Sebastian Vettel will be hoping to make it three points finishes in a row at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, in what will be his last time racing a Formula 1 car around the “old-school” Zandvoort.
Vettel had a strong Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, where he looked more than comfortable in the points places. Zandvoort is a very different type of circuit compared to Spa-Francorchamps, so it’ll be interesting to see how the AMR22 performs at the tight and twisty Dutch circuit.
On paper it shouldn’t be a strong circuit for the team; however, Vettel did manage to score points at the Hungaroring, which shares some similar characteristics to this weekend’s venue.
The four-time World Champion is excited for the “fantastic driving challenge” that Zandvoort presents, as he aims for another good weekend.
“The old-school nature of Zandvoort is so great, and it is such a fantastic driving challenge, particularly the first half of the track. I am curious to see how our car will perform here – on paper, it might be a difficult weekend for us, but we were able to race well in Hungary just before the summer break, and the circuits are quite similar. The 2022 cars can be raced better than last year’s cars, so we will see if we can make some moves in the race.”
“The track is spectacular” – Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll will be hoping to go one better this weekend, after finishing in eleventh place in Spa last weekend. The Canadian had the pace for the points places but couldn’t find a way past Alex Albon‘s FW44 rocket ship, which nobody could find a way past (except Max Verstappen!).
Stroll is also predicting it to be a difficult weekend for the team, due to their qualifying woes this season and the significance of a strong Saturday at this particular circuit.
Nevertheless, Stroll is hoping that a different strategy could open up some opportunities come Sunday, where he’ll be aiming for the points.
“I am looking forward to returning to Zandvoort. The track is spectacular, and the whole event is really cool. We know it will be challenging this weekend, due to our car’s tendency to race better than it qualifies and this circuit’s twisty nature, which makes overtaking difficult. But there might be the chance to try something a little strategically different to our main rivals.”
