Formula 1 is back! After a summer break that felt like it went as quickly as the 2025 McLaren, the 2025 campaign resumed with a Dutch Grand Prix that could end up being looked back on as a season-defining race.
Here are my main takeaways from it.
Echoes of 2016 at the front of the field
When chatting about this season's title fight over the summer break, I often compared it to the 2016 edition between then-Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg; Lando Norris is the faster driver, like Hamilton was, while Piastri is the more consistent, like Rosberg was. It's fitting then that this battle could be effectively decided in the exact same way as that one: with a busted engine.
Norris' retirement in Zandvoort wasn't quite as big a blow as Hamilton's was in Malaysia in 2016 given that it's come earlier in the season and cost him a second-placed finish rather than a win, but on the flipside, I'd argue that Norris has to hunt down a better driver than Rosberg did. No offence, Nico, but Piastri is special.
The Aussie became just the 27th driver in the history of the sport to achieve a Grand Chelem (claiming pole position, leading every lap of the race, setting the fastest lap and winning) at the weekend, which is a pretty remarkable achievement given he had a teammate as good as Norris to contend with along with changing conditions and multiple Safety Cars. That doesn't sound like the kind of driver that's going to relinquish a 34-point lead.
Barring a DNF like the one Norris just suffered - which is of course possible, but unlikely - Piastri can afford to play things fairly safe now, following the same philosophy as Rosberg did in 2016: be ready to capitalise when your teammate has his seemingly inevitable off-days, and make sure you come home in second at the least the rest of the time.
That should be enough for Piastri to be a world champion, especially with the lack of a threat being posed by other teams...
Hamilton's Italian nightmare goes on
After a hugely disappointing first half of his first season with Ferrari, Hamilton said he'd spent the summer break trying to clear his head and reset, and it looked to have done the trick when he was chasing down George Russell on race day after being closer to Charles Leclerc in qualifying than he had been for a while. And then, once again, it all went wrong.
After seeing that he'd crashed out, I thought for the first time this year that this could genuinely be his final season in F1, and then he was handed a grid penalty (for a yellow flag infringement) for his biggest weekend as a Ferrari driver yet, their home race in Monza. When it rains, it pours, and boy is it pouring right now.
The fact that Leclerc also retired won't help his mood either. I suggested earlier this season that, aware that he'd be second-best to the Monegasque, Hamilton's main goal at Ferrari would be to help win them their first Constructors' Championship since 2008. But the hopes of that happening this year are now over, and they're more likely to finish lower in the standings than they did last season, with Mercedes just two points behind them in the battle for second.
Given how much he's spoken of his desire to help the team improve, the fact that they've objectively gone backwards since he joined will really sting, especially if his former team is the one to leapfrog his new one.
The Italian Grand Prix next weekend offers him the chance to send the Tifosi wild with a strong performance and resurrect his Ferrari career, and it can't be overstated just how much he needs to take it.
Hadjar heading for Red Bull
While Isack Hadjar had an impressive first half of his rookie season in F1, the Frenchman took his reputation to a whole new level at the Dutch Grand Prix.
That's not just because he got his first podium, but because of the manner in which he got it. After qualifying in fourth with a stunning lap, he then withstood a huge amount of pressure from Leclerc and the Mercedes drivers, defending excellently from start to finish. He got a nice slice of luck in the form of Norris' retirement to move into the top three, but he'd fully earned that luck at that point.
In one single race, he scored more points than the second Red Bull has all season, and I think everyone was thinking the same thing while watching him celebrate on the podium: that he'll be in that second Red Bull himself next season.
It now feels like it's only a matter of time before it's announced that he'll be Max Verstappen's teammate next season, which is as worrying as it is exciting. Numerous drivers from the Red Bull academy have had their development hugely damaged after being given such a promotion, including two this season alone.
Can Hadjar end that trend? I'm not sure, but he's definitely earned the chance to try.
