Report: No points at Formula 1's Dutch farewell
Late contact between our duo brings our the Dutch Grand Prix to an unfortunate end
Published
23 AUG 2026
Est. reading time
4 min
Zandvoort's farewell race was set to offer a mixed start, with rain falling on the grid ahead of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz lining up P16 and P17.
However, the track was dry enough for slicks by the time the formation lap came around, but any racing wouldn’t last long.
After a clean opening tour, Max Verstappen crashed heavily into the barriers at the banked Turn 14 at the end of Lap 1, bringing out the red flag. Thankfully the driver was OK and the rest of the field were able to avoid his stricken Red Bull.
Once the track was clear, the field attempted a fresh standing start, but a rogue red light at the pit exit stopped Carlos among others, forcing him to catch back up to the pack. While he did, Ollie Bearman pulled over midway through the lap, aborting that start attempt too.
A third and final formation lap followed before the race finally got underway, with Alex restarting P13 on new hard tyres and Carlos P19 on new softs.
Once racing properly got underway, both cars made good progress through the field. A string of rivals' penalties and pit stops helped Alex climb as high as P7 by Lap 23 and running as “best of the rest” in the midfield battle. Carlos worked his way into the top half of the field too, running as high as P10 before switching to hards on Lap 31 after a strong defensive stint.
The pit stops and tyre phases shuffled the order repeatedly through the second half of the race - Alex and Carlos traded places with Arvid Lindblad, Esteban Ocon, Gabriel Bortoleto and others as strategies played out, with a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 55 – after Ocon stopped on track – adding another twist before racing resumed with 14 laps to go.
The closing laps brought the low point of our day. With fresher tyres, Alex had closed right onto the back of his teammate, and the pair went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1 on Lap 66 before contact between the two FW48s sent both cars down the escape road.
Alex was called into the pits and retired from the race, whilst Carlos continued, taking on fresh softs, but was later handed a 10-second penalty for the incident as he ran out the final laps in the midfield.
“Sorry guys, my bad. I just hit the big bump in Turn 1 and locked up,” Carlos shared over the radio. “Didn't expect that or feel that before, bit of a surprise.”
Carlos came home in P16, with Alex classified in P17 as attention now turns to Monza in two weeks time.
James Vowles, Team Principal:
“Tough day. I was hoping the weather would stay for longer, as I think we could've had an interesting race in those mixed conditions but unfortunately, not meant to be.
“We don't have the car pace. We need to make sure that we bring performance to the car, efficiently and quickly, however that won't be for a few races.
“Whilst our cars came together, we put Carlos in a tricky situation of being on very used tyres, and for us, whether we're fighting for 14th or points, we want to make sure we give it the same level of tenacity and determination. Unfortunately, we accumulated a bit of damage this weekend, so we need to use the break before Monza to get back on top of that.”
Carlos Sainz:
“First of all, sorry to Alex and the team for the contact at the end of the race. I had very worn hard tyres and braked over the bump in turn 1, locked up and couldn’t stop the car in time. It was obviously the last thing I wanted to end an already tough weekend. Again, apologies to him and the team.
“Overall, we struggled to get into a good rhythm throughout the weekend and had to run a number of tests to explore the issues we were having, which put us on the backfoot and meant we weren't able to fight for any more today. The positive is that we've found some solutions and have good learnings to take forward to the upcoming races, so we'll look to come back stronger in Monza.”
Alex Albon:
“In clean air the car felt good today, not far off the midfield pace, so there are positives to take. The moment with Carlos was just one of those racing incidents – we were going for the same corner and he locked up. It's not how we wanted to end the weekend, and not what the team needs, but it is what it is and we'll discuss together as we always do.
“We need to review our strategy today as we were fighting Fernando and he finished ahead – I think we pitted too early on the first stop, reacting to a potential undercut rather than running our own race. That left us catching a lot of blue flags and stuck in dirty air, which made my second stint messy. We'll review everything as a team and look forward to a cleaner weekend in Monza.”
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