Formula 1: The Dutch Grand Prix experience, from the eyes of a fan

Saturday

I had a much better understanding of which public transport lines to use from Amsterdam to Zandvoort, so I made it to the circuit with time to spare. Being a fan of Formula 1 Academy, I had to make it to their qualifying session in the morning. The circuit is a far walk from the train station, approximately 30 minutes, so my legs were tired once I made it to my seat.

I knew that once again Abbi Pulling would be near the front, but all of my cheers were for Doriane Pin, as she is a Mercedes-sponsored academy driver. Understanding how Formula 1 Academy’s qualifying works is quite a challenge, as they use one qualifying session to determine the grid for both of their feature races.

Their cars are a lot slower than Formula 1 cars and are more comparable to Formula 4 cars. Nevertheless, the four-cylinder turbo engines still produce a great sound as they sped by on the straight.

Pulling and Pin seemed to be ahead of the others throughout qualifying, as the gap behind them was fairly large. The British driver secured pole position for the first race, beating out Pin by just over a tenth of a second. Pole position for the second race was so much tighter, with the French driver beating out Pulling by just 11 thousandths of a second.

Formula 1’s third practice session followed shortly thereafter, and it was another wet session. Most drivers did not partake in the full session and only ran a couple of laps. Logan Sargeant had a massive crash, which caused a fire to break out on the FW45, and the red flag immediately came out.

Most of the time allotted for the session was used by the marshals to clean the track. There was not a crane nearby, so a track vehicle had to load the Williams onto its bed and drive it back to the pit lane. It drove right past where I sat, so I got a close-up view of the severely damaged car.

I had a few hours until qualifying began, so I quickly made my way over to the sim racing attraction. The line was quite short so I jumped in, eagerly waiting for my turn. Each race had 15 participants do three laps, with the fastest driver getting a prize of some sort at the end.

Once my turn came, I did not know what to expect, as it was my first time getting in a simulator. The experience was quite surreal, as the steering wheel was very similar to what I see in Formula 1 cars. I thought it would not be as difficult to control the car and more similar to how it is on my PS5, but I was very wrong. Having to manually shift gears and brake accordingly was difficult, and turning the car required me to turn the steering wheel nearly a full 360 degrees.

I ended up going off track a few times but thankfully did not receive a penalty. The final lap turned out to be my best, but I was still about six seconds off the pace of the leader. It turned out that some of the drivers in my race were fairly experienced sim racers, so it made sense why they were quite good.

After that, I made my way to the F1 Academy paddock to get a glimpse of all the cars and hopefully some drivers too. Most drivers were not in their garage aside from Jessica Edgar, who was doing some work in her car alongside her team.

I immediately returned to my seat, as there was a big crowd attempting to make their way back to the grandstands. Most seats were full with about 15 minutes to go until qualifying began. Q1 went as expected, with Sargeant, both Sauber drivers, Esteban Ocon, and Daniel Ricciardo being eliminated.

Q2 was when all of the drama began. Both Aston Martin drivers were quick, and to the surprise of many, both Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr. were eliminated. I was honestly shocked to see the British driver get knocked out, given how quick the W15 was all weekend.

With most fans backing Verstappen, they were all silenced by the end of Q3. Not many surprises took place, aside from Lando Norris securing pole position over the Dutch driver by over three tenths of a second. Everyone was shocked to see such a big margin, especially at Verstappen’s home race. With George Russell coming in P4, it gave me some sense of relief, as that met expectations for the British driver.

Though the F1 Academy’s first race followed right afterward, bad weather seemed to be coming in, and I immediately made my way to the train station. Once I made it back to Amsterdam, I later discovered the race was postponed due to the weather anyway.