Light rain, heavy rain, red flags, yellow flags, safety cars, cars in barriers, earthquakes, landslides, Martian invasions, you name it. No matter what nature, chance or the universe threw at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, none of it was enough to snap the dominance of Max Verstappen, who drove through the chaos to post his ninth consecutive victory.
This left him with a share of Sebastian Vettel’s record set a decade ago. The locals, to a human Verstappen devotees, offered raucous approval of the outcome, as they did last year and the year before that, celebrations becoming the driver who refuses to lose. Next weekend at Monza it seems little can prevent Verstappen taking solo ownership of Vettel’s old mark en route to a third consecutive world title.
During the victory ceremony, the Dutch royal family and the Red Bull high command stared upwards at the podium as if gazing at a deity, which Verstappen is fast becoming in this business. The hallmark of genius is identified as much by the inability of rivals to grasp the scale of his domination as much as the times he lays down. He qualified on pole in Zandvoort more than a second quicker than his teammate Sergio Perez, who, though second in the championship, trails by 131 points.
“Odd, bizarre,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff when asked to explain the difference between the two Red Bull drivers. “Checo is not an idiot. We have seen it over the years. Checo is a Grand Prix winner, multiple Grand Prix winner and he was at Racing Point. I cannot comprehend it.”
Red Bull general Christian Horner thought there was no love greater than his for Vettel, until Verstappen came along. “The expectation, how much noise and support that he’s had, everyone feels that, we feel that within the team. But he’s in the zone. He can focus on himself and get the job done. To match Sebastian, nine straight victories, to do it twice as a team is really incredible.”
Verstappen wears his success lightly. The risk-taking maverick of his early F1 career has been replaced by a version of himself that might be the work of AI so perfect does he appear. Even in that tense, first championship season, Verstappen maintained impressive control of his emotions, neither getting carried away with the victories nor despondent in defeat. He was not to blame for the larceny that denied Lewis Hamilton an eighth championship in circumstances that did Verstappen nor the sport any favours. As he barrels towards the hat-trick none can imagine how he might finish anywhere but first, save for the unforeseen intervention. And even then, you have to wonder.
“They didn’t make it easy for us with the weather to make all the right calls but incredibly proud,” he said of the win before his waterlogged supporters. “I already had goosebumps when they were playing the national anthem before the start. Even with all the bad weather and the rain the fans were still going at it. I’m going to enjoy this weekend. It’s always tough, the pressure is always on to perform and very happy of course to win here.”
It says everything about the balance of power in Formula One in this moment that Fernando Alonso, a double world champion when Verstappen was in nappies, celebrated second as enthusiastically as any of his 32 wins. Ditto Pierre Gasly, who looked ready to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the stands to mark his first podium for Alpine.
F1 result: Dutch GP 2023 standings
- 1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
- 2nd: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)*
- 3rd: Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
- 4th: Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- 5th: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- 6th: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- 7th: Lando Norris (McLaren)
- 8th: Alexander Albon (Williams)
- 9th: Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- 10th: Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- 11th: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- 12th: Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- 13th: Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri)
- 14th: Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
- 15th: Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
- 16th: Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- 17th: George Russell (Mercedes)
DNF: Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Logan Sergeant (Williams)
*Bonus point for fastest lap
The first drops of rain fell before the first lap was run. Seeking to gain a much-needed strike against the field Red Bull brought in Perez immediately for intermediates. He came out seven seconds a lap quicker than Verstappen, which would take him all the way to the front once the field had followed suit.
The contest then became about timing the switch to dries. Hamilton, who started 13th, was one of the last to pit for inters and drifted down the standings. Having acknowledged their mistake Mercedes were the first back on slicks with Hamilton, which at least allowed him to regain the lost places.
When the rain returned with a dozen laps to go, all but one driver switched to inters. A move that lasted two laps, when all bar Perez were back for full wets. Perez came in a lap later at the same time as the race was red flagged after Zhou Guanyu smashed into the barriers at turn one.
The five-second penalty handed down for speeding in the pit lane at the resumption with six laps to go would drop Perez out of the podium places to fourth. That’s how he rolls.
Carlos Sainz held off a late Hamilton charge for fifth with Lando Norris sixth. That would have been the fate of George Russell had he not picked up a puncture passing Norris in the bedlam of that spray-washed finale. That’s how he rolls at the moment too.