and Mercedes can go quite better in the twisty sections of Zandvoort.

Mercedes, for example, needs a strong result and the track could suit the W13 much better than Spa-Francorchamps, although the car is still struggling and remains unpredictable.

Ferrari is also under even more pressure, given how the team has struggles mightily on the track and, perhaps, even more on the pit-wall, were strategic calls continue to become harder and harder to understand.

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