Farewell Zandvoort: Our writers' personal highlights from the F1 Dutch GP

For one final time, Formula 1 cars will race around the sand dunes of Zandvoort this weekend as the seaside circuit prepares to host its final Dutch Grand Prix. After its re-entry into the calendar in 2021, the track announced its exit at the end of 2024. 

Ahead of the chequered flag flying for the final time, our writers look back on some of their fondest memories from Zandvoort – including the racing action, seaside setting and vibrant orange crowds. 

F1’s first non-stop nightclub

For me, the 2021 edition remains the most memorable Zandvoort experience. Nobody had thought a return to the Dutch dunes would be possible after the pinnacle of motorsport left the Netherlands following the 1985 race. That made it almost surreal to see the F1 circus descend on Circuit Zandvoort once again.

On top of that, COVID restrictions were still in place at the time, making the Dutch Grand Prix one of the first major sporting events in the country after a period in which there had been very little scope for organisers to stage anything on such a scale.

And last but not least: it was 2021, the year of one of the most intense title fights in F1 history.

On that particular Sunday in August, all those ingredients came together, especially on the grid. After the national anthem had been played and the drivers walked back to their cars to get into the zone, you could feel the tension building among everyone present.

And what best summed up the four-day festival that is the Dutch GP? The moment Verstappen put on his helmet, the DJ decided to blast ‘Super Max’ through the speakers once again – probably for the 50th time that day.

Add to that the fact that overtaking had proved difficult with the 2021 cars, meaning everything hinged on the start, while the entire orange army had turned up for just one man. The pressure on Verstappen’s shoulders was immense.

To the delight of the promoters, the Dutchman managed to withstand all that pressure and give the event its dream winner.

When then-Red Bull team principal Christian Horner left the track on Sunday evening, he aptly summed up the weekend: “It’s like I’ve been in a nightclub non-stop for four days.” With the finish line now in sight, that 2021 edition remains by far the most memorable one.

– Ronald Vording

The surprising seaside sojourn

I recall being very surprised by the news that Zandvoort was set to join the F1 calendar. Although a Dutch Grand Prix had been rumoured for some time, as the Verstappen effect set hearts in the Netherlands aflutter and the nation found renewed enthusiasm for F1, Zandvoort had been off the calendar since the end of 1985 and felt too… let’s say, out of alignment with the championship’s vision for no-expense-spared circuits in the desert and to suckle on the teat of developing nations with massive public investment funds. The juxtaposition of Doha and Jeddah joining the calendar at the same time as a small beach town was perceptible; it would be like if Bognor Regis suddenly found the funds to host a race…

But Zandvoort pledged to make its race different, despite the compact nature of the space available to it. Its use of banking was a smart solution and offered a very different profile to Turns 3 and 14. That, plus the festival-like nature carried into the circuit by the fans, offered personality and noise enshrouded by a smoky, orange-tinged veil.

When I covered the race with my former colleague Matt Kew in 2023, we hit upon a bit of a blinder as we found an Airbnb in Zandvoort itself. It took a brisk half-hour walk to get from the apartment to the circuit, convenient until the heavens opened on the Saturday morning. We spent the rest of the day in slightly damp clothes, as the provided umbrella offered little protection or respite…

As I’ve alluded to, it felt a bit incongruous to visit a race circuit, finish work for the day, and then walk five minutes to make our way to a beach restaurant for a spot of dinner. That made it all the more enjoyable, however; you value circuits that offer something a bit different, and Zandvoort certainly did so.

Watching the cars trackside was equally memorable. Seeing the drivers flirt with the outside line at the banked Turn 3 and get ever-so-close to the wall was a new experience, and meandering further down to see them scrape the floor through the kinks of Turns 5 and 6 demonstrated how hard they had to work with each lap; there wasn’t really anywhere for them to relax, and a successful lap can only be achieved if a driver’s truly in the rhythm.

The racing itself has been so-so – probably as you’d expect for a technical and tight circuit, although occasionally exceeding those expectations depending on the weather and the circumstance. F1’s loss, then, is Formula E’s gain – and I think the Gen4 machinery will excel on their seaside sojourn.

– Jake Boxall-Legge

Didier Pironi’s last victory

My earliest memories of watching televised grand prix racing are of the 1982 season. Its several tragedies were rather lost on the nine-year-old me, but throughout the early races I was captivated by the sight – more often than not, it seemed – of the two Ferraris leading while Murray Walker chirruped excitedly on the commentary.

Growing up in East Yorkshire meant the grand prix venues on UK soil were geographically rather far removed. So, as the TV coverage of the Dutch round got underway – Murray revving things up over an establishing helicopter shot of the circuit among the dunes – it was fascinating to conceive of this Zandvoort, at once entrancingly exotic and yet eminently reachable.

Summer days out in this era naturally entailed being dunked without ceremony into the bitter North Sea at wind-lashed resorts such as Bridlington or, on very special occasions, Scarborough. To think that this rarefied grand prix destination lay just over that grey horizon!

This was Didier Pironi’s last victory for Ferrari, as it turned out, before his career-ending accident, and my memory of the race is of him driving his Ferrari to its customary place in the lead early on and running unchallenged thereafter. Re-watching the BBC coverage of the race on YouTube confirmed that impression. It is the 1982 season in a microcosm: the Renaults fast but fragile; turbo-powered cars dominating in terms of laptime but often expiring in clouds of smoke; and the championship picture not quite how you recall it (John Watson leading at this point).

Older and more jaundiced eyes spot the details: ground-effect cars porpoising pendulously, little in the way of on-screen graphics, commentators who probably aren’t even trackside having to fill vast quantities of time in the absence of any on-track battles to describe. But it seemed very exciting at the time.

The following Thursday, as I read Autosport in my parents’ shop, Nigel Roebuck seemed to concur.

“After some of the places on the recent world championship schedule,” he wrote, “Zandvoort seemed like real grand prix racing again, an opportunity for cars and drivers to stretch their legs again, to get out of second gear. And perhaps our enjoyment of the place was enhanced by the fact that, until a few weeks ago, it appeared to have joined Spa, Clermont Ferrand and the Nurburgring, locked away in the vault of racing history. Going there, in the middle of the season, was like finding a bottle of Latour on a supermarket shelf.”

Given that my parents are Methodists, Nigel would have been out of luck scouting the shelves of their newsagency for fine wine. But as Zandvoort finally makes its way into the vault of history 44 years later, perhaps it’s only fitting that we should mark its passing by raising a glass of something nice.

– Stuart Codling

Cycling for fun, fried food and Formula 1

As one of the desk team at Motorsport Network, the opportunities to get out to race weekends are few and far between, which means that, more often than not, if I do go to a grand prix it’s as a paying fan. And it was as a fan that I made it to Zandvoort last year. However, because I like making things hard for myself, I decided to cycle to the race… from London.

Over three days and almost 300km, me and my party of misfits traversed the wilds of East London, the plains of East Anglia and the flats of the (west) Netherlands. There were sore legs, punctures and a few monumental downpours. But armed with a bag full of stroopwafels and fuelled by a stop at my favourite sandwich shop (Baker & Moore in Rotterdam) we edged closer to the seaside circuit. On the final approach, we joined hundreds of other riders en route, and after hurriedly tying up at the first bike park we found, we made it to the track just as FP3 kicked off.

Once there, I was sucked in by the atmosphere at the track. Sure, the lack of Max Verstappen merchandise among my party stood out in our orange grandstand, but by the fifth play through, we too were bellowing “duh duh duh duh” at the top of our lungs. The on-track action was surprisingly good that year too, with Lando Norris conking out from the race right in front of us, and Isack Hadjar clinching a glorious maiden podium.

But by the end of the weekend, what stuck with me the most was the passion of the fans, the fun that was infectious in the stands and the easy access to friet met mayonaise or kaassouffle met broodje. Zandvoort, you will be sorely missed. 

– Owen Bellwood

Trendsetter for modern F1 race

There are a lot of reasons why cramped and dated Zandvoort shouldn’t work for F1, but 300,000 reasons why it did. Max Verstappen’s ardent fanbase turned the sleepy beach resort into a “night club”, in the words of former Red Bull man Christian Horner.

That support has been unparalleled since Verstappen first burst onto the scene as a teenager, but the manner in which the Zandvoort organisers were able to corral those fans into the old school circuit and keep them entertained deserves praise.

The Dutch Grand Prix has been a trendsetter in turning a grand prix weekend into a weekend-long festival, and while some of the logistics involved remain difficult for such a small circuit, the event’s heavy reliance on trains and bicycles to get fans in and out of the circuit is a case study for other promoters on the calendar.

That electric atmosphere has made Zandvoort an enjoyable race to come to, even if the on-track product hasn’t always been able to keep up.

– Filip Cleeren 

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– The Autosport.com Team