Formula 1 is back, the summer break is over, and Zandvoort is about to have one last party. The F1 Dutch Grand Prix 2026, running from August 21 to 23 2026, will be the final race at the Zandvoort circuit, and it arrives with a championship fight that is anything but settled. So, do you want to know the names of the F1 Dutch GP 2026 drivers in spotlight? Here is a list of 5 best F1 Dutch GP 2026 drivers to watch at Zandvoort including Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Max Verstappen, and Lando Norris. The battle for F1 supremacy is on between Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull Racing and others.
So, why are these the 5 best F1 Dutch GP 2026 drivers to watch? Well, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli leads the F1 standings, Lewis Hamilton is hunting him down for Ferrari, George Russell is refusing to disappear from the conversation, Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing has a home race to make history and Lando Norris at McLaren has just found his winning form. Oh, and then there is a Sprint too. Let the Formula One race weekend begin.
219 points. 50 points clear. And now comes the fun part. Antonelli returns to action as the F1 championship leader, having built a sizeable advantage over Lewis Hamilton after a spectacular first half of the season. Mercedes won the opening six Grands Prix, and the 19-year-old Italian has already collected multiple victories along the way. But the comfortable part of leading the F1 championship is over. Now he is the target the rest of the F1 pack are hunting down.
F1 Dutch GP 2026 will test whether Antonelli can turn an impressive first half into genuine championship momentum.
Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton has 169 points and a 50-point gap to close, but this is hardly unfamiliar territory for a seven-time world champion. Surprisingly, Ferrari has been the closest challenger to Mercedes for much of the season, and Hamilton already has a victory at Barcelona under his belt.
The problem? The momentum Lewis Hamilton picked up had begun to fade before the summer shutdown. F1 Zandvoort is therefore less about simply winning and more about restarting the chase before Antonelli gets too comfortable.
At 160 points, Russell sits just nine behind Hamilton, and that makes the Mercedes garage particularly interesting. Antonelli may have the championship lead, but Russell has the same machinery and enough pace to make this a three-way fight rather than a two-man chase.
His first half of the F1 season has been less than consistent, but the underlying speed has been there. If he can convert that pace into results after the F1 break, Mercedes could suddenly have two drivers applying serious pressure to their teenage championship leader.
This one is personal. The Dutch Grand Prix will be Verstappen's final home race at Zandvoort, and the three-time Dutch GP winner has plenty of history at the circuit. He won the race three times consecutively following its return to the calendar in 2021 before McLaren took the honours in the following two editions.
With the circuit disappearing from the F1 calendar after this weekend, Verstappen has one final opportunity to give the Orange Army the ending it wants.
The last, but not the least on this list of 5 best F1 Dutch GP 2026 drivers to watch is Lando Norris, who arrives at the Zanvoort circuit with something every driver wants after a summer break: momentum. He won the Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before the shutdown, for his first victory of 2026, with the latest McLaren car upgrade showing encouraging pace.
At 128 points, Norris has a sizeable gap to Antonelli, but the championship is still long enough for a strong second half to change the conversation.
So, 5 best F1 Dutch GP 2026 drivers to watch. 5 very different reasons to tune in. Kimi Antonelli has a championship to protect. Lewis Hamilton has ground to make up and point to prove. George Russell has a teammate to chase. Max Verstappen has a home crowd to please. And Lando Norris has to prove that the last victory was not a fluke.
Then there is Zandvoort itself, hosting the F1 Dutch GP and its first-ever F1 Sprint before bowing out of the calendar. That means more racing, more points and, inevitably, more opportunities for something to go spectacularly right, or spectacularly wrong.
One thing is certain: the final F1 Dutch GP is not going quietly if these Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and other drivers have anything to say about it.