Formula 1 returned to Zandvoort after 36 years and the tyre management during the race was a key part of the strategy according to Alpine's Fernando Alonso. 

“Probably we need to review the race and what we can do better for next year,” he said. 

“Tyres were maybe unknown, that was the biggest thing.

The Alpine driver started 9th and finished 6th, overtaking Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz on the last lap and finishing behind Charles Leclerc.

One of the problems was the little information they had about the tyres in the circuit because they have never race there.

“We didn’t know what to expect, we never raced here, and we didn’t do enough laps on Friday, so we were just managing the tyres until a point when you could make it [to the end] and then you push a little bit more.”

“That’s probably a big factor to having a more boring race.”

“When we go to Barcelona or Singapore or Hungary or Interlagos, we don’t have those problems, and they are as bad as this one in terms of overtaking manoeuvres.” 

“So I think it was a good weekend and we have to be positive, in my opinion, about Zandvoort because it provided a good weekend of action and an amazing atmosphere.”

This lack of information had drivers updating at every chance how they felt their tyres, in case they had to change the strategy. Red flags and disrupted running throughout the practice sessions meant teams couldn't do their usual long runs. 

“We were in the unknown completely into the tyre degradation, we had no experience from the past and not enough laps on Friday.”

“Every five laps we were updating the strategy and the target lap and stops, so that was a bigger driver contribution than any other race, which is more of less dictated by the computer or the simulation.”