OLD-SCHOOL. That’s the compound
adjective that crops up time and again when racing people describe
Zandvoort, no longer the former home of the Dutch Grand Prix but,
from 3 May and against all the odds, once again a contemporary
Formula 1 venue – for thefi rst time in 35 years.
The comparison to the other calendar addition for 2020, a new hybrid
street circuit in Hanoi (see sidebar), could not be more stark. Vietnam?
Really? Why on earth...? But Zandvoort: orange-hued Max Verstappen
mania, a rich motorsport heritage stretching back to 1939, slap-bang
in Formula 1’s European heartland. Yes, that makes more sense. It is,
as they say,old-school.
Except, from the air-brushed perfection by which modern F1 tends to
live by, Zandvoort is surely not only old-school but sorely outdated.
Like Brands Hatch, which hosted its last grand prix a year after the Dutch
track’s 1985 sign-off, the circuit in the sand dunes on Holland’s North
Sea coast has been viewed as a relic of the past, at least as far as F1 is
concerned. Too cramped, too rough around theedges, too dangerous –
until the ‘Max factor’ apparently convinced F1 to turn back time. Zandvoort
is now set for the most hotly anticipated return since Doc Brown and Marty
McFly started messing around with DeLoreans.
“It’s something that no one couldever have imagined,” says Mark
Koense, Dutch journalist, broadcaster, and author ofthe definitive
historical tome ‘Grand Prix Zandvoort’. “Since 1985, we thought it would
take a miracle to havethe grand prix back. And that miracle happened, in
the shape of Max Verstappen.”
At 22 and already preparing for his sixth F1 season, the half-Dutch,
half-Belgian sensation is a once-in-a-lifetime hero. He is the reason
Zandvoort is back on the menu –to h is own surprise as much as anyone’s.
More specifically, it’s the ‘orange army’that follows Verstappen around
the world which has actually triggered this resurrection, and the rise in TV
interest doesn’t hurt either. The most recentfi gures reveal The Netherlands
has the F1’sfi fth largest cumulative TV audience, behind Brazil, Germany,
Italy and theUK, in a country with a population of only 17 million.
“I can understand F1, particularly the American management, being
mesmerised by seeing all these Dutch fans and thinking out loud that
we should have a grand prix in their country,” says Koense. “But it’s a
very small country and to pull this off in such a short time, at a track that
needed such a major overhaul... I’m amazed it’s going to happen. And it
looks like it will be one hell of a track, too, which is very good because108 GP RACING MARCH 2020
that’s exactly what Zandvoort used to be.”
It suredid. The fast, sweeping circuit through the sand duneswas an
F1 staple through most of four decades, and one that drivers relished each
summer. The groundwork was laid pre-war with a street race in the town
itself, just before northernEurope was consumed by the horror of Blitzkrieg.
In the midst of devastated Holland’s recovery in 1948, a track was created
from roads laid in thedunes during the Occupation. Thai aristocrat Prince
Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh – better known on raceentries as
the slightly morelow-key ‘B Bira’ – was a suitably exoticfi rst winner,
in a Maserati 4CL. By 1952, Zandvoort wasestablished as an F1wor ld
championship venue andwou ld host 30 races in the following 33 seasons.
The highlights? Take your pick from thislot: Jo Bonnierfi nally ending
BRM’s agonising wait for a breakthrough win in 1959; Jim Clark’s hat-trick
between 1963 and 1965, followed by that seismic debut victory for the
Ford DFV V8 – the engine that would change F1 forever – in 1967; then
there’s James Hunt’s valiant defeat of Niki Lauda and Ferrari for Hesketh’s
‘Hooray Henrys’ in 1975; ‘crazy diamond’ Gilles Villeneuve heroically
(or stupidly, depending on your quota of soul) dragging the deranged left
rear wheel of his Ferrari 312 T4 around nine-tenths of a lap in 1979; and
Lauda’s swansong win for McLaren in 1985 as ‘old’ Zandvoort’s curtain fell.
The lowlights? All too obvious... brewery heir Piers Courage losing his
life in 1970 in Frank Williams’s de Tomaso; marshals and officials watching
Roger Williamson die in his burning March in 1973, as David PurleyIT’SSOMETHINGTHATNOONE COULDEVERHAVEIMAGINED.
SINCE1985,WETHOUGHTIT WOULDTAKEAMIRACLE TO
HAVETHEGRANDPRIXBACK.ANDTHATMIRACLEHAPPENED,
INTHESHAPEOFMAXVERSTAPPEN
“
MARKKOENSE
2020 SEASON PREVIEW
OLD-SCHOOL. That’s the compound
adjective that crops up time and again when racing people describe
Zandvoort, no longer the former home of the Dutch Grand Prix but,
from 3 May and against all the odds, once again a contemporary
Formula 1 venue – for thefi rst time in 35 years.
The comparison to the other calendar addition for 2020, a new hybrid
street circuit in Hanoi (see sidebar), could not be more stark. Vietnam?
Really? Why on earth...? But Zandvoort: orange-hued Max Verstappen
mania, a rich motorsport heritage stretching back to 1939, slap-bang
in Formula 1’s European heartland. Yes, that makes more sense. It is,
as they say,old-school.
Except, from the air-brushed perfection by which modern F1 tends to
live by, Zandvoort is surely not only old-school but sorely outdated.
Like Brands Hatch, which hosted its last grand prix a year after the Dutch
track’s 1985 sign-off, the circuit in the sand dunes on Holland’s North
Sea coast has been viewed as a relic of the past, at least as far as F1 is
concerned. Too cramped, too rough around theedges, too dangerous –
until the ‘Max factor’ apparently convinced F1 to turn back time. Zandvoort
is now set for the most hotly anticipated return since Doc Brown and Marty
McFly started messing around with DeLoreans.
“It’s something that no one couldever have imagined,” says Mark
Koense, Dutch journalist, broadcaster, and author ofthe definitive
historical tome ‘Grand Prix Zandvoort’. “Since 1985, we thought it would
take a miracle to havethe grand prix back. And that miracle happened, in
the shape of Max Verstappen.”
At 22 and already preparing for his sixth F1 season, the half-Dutch,
half-Belgian sensation is a once-in-a-lifetime hero. He is the reason
Zandvoort is back on the menu –to h is own surprise as much as anyone’s.
More specifically, it’s the ‘orange army’that follows Verstappen around
the world which has actually triggered this resurrection, and the rise in TV
interest doesn’t hurt either. The most recentfi gures reveal The Netherlands
has the F1’sfi fth largest cumulative TV audience, behind Brazil, Germany,
Italy and theUK, in a country with a population of only 17 million.
“I can understand F1, particularly the American management, being
mesmerised by seeing all these Dutch fans and thinking out loud that
we should have a grand prix in their country,” says Koense. “But it’s a
very small country and to pull this off in such a short time, at a track that
needed such a major overhaul... I’m amazed it’s going to happen. And it
looks like it will be one hell of a track, too, which is very good because
108 GP RACING MARCH 2020
that’s exactly what Zandvoort used to be.”
It suredid. The fast, sweeping circuit through the sand duneswas an
F1 staple through most of four decades, and one that drivers relished each
summer. The groundwork was laid pre-war with a street race in the town
itself, just before northernEurope was consumed by the horror of Blitzkrieg.
In the midst of devastated Holland’s recovery in 1948, a track was created
from roads laid in thedunes during the Occupation. Thai aristocrat Prince
Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh – better known on raceentries as
the slightly morelow-key ‘B Bira’ – was a suitably exoticfi rst winner,
in a Maserati 4CL. By 1952, Zandvoort wasestablished as an F1wor ld
championship venue andwou ld host 30 races in the following 33 seasons.
The highlights? Take your pick from thislot: Jo Bonnierfi nally ending
BRM’s agonising wait for a breakthrough win in 1959; Jim Clark’s hat-trick
between 1963 and 1965, followed by that seismic debut victory for the
Ford DFV V8 – the engine that would change F1 forever – in 1967; then
there’s James Hunt’s valiant defeat of Niki Lauda and Ferrari for Hesketh’s
‘Hooray Henrys’ in 1975; ‘crazy diamond’ Gilles Villeneuve heroically
(or stupidly, depending on your quota of soul) dragging the deranged left
rear wheel of his Ferrari 312 T4 around nine-tenths of a lap in 1979; and
Lauda’s swansong win for McLaren in 1985 as ‘old’ Zandvoort’s curtain fell.
The lowlights? All too obvious... brewery heir Piers Courage losing his
life in 1970 in Frank Williams’s de Tomaso; marshals and officials watching
Roger Williamson die in his burning March in 1973, as David PurleyIT’SSOMETHINGTHATNOONE COULDEVERHAVEIMAGINED.
SINCE1985,WETHOUGHTITWOULDTAKEAMIRACLE TO
HAVETHEGRANDPRIXBACK.ANDTHATMIRACLEHAPPENED,
INTHESHAPEOFMAXVERSTAPPEN
“
MARKKOENSE
2020 SEASON PREVIEW