F1 Dutch Grand Prix 2025 LIVE: Practice updates, schedule and start time in Zandvoort – UK Times

Lewis Hamilton is determined to bring the fun back to his Formula One career and is confident that “sunnier days” are ahead for Ferrari.

“We’re going to work hard, keep our heads down, try to change a few things in our approach and start to enjoy ourselves,” Hamilton said.

“There’s been so much pressure in this first half of the season, it’s not been the most enjoyable.

“So I think just remembering that we love what we do, we’re all in this together and I’m trying to have some fun.

Carlos Sainz has praised Lando Norris for blocking out the “noise” during his title challenge and believes his former team-mate receives unfair criticism.

The British driver is locked in a championship battle with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, trailing by nine points heading into this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Norris has publicly questioned himself at various stages of the season, bemoaning poor qualifying performances and mistakes in races that allowed Piastri to take an early title lead.

“In a championship fight there’s always going to be ups and downs,” Sainz told the PA news agency in Zandvoort.

As an F1 summer break distinctly lacking in speculation and conjecture draws to a close, confirmation of Cadillac’s first-ever Formula One driver line-up on Tuesday did not ruffle any feathers. For many months, the talk of the paddock was that Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were the frontrunners to occupy the seats at F1’s soon-to-be 11th team. Ultimately, the powers that be at Cadillac’s new UK-based hub in Silverstone, and across the Atlantic in Indiana and North Carolina, ignored widely held wishes for youth and American involvement and instead plumped for both drivers.

In many regards, it is a decision steeped in realism and common sense. For an outfit joining the world’s most technical sport at the start of a new era, their driver line-up presented a chance to add know-how and expertise to their roster, less than seven months out from the team’s daunting debut in Australia.

George Russell has given an update on his future at Mercedes, insisting contract talks are progressing as he looks to secure his place on the team beyond the current season.

Talk of Max Verstappen switching from Red Bull died down over the summer after Mercedes principal Toto Wolff said the team had stopped exploring the idea. Wolff said he wanted to continue working with Russell and teenage teammate Kimi Antonelli going forwards, with a new engine era starting in 2026 and the Mercedes power unit expected to be the pick of the field.

And Russell insists contract talks are progressing, despite a lack of updates over the summer break.

For the first time in four years, F1 returns after the traditional summer interval with the race for the drivers’ world championship very much in the balance.

McLaren’s impressive dominance – but intriguing refusal to label a driver their clear No 1 – means it is a straight shoot-out between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for their first ever title, in a battle set to go down to the wire. Ahead of round 15 this weekend in Zandvoort, the Australian has a lead of just nine points.

Further down the pack, there are plenty of talking points, not least Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton’s tumultuous partnership so far. The seven-time world champion is yet to finish on the podium; a record he will be desperate to extinguish in the remaining 10 races.

Ex-McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya believes the team will “explode” this season as their drivers battle for their first F1 world championship.

The two drivers have fought respectfully so far this season and have only collided once in Canada, an incident Norris took full blame for, and avoided a clash at the last race in Hungary despite a late tussle for the lead.

Bottas and Perez, both 35 and unattached this year, will return to the grid in 2026 with the American-owned outfit, after an announcement on Tuesday.

Cadillac opted to go for experience over youth and American involvement, while the likes of Mick Schumacher, Zhou Guanyu and Felipe Drugovich missed out.

“That’s a great driver line up,” Brundle said. “The team needs experience and direction in year one and can’t afford to have rookies damaging cars when all the resources will be heavily stretched.

Good morning and welcome to live updates from the Dutch Grand Prix as practice begins this morning.

We’ll have FP1 at 11:30am BST, followed by FP2 at 3pm BST.

The F1 season resumes with plenty of subplots, let by McLaren stars Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battling it out for the title.

We’ll bring you the latest from Zandvoort, plus analysis and reaction.