Adam CooperIn the latest of our post-race weekend debriefs, Adam Cooper looks at the top stories to come out of the final Dutch Grand Prix for the foreseeable future.
McLaren’s 2026 upgrades continue to work as planned
McLaren’s winning form in Zandvoort followed on from Budapest, a track that is broadly similar in nature and thus was expected to favour the MCL40.
However the car’s performance last weekend was also boosted by another upgrade package as the Woking team continues to bring new parts to the track – in this case a revised rear wing, engine cover/coke, and rear brake ducts.
A huge part of McLaren’s recent success is that upgrades have gone on the car and worked as planned, and that has continued into 2026.
“I think the item that I can recall not having been a straight introduction to racing was probably the front wing,” said team principal Andrea Stella when asked by Motorsport Tech about this year’s upgrade programme.
“We had a couple of modifications to make sure that the intent was met as we introduced the front wing.
“This was around Canada time, but otherwise, I think the rate of success of our upgrades has been relatively high in continuation with what we had in the previous seasons.
“That’s in terms of delivering upgrades from development to the full-scale car.”
Intriguingly Stella noted that all teams appear to be having similar success when the bring new parts in 2026.
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— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 24, 2026
“I’ve always also said that I think with this regulation, this seems to be more of a general, of an established trend.
“I think, for everyone it’s slightly easier to find confirmation of their expectation from development with what they leave on the car in terms of upgrades.
“Or at least there’s not been as much talk as there was in the past. I can see from a technical point of view why that may be the case.
“Some aspects of the aerodynamic development are slightly easier than they were last year, especially towards the maturity of the regulations last year, where it made really difficult to improve the car. So, happy with the developments.”
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Audi leads the midfield pack as Hulkenberg stars
Zandvoort was a solid weekend for the Audi team, with Nico Hulkenberg heading the midfield battle in Sunday’s race as he took P8 – although it could have been a very different outcome for the team.
The car showed good one lap pace, with Gabriel Bortoleto in the top 10 in all six qualifying sessions, and taking P9 on the grid for the GP.
He lost a few spots at the start and then had a spectacular spin in the final corner, just as Max Verstappen crashed up ahead.
An extraordinary reaction from Nico Hülkenberg to avoid teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, after he span out at the Dutch Grand Prix 😮 pic.twitter.com/44xTi7TS5R
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 24, 2026
Hulkenberg was immediately behind, and despite heading into a cloud of tyres smoke the German managed to miss his team mate – had they made contact, Audi would have been left with two badly damaged cars.
“A bit wild,” said Hulkenberg when asked about the incident by Motorsport Tech.
“The whole track was very dry, just that corner stayed much wetter, and obviously sketchy, caught people out.
“It was very tricky, and I wasn’t sure where he’s going to go, if he’s going to roll up or roll down.
“I almost T-boned him!” 🫣
Crazy replays of Nico Hulkenberg’s close call with teammate Gabriel Bortoleto 😯 pic.twitter.com/yEAFoij0K8
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 23, 2026
“I was like waiting, hesitating till the last moment. And I think a good portion of luck not to hit each other there. But that was too close for comfort…”
After the restart, Hulkenberg put in a feisty performance to get up to eighth and the head of the midfield fight as Audi continued its run of points finishes across a range of very different tracks, and on a weekend that saw no aero updates.
“In the midfield, once you’re ahead, that’s pretty key for anyone,” he noted. “And we’re able then to exploit the car, the pace. So yeah, really good teamwork overall, good job on the strategy.
“Friday, Saturday, it was not the easiest weekend for me. So it feels really sweet and nice to come away with this result.”
Alpine’s wait for an upgrade package has paid off
To the frustration of Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, Alpine had slipped behind in the midfield battle in recent races as others have brought upgrades.
The Enstone team was out of synch with rivals, waiting for a post summer break package.
Pierre Gasly on his battle against the Racing Bulls at the Dutch GP 🗣👀 pic.twitter.com/365QknN1KU
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 24, 2026
When it finally came, it was extensive, featuring changes to the floor, diffuser, sidepods/coke, rear wing flap and rear impact structure.
The team fast tracked a set for Zandvoort, beating the original target of Monza, so only Pierre Gasly had the new parts – and Colapinto provided the benchmark.
The upgrades clearly provided a benefit that more or less equated to the anticipated 0.3/0.4s.
Gasly was P8 and at the head of the midfield in both sprint qualifying and the sprint itself, earning a valuable point, although in main qualifying he had to settle for P11 after a scrappy Q2 session.
Our favourite place to be… trackside 😍📸 pic.twitter.com/u7LfaxsJtU
— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) August 25, 2026
“We’re still trying to understand about these new parts,” he said.
“We’ve changed stuff that doesn’t seem big, but at the same time, we’ve got to understand if this is a bigger effect than we thought.
“So at the moment, not too much we can say. All I know is, you know, if it was the absolute best lap and everything felt amazing and we were a tenth off, it would be more concerning.
“Things just didn’t quite click.”
The starting position made his life harder for the race, but after a big fight with Yuki Tsunoda he made it to P10, albeit behind an Audi and an Aston.
However, a total of two points on a weekend when Racing Bulls failed to score was a decent outcome.
Aston Martin has made a further step with the AMR26
Fernando Alonso enjoyed a superb run to P9 in Zandvoort, bagging Aston Martin two valuable points. Remarkably in the midfield battle he beat everyone bar Hulkenberg.
He was propelled up the order by a unique one-stop strategy after the restart that saw him run 32 laps on the soft tyres, and then another 37 on the hards.
As such this wasn’t a result earned on pure pace relative to his immediate rivals.
Nevertheless he still needed a decent car under him in order to be in a position to make the most of the strategy, and crucially he had to be able to keep his tyres alive for those long stints.
Indeed in a post-flag radio message he acknowledged that the car had been good to drive.
The Budapest package was bolstered in Zandvoort by further changes, including tweaks to the front wing, floor and diffuser.
The downside was that Honda’s upgraded engine was not the instant improvement that had been hoped for, and it will take time to optimise it around driveability and so on.
“We get to know this package more and more,” said chief trackside officer Mike Krack.
“I think we said with the large package that we introduced in Budapest, we’ll take some sessions to learn how to deal with it, and to learn how to set it up.
“And the same goes actually also for the introduction of the power unit.
“Now we need to learn how to how to use it, we need to learn how to optimise it, and I think that is it’s going to take us a couple of events. But it was a good step forward.”
Lawson proves his point to Red Bull Racing
In 2025 Liam Lawson wasn’t given much of a chance to show what he could do at Red Bull Racing, lasting just two races before he was dropped by Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.
An injury for Isack Hadjar gave him the chance to sample the RB22 in Zandvoort, while Yuki Tsunoda was brought in to drive the vacated VCARB 03.
It was an interesting exercise for both men. Lawson was fully up to speed with the 2026 cars and the Ford power unit, but he still had to adjust to a completely different chassis, while for Tsunoda it was a much bigger challenge.
He had done a lot of sim work for Red Bull and thus had good knowledge of the ’26 regs, but he hadn’t actually driven on track.
Both men only had the Wednesday prior to the race to run their new cars in the sim in Zandvoort spec.
After driving the real car Lawson noted: “Honestly, the best way I can describe it is outside of the power unit, every single thing feels different.
“The way the steering feels versus how the car moves, balance through corner, obviously the high-speed grip -everything’s different about it.”
He missed put on points in the sprint, starting and finishing 11th, but a good main qualifying session saw him P8 and right behind teammate Verstappen.
After the former World Champion’s crash Lawson had a solid run to P7, which was as much as he could do given that the RB22 was not at its best at Zandvoort.
LL30’s debrief is in 👇#F1 || #DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/KC8uITCbjJ
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) August 23, 2026
“I’m sure there’s things that I could do better in the race,” he noted. “And I’ll try and reflect on that. But in terms of positions, I don’t think we had the speed to match the guys at the front. I feel like we knew that after yesterday, as well.”
Meanwhile having been a tenth shy of Racing Bulls team mate Arvid Lindblad in main qualifying Tsunoda missed out on the points in P11, but nevertheless he also did a good job and showed the wider F1 paddock that he is worthy of a seat.
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