Dutch GP: Hamilton urges Ferrari to split strategies in bid to ambush McLaren
Lewis Hamilton came out swinging after qualifying at Zandvoort, eyeing a two-car Ferrari squeeze on McLaren and calling for split strategies to make it happen on Sunday.
Ferrari will start nose-to-tail, Leclerc in P7 and Hamilton in P6, with both McLarens ahead and a familiar orange glare on pole in Max Verstappen. Isack Hadjar and George Russell are also parked between Ferrari and any champagne. Still, Hamilton’s reading of the race is simple: cover both bases, force McLaren to react, and use the overlap to overcut or undercut wherever the gaps appear.
“I think it would be smart to split strategies, given that we’re trying to beat McLaren and it’s definitely good when you have the two drivers next to each other,” he said. “Apart from the McLarens, we’re the next team with both cars together, so hopefully that can play a role in how we overcut, undercut cars up ahead of us.”
It’s a bullish tone from Hamilton, who’s still chasing his first podium in Ferrari red after 14 starts. Zandvoort’s tight lanes and banking don’t make overtaking easy, but they do reward decisive calls and clean pit work. Get your timing right, jump the pack in the pit cycle, and suddenly a quiet afternoon becomes a podium bid. That’s the window Hamilton wants Ferrari to crack open.
It didn’t look likely on Friday. Ferrari were marooned in the midfield in FP1 — Leclerc 14th, Hamilton 15th — and 1.6s off Lando Norris at the top of the times. The turnaround came with a more disciplined Saturday and a neat bit of qualifying craft. In Q2, Ferrari sent both cars early for a single push on fresh softs. It stuck. Others failed to improve later, and the red cars were safely through to Q3, where Leclerc edged Hamilton by five hundredths.
The pair took different routes to get there. Leclerc rolled the dice on set-up tweaks for final practice. Hamilton chose not to.
“No, pretty much we started the same,” he explained. “He went a different way this morning, I just stayed steady and stayed with where I was. Which was the right decision for me. I’ve tried where he went many times through the year and it’s never been positive for me.”
There’s also the sense Hamilton’s learned to stop chasing the last tenth in all the wrong places with this generation of car.
“I’m definitely learning how to extract the best from this car… I’m always searching for more — tyre pressure, blanket temperatures, ride height, front, rear, I’m looking at everything. What’s clear here is you can’t be looking for those. You have to kind of stay put most often. I think that’s also the case with this general generation of cars.”
Ferrari’s grid position — sixth and seventh, line astern — is strategically useful at a circuit that punishes indecision. Expect them to split tyre choices at the start or offset the first pit window, testing both the undercut and the longer first stint to try to spring the McLarens. Safety Cars are common at Zandvoort; having two live strategies gives Ferrari a better chance of landing on the right side of a neutralisation.
As ever, the heavy lifting will be done by Verstappen if he clears off, but behind him the race looks wide open. Hadjar’s front-row start is a wild card. Russell’s Mercedes has looked punchy on long runs. And McLaren — fast and operationally sharp — are the reference Hamilton has in his sights.
He’s not hiding the objective, either. The target isn’t just a first Ferrari podium. It’s beating both papaya cars to the flag.
In the bigger picture, Hamilton sits sixth in the Drivers’ standings on 109 points, 42 behind Leclerc. Ferrari are second in the Constructors’ on 260, with Mercedes 24 points back. That gap could grow or shrink quickly here — Zandvoort has a habit of turning one small call into a big result.
Ferrari have put themselves in position. Now it’s down to crisp pit timing, brave rubber choices and two drivers prepared to run different races for the same win. If they nail it, the buzz on the banked grandstands might not all be orange by sundown.
