Racing is back again this weekend with the F1 Dutch GP, and Max Verstappen returned home for the 15th round of the season. This homecoming to the Netherlands comes with much familiarity for the Dutchman. Amidst a difficult season, will Verstappen take advantage of his track record at the Zandvoort circuit in order to claim his third win of 2025?
The Dutchman is in a tight position in the championship. While the battle up front gets further away, pressure from Russell forces him to precisely execute races. With a total of 187 points, the gap he is fighting to keep is only 15 points.
The post-summer break season forecast
In terms of expectations for the rest of the 2025 F1 season, Verstappen came back with a positive mindset. During the F1 Dutch GP press conference, Verstappen shared more of his hopes and focus for the following rounds.
“Just try to make the best of it. Every single race, we can try to see if there are opportunities and try to learn more about the car.”
Additionally, the Dutchman emphasised yet again the focus of his season. The next season of F1 is set to bring new regulations and rules to the current machinery. Moreover, Red Bull Racing will end its partnership with Honda in favour of producing its own engines with Ford.
As everyone is looking forward to these 2026 changes, Verstappen remains curious about the RB21’s limitations:
“Of course, next year will be very different with the car, but I’m still very curious also to understand the current car a bit more. And where we can find a bit more performance to make it a bit easier for ourselves,” admitted the 27-year-old.
Expected competitiveness at Zandvoort
Being back on home turf does not come with just the comfort of returning to the tracks you grew up on. For Max Verstappen, the F1 Dutch GP also entails a great record of three wins and a P2 from last year. Nevertheless, these statistics only put pressure on RBR to upkeep them.
As the F1 Hungarian GP showed a lot of the RB21’s problems, the Dutchman wishes for a chance to fight for that P1 again. Meanwhile, he mentioned RBR will have a couple more circuits that will be more advantageous.
“I would hope so! That was not a great weekend for us, so I hope that we can be closer. I don’t think this is going to be our best track in the remainder of the calendar.”
With a possibility of rain on the horizon, Verstappen remains confident in the chaos: “But then again, there might be some weather coming in as well. So that always creates a bit of chaos, so we just need to see what happens.”
Keeping his head high outside of the title fight
As the 2025 season progressed, it became pretty clear that Max Verstappen would not challenge the McLarens in the championship. Compared to his title-winning seasons, the second half of the season was much different from this year’s.
However, as he returns to the F1 Dutch GP after the summer break, Verstappen maintains a good outlook:
“It’s not that hard, to be honest. There will be a time that it (winning the championship) won’t happen. Unfortunately, that is a bit the case at the moment. But it doesn’t make sense for me to be frustrated or be screaming about it, because it’s just a waste of energy. That’s not what I’m doing.”
Setting his focus straight for the second half of 2025, the Dutchman went on to underline the recovery process for Red Bull:
“I think we just need to look at the car and the operation, and how we can move forward in the future and be better. That’s what we are doing currently.”
