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The 2022 F1 Dutch GP was a rollercoaster ride with stoppages, safety cars, virtual safety cars, and so much more. The race was on its way to being a humdinger with the two Mercedes drivers emerging as potential candidates for the race win. It was turned on its head by the late race safety car and left Lewis Hamilton exposed to an extent. In the end, it was once again a familiar sight with Max Verstappen heading home and winning the race.
The race featured some great action up and down the grid. The number of overtakes in the race was certainly a surprise. Having said that, once the dust settles, there will be a few drivers happy with how things panned out while there will be others who will have a sour taste in their mouths.
Who are they? Let's find out as we take a look at the winners and losers for the 2022 F1 Dutch GP.
2022 F1 Dutch GP: Winners
Max Verstappen
It's almost obligatory to put Max Verstappen in the winner's circle these days. The man does not do anything wrong, does he? Most importantly though, one of the key features of Verstappen, the racer, is that he makes it look so easy. The overtakes on George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were never supposed to be a walk in the park, but Verstappen's execution made it look too easy.
Despite all the hoopla around Mercedes' strategy and Ferrari's lack of race pace, even though the path could have been more difficult, Verstappen won the 2022 F1 Dutch GP regardless.
The new F1 technical regulations
If there was ever a race that was a perfect example of the impact the new regulations have had on the racing, then it was the 2022 F1 Dutch GP. Even before the race, we had emphatically predicted that the race might be a dud (Oh, how wrong we were).
The track is not the widest on the grid and most of the sections have a single racing line. Despite that, the new extended DRS zone and the new cars that could follow more closely resulted in producing a race that featured quite a few overtakes. It is at this stage that we eat the humble pie and admit that this race was not a dud!
Alpine
The good thing for Alpine this season is not only the cars but the drivers the team has. Both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso have pushed the team forward like anything and have often extracted the best possible results.
If it wasn't for Alonso getting the jump late in the race, Ocon was on his way to doing that as well. All in all, another weekend where Alpine stretched its legs in the fight for P4 in the championship.
2022 F1 Dutch GP: Losers
Lewis Hamilton
There is a change in Mercedes that Lewis Hamilton might have experienced for the first time at the 2022 F1 Dutch GP. What happened with the strategy would never have happened if it was Valtteri Bottas asking to pit.
With dynamics changing at Mercedes, George Russell sees himself as an equal to Hamilton (even though he's still a shade behind overall). More importantly, Mercedes sees Russell as Hamilton's successor. If Bottas had made that request, Mercedes would have declined it! Russell commands the kind of authority that a future team leader does and somewhere Hamilton would have sensed that today.
Ferrari
When was the last time Ferrari had a race where there were no operational mishaps throughout the race? The very fact that one has to strain his/her memory to remember when that happened shows how poor the team has been lately. At the 2022 F1 Dutch GP, the P3 for Charles Leclerc was something that almost fell in their laps because the overall race once again exposed the team's operations.
At the 2022 F1 Dutch GP, it was Carlos Sainz's turn to face the brunt of these problems as the Spanish driver's pitstop took a sloth-like 12 seconds (not to forget the unsafe release). The team's lack of race pace here was slightly alarming as well. Ferrari arguably trailed both Red Bull and Mercedes in terms of race pace at Zandvoort and this should ring alarm bells within the team.
McLaren
McLaren might just have thrown the white flag in the battle for P4 this season. The problem is not the car. The team has been able to turn up on a few tracks with a car capable of doing great things. Even at the 2022 F1 Dutch GP, McLaren arguably had the quicker car.
The problem for the team is that it is almost 2 vs 1 now. Alpine has two drivers extracting the best possible results. McLaren has only one driver doing that. This was another race where the team could have done with a strong performance from Daniel Ricciardo but did not get it.
