It won’t be for Christmas but at least, Max Verstappen will keep coming home two more years. Formula 1 has reached an agreement with Zandvoort, to keep the Dutch GP until the end of 2025 in the calendar. The new agreement adds two more visits to the original three-year contract that the Dutch track initially signed, when it returned to the calendar for the first time since 1985, and the two-time champion will have the opportunity to continue extending his dominance to local joy at a track, that since he joined the World Championship, he has always had his home rider on the top of the podium.
Despite the hegemony that Verstappen has imposed on its circuit, Zandvoort has earned praise from around the paddock thanks to the way in which it has approached hosting a grand prix. The Dutch track underwent major modifications and investments to meet the requirements and return to the calendar. Finally it was a year later than expected as a result of the coronavirus, but he did it all the way. The Dutch GP has made of the weekend an ideal experience, that meets all those requirements that Liberty Media sought when it entered the great circus to provide you with a fresh approach: offers a show, many activities during the weekend and some easy accesses that invite even more people to populate the orange stands to offer support to MadMax.
No wonder the race at the Dutch circuit has quickly become one of the most beloved on the calendar. “The Dutch GP has quickly established itself as one of the fan favorites”, said Stefano Domenicali, president of F1, about an event that has already hung the poster of Exhausted for the 2023 edition. “In the last two years they have raised the bar in terms of organization, entertainment and sustainability. We are delighted to expand our relationship with them. There is great demand to host F1 races, and this is testament to what they have done to consolidate Zandvoort on the calendar until 2025.”
But the show has had so much to blame for its permanence, like all sustainability efforts performed. In 2022, 99% of the fans who filled the stands reached the vicinity of the track in public transport, bicycle or on foot, something quite unusual in these times, but quite attractive for the World Cup due to the ambition to become Net Zero Carbon by 2030. Now, the layout wants “the world to experience again how the Netherlands organize an event”, he acknowledges a Jan Lammers, sports director of the Dutch GP, who recalls that “fans will now be able to enjoy two Dutch pilots”. nyck devries will share the leading role on the track with Verstappen at the wheel of the AlphaTauri, while in the offices they will continue working to “organize the event of the future”: “It will not necessarily be bigger but better, more attractive, more innovative, more sustainable and more inclusive”.
