Sport

Orange army expect Dutch Grand Prix to be celebration of Max Verstappen

Victory for champion elect would be his ninth in a row, matching Sebastian Vettel’s record set in 2013

Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen during the second practice session at the Circuit Zandvoort, ahead of the Dutch Formula One Grand Prix. Photograph: JOHN John Thys/Getty Images

Giles Richards in Zandvoort
Fri Aug 25 2023 - 16:25

Even with a chill wind sweeping across the sand dunes of Zandvoort and the threat of rain for Sunday’s race, nothing will dampen the ardour of the fans at the Dutch Grand Prix. They expect a celebration, perhaps even a coronation of sorts, as their man, Max Verstappen, comes home to adulation as the pre-eminent force in Formula One. Their admiration is of course unsurprising but it extends beyond the orange army to Verstappen’s contemporaries, who acknowledge we are witnessing a racing phenomenon.

Verstappen goes into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix in this seaside town outside Amsterdam as world champion elect. More than 100,000 fans will attend this first race since Formula One’s summer break expecting the Red Bull driver to move one step closer to closing it out and in so doing equal a remarkable record.

Victory here would be his ninth in a row, matching Sebastian Vettel’s record set in 2013. It reflects how he has strong-armed the championship. The 25-year-old already has a 125-point lead over his team-mate Sergio Pérez with 10 wins from 12 races. In the only two he was denied he has claimed second place. Pérez in identical machinery has flailed in his wake, as if in a different class.

With 12 meetings concluded and 10 remaining, Verstappen could close out his third consecutive championship as early as the Japanese GP, with six meetings in hand. A level of domination doubtless of concern to the sport, anxious to hold on to the swathe of new fans that have flocked to it in recent years. Such supremacy can be disenchanting, yet in Zandvoort McLaren’s Lando Norris argued strongly in favour of appreciating a rare talent.

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“No matter what it is, if you have a good car or not, I can quite happily say he is probably one of the best drivers ever in F1, without a doubt,” he said. “He just wants to do what he enjoys and as soon as he doesn’t enjoy it he could be out of here. People should enjoy witnessing something like this because it is a bigger achievement rather than complaining it is boring because he is doing so well.”

Norris and Verstappen are friends, they did not race one another until Formula One, but there is a clear comradeship, mutual respect and with only a two-year age gap — Norris is 23 — a palpable generational affinity between the two. From racing to a shared interest in gaming, they are of the same mould.

On Thursday in Zandvoort Lewis Hamilton conceded that Verstappen might yet win every race to come this season and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc warned that he might even be unassailable until the next regulation change in 2026. Norris is as competitive as both drivers and as an undoubted talent himself does not deliver accolades lightly. His brilliant second place at Silverstone this year was further evidence of just how good he can be, yet he admitted that Verstappen remained an outlier that might not be matched.

“You are not ever going to have someone in F1 that can convincingly beat Max, it’s just not going to happen,” he said. “He just wants to come in, prove he is the best and go home. He doesn’t need to have an eighth or a seventh or a sixth world championship to know that, he has proved it in the time he is here.”

Verstappen was taken to the wire by Hamilton in the 2021 championship, a title he won in controversial circumstances at the season finale but having definitively made his case to be a worthy world champion over the season. Now he is all but unchallenged it was a performance Norris believes cemented the Dutch man’s credentials.

“Of course it would be nice to see him battle for it a bit more but he proved when he raced against Lewis in 2021 what a fighter he is and what he can go up against,” Norris said.

Since the Dutch GP returned to the calendar in 2021 Verstappen has won from pole both times. There is no indication that he will not repeat the feat his weekend. Rain remains on the cards and the chasing pack hopes it will narrow their gap but it is straw-clutching at best. Verstappen goes into his home race relaxed and confident as never before. Revered in the Netherlands like no other since perhaps Johan Cruyff, he carries the expectations of a nation with ease, even as he downplays how he has personally brought the magic back to the dunes beside the North Sea.

“It’s just great, it doesn’t bring a weight on my shoulders of extra pressure,” he said. “I think it’s just amazing that this is possible. Nobody 10 years ago even thought about a grand prix here, that we’re able to do that now is just fantastic.”

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