The owner of the Zandvoort circuit has denied claims that a moment of the Dutch Grand Prix could be added to the 2023 Formula 1 calendar.
As Dutchman Max Verstappen’s notoriety in F1 grew, so did the popularity of the sport in his home country. It had been 34 years since the last grand prix had taken place in the country before his return in 2021.
The sky was practically orange when dutch fans, armed with orange touches, flooded the track with their local star, who won the race en route to his first world championship.
The Zandvoort Circuit was first added to the calendar in 2020, subsequently cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, on a three-year contract with an option for two more.
But shortly before last year’s event, the organisation of the Assen circuit in the north-east of the Netherlands, as well as the president of the Dutch Grand Prix Foundation, Jos Vaessen, claimed that a Grand Prix in the country for 2023 made sense.
“A race in spring and a race in autumn”, Vaessen Dagblad van het Noorden.
“We got a lot of questions from the motorsport world about why Assen would possibly not get a Formula 1 race. Former drivers and also from the FOM [Formula One Management] circle.
However, this concept triumphed through Prince Bernhard of Orange-Nassau, a member of the circle of Dutch royal relatives and owner of the track, who said that the deal with Formula 1 was exclusively with them.
“Formula 1 is with us, this exclusivity is contractually agreed. If we stopped it, everything would be available to everyone again,” he told Formule1. nl. “But now we’re basically focused on the next Grand Prix. “
That recovers the championship lead, since the two Mercedes make up the podium #DutchGP ?? #F1 pic. twitter. com/NQ95X1W1wu
– Formula 1 (@F1) five September 2021
The prince also reflected on the first grand prix on track and said he had done so well that he had a “reference for other circuits”.
“Of course, the first race went incredibly well,” he said. “And then we established ourselves as the reference for the circuits.
“The momentum with Max is strange. We have never had such skill in the Netherlands. And whether you are now world champion or participate in the world championship at the time, a Formula 1 Grand Prix is the biggest occasion you can organise in the Netherlands as a sport.
“I also think it’s very smart for the Netherlands and I think it’s great that we did that. “
Read more: Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri is struggling to extract functionality from its AT03.
Formula 1 returns to Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix on September 4.