There was something apposite about the master painter from Royal Delft gradually hand-finishing the Dutch Grand Prix trophies, over the two-day lead-up to the Formula 1 contest, working at a stall set up outside the McLaren motorhome. That the two grandest ones, for victorious driver and constructor, would end up returning to the papaya palace seemed a virtual inevitability.
McLaren now has more than double the constructors’ points of second-placed Ferrari, while Max Verstappen is a diminishing speck in the rear-view mirrors of drivers’ championship frontrunners Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
There was a palpable absence of energy in the Zandvoort paddock, as if this were the last race before the summer break rather than the first one after it. All the signs pointed to an outbreak of the unfortunate contagion my wife calls “can’t-be-arsed-it-is”.
Only the teams who view scooping Williams for fifth place in the constructors’ standings as a win are showing much enthusiasm for the fight. Behind the scenes they have all switched focus to 2026 development – the Haas update for the US GP has long since been signed off – and groupthink is tugging everyone else in the same direction.
“Any more 2025 questions,” chivvied Alpine’s press attache during the mandatory ‘show and tell’ with executive technical director David Sanchez. “Upgrades for this weekend? Or is it all ’26 related?”
“There’s only so much you can say about a brake duct,” harrumphed one of the miserabilists present.
There was also a diminishing sense of intrigue about the battle for the drivers’ title – even before Norris caught the scent of smoke in his nostrils and realised his car was about to consign him to an early night at the trackside NH Hotel for McDonalds and whatever.
Norris was set to lose ground to Piatsri even before smoke emerged from his McLaren
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