Is Ferrari making too many mistakes for the World Championship title?
Mathematically, Ferrari still has a chance this year to win the first drivers’ title since 2007. Lewis Hamilton is currently 59 points behind World Championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Theoretically, that can still be caught up.
However, Ferrari must deliver better weekends for that. Frederic Vasseur knows this too. “I think the pace this weekend was good, at least in both races,” explains the team principal.
However, they were not fast enough in qualifying, and then the execution of the race was “not good.” Hamilton himself has already complained about this.
“If we have to learn something from this weekend, it is that it is not about pure potential. I think it is more about execution on these two days,” emphasizes Vasseur.
“In some phases of the weekend, we were able to keep up performance-wise, but we have to do that all the time,” says the team principal. Otherwise, it will be difficult to catch Mercedes at the top.
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Norris equals Ascari
Lando Norris secured his 13th Grand Prix win in Formula 1 yesterday. This puts him in 23rd place on the all-time best list, alongside Alberto Ascari and David Coulthard.
However, these numbers are not really comparable because there were significantly fewer races in Ascari’s (and also Coulthard’s) time.
With his 14th victory, Norris would next equal Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, and Emerson Fittipaldi. You can also read all about this in our large database.
Formula 3 tests in Madrid
Normally, we would not report on a Formula 3 test here. However, today’s and tomorrow’s test is quite exciting because it takes place on the completely new track in Madrid.
The test is thus practically the “dress rehearsal” before the Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Madring in three weeks. So we will at least keep an eye on whether anything noteworthy happens there.
Hamilton: Still losing too much on the straights
Is the engine the biggest (and perhaps only) weakness of the current Ferrari package? At least Lewis Hamilton emphasized again yesterday that they simply lose too much time on the straights.
“We lose about four tenths per lap here [to Mercedes] on the straights alone,” says the record champion, emphasizing: “That is very difficult to make up in the other sections of the track.”
At the same time, this also shows “that we have a really good car,” says Hamilton, adding that they just have to manage to improve the engine a bit more.
Fittingly, there is supposed to be an update already at the next race in Monza.
Fastest lap
The fact that Ferrari’s pace was generally not so bad yesterday is also shown by the fact that Charles Leclerc set the fastest race lap. Here it is again in full in the video:
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Why doesn’t Mercedes bring more updates?
Many fans are surely asking this question. Because while the competition seems to bring updates continuously, the Silver Arrows are very sparing with new parts in 2026.
Toto Wolff explains this on Sky: “We are all simply limited by the budget cap to a certain extent. And for us, it is such that we still have to wait for some races for the [next] upgrade.”
They simply “don’t have the money to make further developments on the car. I have already said that we try to spread this evenly over the season,” says Wolff.
“But we simply cannot do what we cannot do,” he shrugs. This naturally raises the question of whether the opponents, who have already brought significantly more updates, will soon run out of money…
Bad sleep?
Ferrari probably did not have the best night after yesterday’s race either. In our popular Monday column, Christian Nimmervoll this time chose a different “protagonist”.
You can find our columns and the video analysis of the Zandvoort race here:
Who slept the worst last night: Oscar Piastri
Who slept the best last night: Liam Lawson
Video analysis Zandvoort 2026
Teamwork and resistance: Mercedes supports Kimi, Hamilton angry at Leclerc I F1 Race Zandvoort 2026
Goedemorgen!
Hello and welcome to a new edition of our Formula 1 live ticker. The Dutch Grand Prix is history, but we are here again today to work through some topics from Zandvoort.
Ruben Zimmermann will accompany you here throughout the day, and for questions, suggestions, or complaints, you can use our contact form. You can also find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Here is our live ticker from yesterday again for reading.
Read more Piastri puzzles after Zandvoort: «There have been too many races of this kind»
