“It’s an old school circuit, the atmosphere here has been outstanding,” said Verstappen’s Red Bull team boss Christian Horner at the time.
“I think in my entire career I’ve never heard so much support for a driver. It’s been like being in a nightclub for three days.
“The way that Max has handled that pressure, we’ve seen it in other drivers at home races, sometimes it can get to them.
“But I think the intensity and the noise has just been insane.”
However, this year Verstappen will return as a world champion and being en route to back-to-back titles, a similar atmosphere should be expected.
Can anybody spoil the Dutch party?
Despite starting in P14, Verstappen was still favourite to win in Spa which shows how far ahead of everybody he is right now
If the last two races have proved anything, it’s that nothing can really stop Verstappen at the moment, who became the second driver after Bruce McLaren to win back-to-back races starting from P10 or below.
As a driver all year, he’s just been in a league of his own and also has the car to match it, with Red Bull RB18 winning all but four races.
The team is romping towards both titles however, despite how dominant Spa was, the feeling is this weekend should be a lot tighter – with Zandvoort’s characteristics playing into this.
After huge renovation work, the track now represents a rollercoaster-like experience for the drivers with plenty of elevation changes around the twisty, 14-turn track.
This year’s Red Bull is faster on the straights, but the Ferrari is handier through the low-speed corners – seeing who emerges on top in this intense battle for supremacy will be fascinating.
Zandvoort is a high-downforce circuit and when F1 has visited such tracks this season the Sucderia has been the team largely on top.
Leclerc had an easy lead in Spain until an MGU-H failure put him out, victory should have been his in Monaco had it not been for a Ferrari pit-stop blunder, with more tyre choice issues in Budapest.
“I think it’s [Spa] a one-off,” said Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz of Red Bull’s crushing Spa performance. “I think they just had a super-strong weekend.
“I think at Zandvoort we can be back on form and beat Red Bull again. I’m not particularly worried about that. Can we get back in the fight? I am convinced we should.”
These thoughts were echoed by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who said: “I think they will be back strong in Zandvoort.
“As you know this [Spa] is a very unique place with a lot of straights around this place, where we are gaining a lot of lap time on them. So Zandvoort will be quite different.”
Has the technical directive made any difference?
Despite optimism for Spa, Mercedes were further off the pace than usual
A new technical directive was brought in for Spa to ensure planks under the car floor remain rigid, after it was thought Ferrari and Red Bull had made use of a controversial interpretation of the rules to give their skid blocks extra flexibility, thus greater aerodynamic stability.
It was believed Mercedes would be one of the teams most benefitted by the change, who had been gradually closing their gap to the top two before the summer break.
Yet come Spa, the Silver Arrows were 1.9 seconds off the pace in qualifying and Verstappen breezed past George Russell on his way to first.
“That technical directive has been very, very bad for us,” joked Verstappen. “As I said before, I didn’t expect it to make much difference to our car.
“Whether it does for Ferrari, I don’t know. And Mercedes is a bit short of top speed this year anyway, so it’s no surprise that they’re not competing here either.”
It will be worth watching to see if Spa was just a one-off or if in fact the pecking order will remain as it is – expect more talk of the technical directive to rumble on throughout the Dutch GP weekend.
The battle for fourth hots up
Bragging rights between the two teams is constantly changing but at the moment, Alpine has the edge
McLaren and Alpine are engaged in a battle on- and off-track – both are vying for the signature of young, hotshot Oscar Piastri, while also fighting for fourth in the championship.
It looks like the young Australian is off to McLaren for 2023 but Alpine is the team ahead in the championship, with Spa being a very good weekend for the French outfit.
