> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Everything we learned from day one at F1's Dutch GP - URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-we-learned-day-one-at-f1-dutch-grand-prix/ - Published: 2026-08-20T16:55:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T16:55:48.000Z - Description: Thursday at Zandvoort was the first chance to hear from some of the names generating big news in F1 right now. Here's what we learned. - Author: The Race Team - Tags: Formula 1, #dutch-grand-prix, #alpine, #honda, #cadillac, #sergio-perez, #fernando-alonso, #max-verstappen, #carlos-sainz, #yuki-tsunoda, #haas, #primary_homepage_feature F1 is back from the summer break with a bang. Today was the first chance to hear from drivers who made big statements like Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, ones who haven't, like Fernando Alonso, new team bosses and teams which needed to use the summer break to capitalise and improve. Luckily, our team on the ground in Zandvoort and back at base were on hand to sift through Thursday's media day to bring you the most important nuggets. ### Verstappen was closer to retiring than joining rivals Max Verstappen extending his stay at Red Bull until the end of 2030 was the biggest news from Thursday at Zandvoort. It’s a big win for Red Bull and evidence that Verstappen really does want to end his F1 career with the team. Rumours of his management talking with McLaren and other rivals were real, but Red Bull’s clearly managed to convince Verstappen that there’s no need to look elsewhere. And perhaps even more importantly, Verstappen feels F1’s regulations are slowly getting there, so he basically put up with the flaws in them. “The rules are slowly getting a bit better and I'm willing to live with it,” Verstappen said. “And hopefully, by 2030 it opens up another opportunity, potentially with V8 engines coming in, to look again.” Those V8 engines are currently set for 2031, so, having previously considered walking away completely, Verstappen’s now even started talking about his F1 career further into the 2030s…**\- Josh Suttill** ### Alonso can't thank his 'lucky' stars Fernando Alonso had been definitive before the summer break that his ‘plan’ was to decide on his future in Formula 1 during the holidays. In fact, at the British Grand Prix, he suggested that a potential epiphany moment could come during the annual Perseids meteor shower in the middle of August. But as he returned to the F1 paddock in Zandvoort on Thursday, it became clear that the night sky had not given Alonso his answer. Instead, he seemed unsure about what he wanted in his own head, and whether or not team owner Lawrence Stroll or boss Adrian Newey would even want him to continue driving or move into a team management role. “Sitting with Lawrence and Adrian, if the need for the team is for me to drive, I will consider,” he said. “I will be happy if I can be more valuable in another position, I will consider and I will be happy as well.” While teasing the idea of definitely racing something else next year – whether it was F1, the Dakar Rally or the Indy 500 – Alonso seemed to suggest that things were out of his hands. “I think it's more a team need, more than myself,” he said. “I'm happy to be here, I'm here to help Aston as well. I feel fast, I feel motivated. Let's see what happens.” For someone as insanely competitive as Alonso and eager to keep racing, the relaxed approach was slightly unexpected, but the Spaniard is also a smart cookie. By the time he gets around to chat with Stroll and Newey over the next few weeks, both parties will have more knowledge about whether or not Honda has turned the corner on its early 2026 struggles, so will be more qualified to judge what 2027 could really look like. The answer to that matters much more to Alonso's future than any shooting star. **\- Jon Noble** ### ‘Cascade’ to blame for Cadillac brake troubles Marcin Budkowski spent three “long” days at Cadillac’s Silverstone base before flying to Zandvoort late last night, his first look at it since being appointed team principal. He talked positively about how well-equipped it is, but looking at the team up close, he suggested that “there’s potentially some reprioritisation to be done in terms of what’s important”. While he wasn’t precise in terms of what that meant, he pointed to the brake overheating problems that have dogged the team as an area to be addressed. “There’s been some mistakes made in terms of design and materials that will be addressed,” said Budkowski. “It's an unlucky chain of events in a way because the brake failures - I don't want to go into details, but they're not a single source of failure, there's a cascade of different things. “It's one of these situations when you fix one thing and something else goes wrong and you learn as you do it.” When asked by The Race whether the brake problems were aerodynamic or mechanical in terms of the brake cooling problems, described it as “a little bit of both”. Crucially, while accepting the cooling airflow is inadequate, he also revealed “some of the sealings and stuff has been unreliable”. Improving the build and assembly quality is therefore likely to be one of the areas Budkowski will attempt to address, although he says “I’m focused everywhere at the moment”. **\- Edd Straw** ### Tsunoda feels ready thanks to extensive TPC running Yuki Tsunoda says he feels physically and mentally “sharp” ahead of his unexpected return to F1 with Racing Bulls at Zandvoort, thanks mainly to extensive TPC running with Red Bull this year that allowed him to cover “five race distances”. “Physically and in terms of my mind, I think it's sharp enough,” he said. “I was training for almost every day for a long time. I had a lot of time to train because I didn't have anything to do other than that. “Also, I've done four TPCs and within that I was doing five race distances. Feeling sharp. I had a good experience and good laps in those TPCs. All I just need to do is to get used to this car.” Tsunoda’s job there will be more difficult than on a conventional F1 weekend, as he only has a single practice session to familiarise himself, on top of a single simulator session he completed with Racing Bulls yesterday (Wednesday), after getting the call up to race on Tuesday, while he was relaxing on a beach in Greece. He feels the similarities in steering wheel and button configurations between the two Red Bull teams, plus how similar those things are compared to last year when he was racing for Red Bull, should aid that process of assimilation and make it “a pretty smooth transition”, but nevertheless the lack of track time means Tsunoda is “not setting any expectations”. “For now, I just enjoy and have fun, which I wanted to have for a long time.” **\- Ben Anderson** ### More power - but that's not enough After Aston Martin’s Hungary upgrade delivered its promised step forward, engine partner Honda knows that all eyes are on the contribution its upgraded power unit will bring at Zandvoort this weekend. But the Japanese manufacturer is playing things very close to its chest when it comes to being definitive about what kind of step it is anticipating. So much so in fact that Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara jokingly held up a sign at his regular media event on Thursday saying: “Ask me anything…except the kW (Kilowatt) and laptime.” > 😅 A few laughs in the Honda media session earlier [pic.twitter.com/MPBmwx0gJq](https://t.co/MPBmwx0gJq?ref=the-race.com) > > — The Race (@wearetherace) [August 20, 2026](https://x.com/wearetherace/status/2090369553372954727?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=the-race.com) Orihara was eager to point out that in F1 there is no such thing as a ‘magic’ update and Honda needed to be ‘realistic’ about what could be expected the first time out. What seems certain is that there is more power, with Lance Stroll having noted progress when he tried it out during the post-Hungary filming day. But it came with a firm caveat that more power alone is not enough in the world on F1. “I think it was better on power. There were still some things to tune in, drivability and all that," said Stroll. “Hopefully we get more on top of that this week and we just go faster with it. We just need more power.” Driveability is something that Honda singled out as a factor that will need fine-tuning as it starts unleashing the engine in anger for the first time. Orihara said: “We have got a significant difference in the combustion characteristic, and driveability is also affected by changing the combustion characteristic. So we need to optimise driveability with this engine.” This is something that may not be mastered in the single practice session that takes place before sprint qualifying gets underway, so the message is not to expect dramatic progress from Aston Martin-Honda straight away. **\- JN** ### Sainz didn’t want to abandon Williams There was a lack of massively alluring alternative options, but Carlos Sainz says his new multi-year deal with Williams is partly about not wanting to abandon the team at the first sign of trouble. “I don't think it's part of my character to jump ship when this situation is at its worst,” Sainz said. “I told everyone how committed I am to this project two years ago, how excited I was about it, and the first time there is a bump on the road, a big bump, probably bigger than anyone could have imagined after the podiums of last year, I don't think it's part of my way of being my character to jump ship at the first possible opportunity. “In the back of my head I wanted to always renew, but I was obviously worried \[and\] concerned that we need to make sure this doesn't happen again. “I obviously had to go back to everyone and understand where we are, where we're planning to go and how it has this affected our plans?” Sainz said he “didn't fully go into considering” other options because his main focus was keeping faith with Williams. There wasn’t going to be an opportunity within one of the top four teams for Sainz, so he judged it better to stick with Williams, having bought into what it can deliver in the medium to long term future. Even if Sainz admits its objective of returning to the front has clearly been “delayed” by its woeful start to this new regulation cycle. **\- JS** ### Alpine's Zandvoort upgrade is only on one car Much is riding on Alpine's upgrade to elevate it back into the fight with Racing Bulls for best-of-the-rest status week-in, week-out, and both Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto spoke confidently on Thursday about the step it should offer. But only Gasly will have use of it, to begin with at least, at Zandvoort. There's been some mixed messaging, because this is now being described, timeline-wise, as a development that's been brought forward from an originally planned Monza debut - yet both drivers spoke after the Hungaroring round before the summer break with an expectation they would have the package in the Netherlands. But it does appear that will just apply to one car now; Gasly said the plan is to run the parts exclusively on his A526 - in FP1, before sprint qualifying - and added: "I think we might have some spare coming just before the race." So for the time being, it looks like Colapinto will be waiting to get his hands on a package that he described as "very powerful" on the simulator. **\- Jack Cozens** ### Perez wants long-term future at Cadillac There appears to be a driver market theme of staying put right now. Sergio Perez being the more impressive of the returning Cadillac drivers could have made him a contender to switch teams, but he appeared to indicate at Zandvoort that his long-term future lies with Cadillac. “From my side, it was already clear when I came here. It was a two-year deal,” Perez said. “But obviously I want this. I see this as my project and I want to be part of Cadillac for the long term, because when you start something from scratch it requires a lot of time. “I'm really happy here and I look forward to continuing for the long term here. I think there will be some discussions later on and we'll see what happens.” **\- JS** ### Bearman laments Haas’ regression to its former self Recent chatter around Haas has focused around ongoing parts inconsistencies between the two cars, as well as the same car not performing correctly between rebuilds. It’s something Esteban Ocon has been banging on about for ages, and team-mate Ollie Bearman has recently joined that chorus - but at Zandvoort he also called out Haas for its sudden regression during 2026 to something that is more like the Haas of old when it comes to an overall weak rate of car development. “We started off incredibly strong. We had a really, really good first few races where the car was quick, performing well, and we were really happy,” Bearman said. “But then, step by step, others caught up, others overtook, and now they've left us totally behind. “At the start of the year, we were quicker than \[Racing Bulls\]. I remember overtaking both of them in the race in Australia and driving away, and we wouldn't dream of doing that these days. “2025 was really the first year for us, or one of very few years, where we seemed to have good pace throughout the year. We actually improved our relative performance as the year went on, and now 2026 is kind of more of what we've seen from us in the past, of starting incredibly strong with a really quick car as a base, but not being able to improve like the others have. “Quite frankly, we've been overtaken. Right now, we are the 10th best team. It really hurts, but that's the reality of where we are right now.” Bearman says Haas would only now beat Aston Martin on power tracks, like Monza, and feels the relative lack of human and financial resources at Haas’s disposal is really holding it back during a season where the rate of upgrades, as well as the amount of performance those upgrades can potentially give you, is so relentless. “The fact is we can't bring as many upgrades as the others,” he added. “When we do upgrade the car, it's competitive and it works, but when the rate of change is so fast, like at the start of a new set of regulations, we can't keep up. “The way that we started shows that we understand the platform of the car very well, and we know how to make a fast car, but we don't have the resource to continually upgrade the car. “Last year, we probably didn't get found out because it's the last year of a very mature set of regulations. Now we come to 2026, where everyone's updating the car. “These guys opposite us are bringing a different car every three races. It's insane. Did you see the Red Bull from Japan to Miami? It was a different car. We couldn't dream of doing that, ever. “Ferrari, the way that Ferrari is developing the car is incredible. We can't do that.” **\- BA**