Formula 1 returns from its summer break for the 35th edition of the Dutch Grand Prix and the fifth since its return to the calendar in 2021. While it wasn’t quite part of the original championship season in 1950, Zandvoort does have a storied history of hosting grands prix. The first was held in 1952, although under Formula Two regulations, so it wasn’t until 1955 that the circuit hosted its first ‘true’ drivers’ championship Formula One grand prix. It returned to the calendar three years later in 1958 and remained a part of it through to 1985, with the exception of 1972.

The rise of Max Verstappen and therefore the explosion of popularity of F1 in the Netherlands saw the circuit make a return in 2021. As the ‘orange army’ of Verstappen fans descend on the small seaside town every year, the festival atmosphere of the race has cemented it as a fan and driver favourite.

Even so, the promoters announced last year that the 2026 event will be the last, at least for now. Zandvoort Circuit Director, Robert van Overdijk, said they took the decision to “go out on a high note” as financial pressures have increased in recent years and the long-term viability of the event was uncertain. It means there are just two more iterations of the Dutch Grand Prix planned, making this weekend’s all the more special.

Iconic Corners

And it is a special, challenging medium-to-high speed circuit, owing largely to its unique banked corners.

Turn 3, or Hugenholtzbocht, is banked to 18-degrees which promotes different racing lines during the grand prix. Over a qualifying lap the drivers will largely run the higher, wider line to prioritise the exit as it flattens out quicker and they can get back on the power sooner.

Turn 14, the last of the lap also known as Arie Luyendykbocht, is banked to 19-degrees – a whopping 2.1x the angle of the four turns at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s a much wider radius corner than turn 3 which gives it a slingshot feeling as the drivers can take it easily flat-out and arrive on the 690 metre-long main straight at full power.

The hugely banked corners are not the only iconic ones around the lap however, with turn 1, or Tarzan, being one of the most historic and memorable perhaps due to its name. Legend has it that it’s named after a local man who would only give up his garden to make way for the circuit to be built if they named a corner after him. Whether that’s true or not is a mystery, but it has been a feature of the circuit since the very start. As a tight, more subtly banked, 180-degree hairpin at the end of a DRS zone, it’s often the site of several overtakes come race day.

The Compounds

Pirelli are bringing a compound range that’s a step softer than last year’s to Zandvoort this weekend – the C2 will be the hard, the C3 the medium, and C4 the soft. As we’ve already seen from the supplier this year, the logic behind this step softer is to push the teams into considering a two-stop strategy, rather than the one-stop that has been the predominant choice since 2021.

Zandvoort circuit is one of the highest for energy density on the calendar given its short length (4.259km) but high relative corner number (14), several of which are taken at high speed. This exerts more energy on the tyres, heating them up, and impacting their grip, degradation and performance. With how short the main straight is, and given that it’s the only straight of the lap, they rarely get a chance to cool down over the grand prix.

With the softer compounds, Pirelli are almost hoping that the degradation rate will increase to force the teams’ hands and push them into that two-stop strategy. However, the teams’ simulations heading in still say that the one-stop is the quickest mainly due to how tough overtaking can be around the narrow Zandvoort circuit. It can make holding onto track position more important than the undercut or having a tyre delta over a rival.

Even so, the decision to move softer this time is one that’s been reinforced by a change to the pit lane speed limit by the FIA. It’s increasing from 60km/h to 80km/h to reduce the time a pit stop takes. This means the time spent under the pit lane speed limit will reduce by around 3-4 seconds, which could be particularly influential in the event of a virtual or full safety car.

What happened last year?

Last year’s Dutch Grand Prix was absolutely dominated by Lando Norris; he finished with an over 22 second margin to Max Verstappen in P2 with Charles Leclerc rounding out the podium places over 25 seconds back from Norris. And it was a win achieved with a one-stop strategy using the C2 and C1, as was also run by 13 other drivers in the field.

Starting on the medium tyre was the dominant choice – taken by all but 4 drivers – and from there the pit window to move onto the hard tyre was anywhere from as early as lap 12 to as late as lap 33. That goes to show just how versatile and manageable the C2 was in several cases, but also how durable the C1 was, despite it lacking pace versus the medium. It was run for 57 laps by Hulkenberg but also for 43 by the race winner Norris, who was also able to put in a fastest lap attempt on the very final one of the race. Even prior to that it had shown impressive consistency of pace in Norris’ hands – his lap times were within 1.388s of each other over the entirety of his stint on the C1s.

And these performances for each compound last year bring this year’s slightly into question. Last year’s soft tyre, the C3, will be this year’s medium which, if we plug into how the teams used their yellow-walled tyre last time to make the one-stop work, would have to hold on for almost 30 laps in some cases. The C3 was run to some success last year however: Hamilton ran it for two stints of 23 and 24 laps respectively, and in doing so was able to make up the most places of anyone on where he started, moving from P14 to P8.

The ability for this year’s soft tyre, the C4, to play that same role in offering an alternate strategy is unknown so expect the teams to test its durability out over the three hours of free practice.

Characteristic Considerations

Given Zandvoort’s location next to the North Sea, nestled between the sand dunes, sand blowing onto the track is a key factor that impacts track evolution. While usually we expect track evolution to ramp up as a weekend progresses, here it can be reset randomly as gusts blow and bring new sand onto the surface even lap-to-lap. It’s therefore more about cleaning up the track rather than necessarily rubbering it in – something that’s also impacted by the unpredictable weather.

The narrow width of the circuit puts a priority onto qualifying for the teams, given that overtaking can be tough, although not impossible. Once again where weather comes into play it can give rise to some chaotic and overtake-heavy races – in fact, the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix where rain wreaked havoc remains the one with the highest number of overtakes in F1 history at 186.

Finally, the rollercoaster reputation of this track comes with some serious G-forces and lateral and vertical loads for the drivers, cars and tyres to contend with. Turn 7 particularly, a long radius, sweeping right-hander subjects the drivers to some of the highest lateral loads on the calendar at around 5.2G – on par with Maggotts and Becketts at Silverstone. But the vertical loads are also high, owing to the banked corners. These push the drivers back into their seats and paired with the lateral loads at other points that push them side-to-side can make it a very physical lap.

These are also features that mean the teams opt to maximise downforce, or at least run very high downforce setups here. Expect to see large rear and front wing angles rivalling those seen at Budapest or even Monaco.

The Weather

The weather is always a major factor in the Dutch Grand Prix weekend given Zandvoort’s proximity to the coast and how this means weather systems can move in and onto the circuit rapidly.

This weekend there’s an 80% chance of rain each and every day, with this chance even predicted to exceed 80% on Friday and Saturday. Coupled with cooler temperatures between 18-20°C, it’s likely to be an unsettled few days with wind also playing a role.

If it comes to fruition it could mean absolute chaos on race day with the call to move from slicks to inters, or vice versa, being critical as we saw over the first few laps and closing stages in 2023. Getting that timing right can make all the difference, as it did for Verstappen two seasons ago on his way to his third victory at home.

It may also mean we don’t get much slick tyre running, which could throw out all of the predicted strategies and render Pirelli’s attempts and creating a two-stop race useless.

The Dutch Grand Prix begins with Free Practice 1 at 12:30pm local time on Friday August 29th. The rest of the timings for the weekend are as follows (all in local time):

• FP1: Friday 29th August, 12:30-13:30
• FP2: Friday 29th August, 16:00-17:00
• FP3: Saturday 30th August, 11:30-12:30
• Qualifying: Saturday 30th August, 15:00-16:00
• Dutch Grand Prix: Sunday 31st August, 15:00