Minimal upgrades as teams unveil car changes for the Dutch Grand Prix

Sam Cooper 29 Aug 2025 10:38 AM

Red Bull are one of just three teams to make changes to their car for the Zandvoort race.

Upgrades are few and far between as F1 resumes from its summer break with just three teams making any alterations.

The summer shutdown, which enforces no work to be done at the factory, plus an increasing focus on 2026 suggested it was always likely there would not be a huge amount of changes for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix and that has proven to be the case.

McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Haas, Racing Bulls and Williams have all made zero changes so here’s what has happened:

Red Bull

Reigning World Champions (for now) Red Bull make just one change to the RB21 and it comes on the front wing.

They say that the expected demands of Zandvoort have required them to put extended chords on their front wing flaps to increase the load available via angle.

Alpine

The Enstone team have also made just one change to their car and it comes at the rear.

Alpine have made an update to the rear brake duct furniture with a set of profile winglets designed to improve rear wheel wake management.

Sauber

The final team to make changes is Sauber who have also made an alteration to their rear brake duct.

The Swiss team have updated the rear brake duct vane designed to affect the flow field around the car, specifically the diffuser and rear wheels.

Leclerc responds to Russell’s ‘illegal’ accusations in Ferrari defence

Away from the upgrades, there will also be a focus on Ferrari this weekend after George Russell claimed the SF-25 was borderline “illegal” during the last race weekend in Hungary.

The Mercedes driver claimed Leclerc’s Ferrari was running too close to the ground during the race and suggested that they increased the tyre pressure during his second pit stop, explaining why Leclerc plummeted down the order.

Speaking ahead of the race in Zandvoort, Leclerc was reluctant to comment but said the situation was “a lot more complex” than Russell was making out.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, when asked about Russell’s comment that his Ferrari was borderline illegal.

“I don’t really mind about what George said after the race.

“The situation is a lot more complex than what he portrayed, but I’m not really going to comment too much.

“And I think, as we’ve said after Budapest, we are not going to go into the details of exactly what happened, etc. It’s something that we are trying to fix and that we are all working towards.

“But yeah, the only thing I can say is that it’s a lot more complex than that.”