'
Formula 1 is back after its summer break. The return to Zandvoort suggested that Max Verstappen would be back in business having never been bested at his home circuit, but that's not how it turned out. Instead Lando Norris emerged triumphant and there's a real sense that big changes are afoot. Who's on the up, and who's going down and out?
Zhou Guanyu, Sauber (P20): 3.5/10
We're happy to make it clear that a large part of the responsibility for Zhou Guanyu's low mark rests with Sauber which once again gave him nothing to work with at Zandvoort. The C44 is an absolute dog and depressingly little work seems to be going on at Hinwil to do anything about it. It's actually getting very hard to see the team scoring a point before the end of the season. Of the two drivers in the line-up, Zhou seems particularly crushed by the situation and out of his depth. We really feel for him. He's not the worst driver out there by any means despite the rating, but we can only mark on the on-track performance in front of us, and sadly in Zandvoort it was absolutely abject.
Valtteri Bottas, Sauber (P19): 4/10
Like his team mate, Valtteri Bottas has been absolutely dropped in it by how appalling the car handed to him by Sauber is proving to be this season. With the team obsessed by its 2026 transformation into Audi it seems no one at Hinwil is even bothering to look at what can be done with the C44 anymore. It's wrecking both team morale and driver careers. At least Bottas has his considerable experience to fall back on and to allow him to get by, which is why he's managing to perform better that Zhou Guanyu. As a result he deserves a slightly better rating, but this was as poor a performance from Sauber as a whole as we've seen all season, and that's saying something. Forget scoring points, they're lucky not to be below zero at this point.
