The Final Dutch Grand Prix: Inside Zandvoort's Last Dance
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing Monday Race Recap. Formula 1 is in its summer break with no Grand Prix to recap this week, so we are using the quiet stretch to look at the race that comes next, and at why it is the last one of its kind.
The Short Version
Formula 1 is four weeks off the clock. The last race was the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26, where Lando Norris took McLaren's first win of 2026. The next one is the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 23, and it is the last Dutch Grand Prix Formula 1 will ever run at that circuit. The contract ends after this year, the promoter is not renewing, and the weekend carries the first F1 Sprint ever held on Dutch soil. Saturday and Sunday tickets are already gone.
Why 2026 Is the End at Zandvoort
Zandvoort came back to Formula 1 in 2021 after a 36-year gap, and it worked immediately. Sell-out crowds, a home hero in Max Verstappen, and a track that actually looked like a race track instead of a parking lot. The problem was never interest. It was money. A seaside circuit in a small holiday town has a hard ceiling on how many seats it can build and how much it can charge, and the sanctioning fee kept climbing.
In December 2024 the promoter announced it would take a one-year extension for 2026 and then stop. Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said several options were discussed, including alternating the race every other year with another venue, but nothing worked out. So the 2026 running is it. The circuit announced the news itself:
𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐚𝐩. 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. Closing an epic Zandvoort era in style with the first-ever F1 Sprint Race at Zandvoort.
— Dutch Grand Prix (@f1dutchgp) June 10, 2025
The Banking and the Sprint
Zandvoort's signature is its banking. When the circuit was rebuilt for the 2021 return, two corners were tilted on purpose: Turn 3, the Hugenholtzbocht, and the final corner, the Arie Luyendykbocht. Both run up to 18 degrees of bank, and the last corner reaches a 32 percent gradient at its steepest point. The idea was to let two cars carry different lines through the same corner at the same speed, which is how you create a pass on a track that is otherwise only 4.2 kilometers of narrow tarmac squeezed between sand dunes.
The Hugenholtzbocht is named for Hans Hugenholtz, the circuit's first director from 1949 to 1964. The final corner honors Arie Luyendyk, the Dutch driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1990 and 1997. It is the corner that feeds directly onto the main straight, so getting it right is worth a position.
Adding a Sprint to the farewell weekend is the right call. It means Friday runs practice and Sprint Qualifying, Saturday runs the Sprint plus Grand Prix qualifying, and Sunday runs the race. Three days of real sessions with points on the line, at a circuit that has never hosted a Sprint before and never will again.
Four Zandvoort Races Worth Remembering
1985, Niki Lauda. The last Dutch Grand Prix before the long gap, and the last win of Lauda's career. He started 10th, hunted down his own McLaren teammate Alain Prost over the closing laps, and held him off by 0.232 seconds. It was Lauda's 25th and final Grand Prix victory. Ayrton Senna finished third for Lotus. Then Formula 1 walked away from Zandvoort for 36 years.
2021, Max Verstappen. The comeback race. Verstappen put it on pole and won it in front of a home crowd that had waited a generation, beating Lewis Hamilton by nearly 21 seconds while he was in the middle of the closest title fight of the modern era.
2023, the rain race. Verstappen won again, but nothing about it was clean. Rain arrived on the opening lap, a second downpour with eight laps left brought out a red flag and a 45-minute stoppage, and he still came home 3.7 seconds clear of Fernando Alonso. It was his ninth consecutive win, equalling Sebastian Vettel's 2013 record.
2024 and 2025, the McLaren years. Lando Norris ended Verstappen's Zandvoort streak in 2024, and Oscar Piastri won the 2025 edition by 1.271 seconds over Verstappen. The home hero has not won his own race in three years, which gives this final visit an obvious storyline.
Where the 2026 Title Fight Stands
Eleven of the season's rounds are done. Andrea Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers' championship with 219 points and six wins, and he goes into the break 50 points clear of Lewis Hamilton. George Russell is third on 160, which puts Mercedes on 379 constructor points and a comfortable lead over Ferrari's 307. You can see the full picture, including every remaining round, on the Formula 1 schedule and standings page.
Survived the chaos. Lando Norris goes into the summer break an F1 winner in 2026, winning the Hungarian Grand Prix.
— Motorsport (@Motorsport) July 26, 2026
Who Is Hot and Who Is Not
Hot: Antonelli. Six wins in eleven starts in his first season carrying real title weight is the story of the year. Norris too, because McLaren finally converted pace into a win in Hungary and Zandvoort has been good to that team two years running.
Not: Verstappen. Sixth in the standings, no wins through eleven rounds, and the last race he will ever run at his home circuit is coming. Aston Martin is worse off, sitting on a single constructor point. Piastri also leaves Hungary empty-handed after contact while lapping traffic took him out of a race he had been leading.
The Bottom Line
Formula 1 does not usually get to plan a goodbye. Circuits normally fall off the calendar quietly and fans find out later. Zandvoort gets the opposite: a known end date, a Sprint weekend built for it, a sold-out grandstand, and a home driver with something to prove after three years without a win there. Whatever happens on August 23, it is the last time.
Your take: should Formula 1 have found a way to keep Zandvoort, even as an every-other-year race, or is dropping a sold-out circuit for a bigger check just how the sport works now? Tell us in the comments.
Shop F1 Gear at Happy Hour Racing
If you want one piece of Zandvoort history on a shelf, this is it: the Max Verstappen RB16B Dutch GP 1:18 Minichamps model, the actual car and livery from the 2021 comeback win. There is one left.
More F1 gear that is in stock right now:
- Mercedes-AMG Petronas x Mad Dog Jones Hamilton ball cap, for the driver sitting second in the title race
- George Russell 1:2 scale Mercedes helmet, a display piece from the team leading the constructors' championship
- McLaren New Era 9Fifty camo hat, for the team that has won the last two Dutch Grands Prix
- Scuderia Ferrari garage crew tee, for the Hamilton and Leclerc side of the grid
- Formula 1 Tech limited edition race hat, a clean everyday option
The full lineup lives in the F1 hats collection, and the rest of the 2026 calendar is on the Formula 1 schedule and standings page.
