This weekend, Formula 1 rolls into Zandvoort for the 12th round of the season — and for the last time. After this race, the Dutch Grand Prix drops off the calendar entirely.
The backstory is worth knowing before the lights go out. Zandvoort returned to F1 in 2021 after a 36-year absence, and the timing couldn't have been better: it landed right as Max Verstappen was becoming a title contender in his home country. He won the race three years in a row after its return, before Lando Norris ended the streak in 2024 and Oscar Piastri took the win last year with Verstappen watching from second.
The Netherlands became one of the most electric stops on the calendar — a sea of orange, a circuit with a genuinely unique banked corner, and a home crowd that made it feel different from almost anywhere F1 goes.
But the race is privately funded, unlike government-backed events elsewhere on the calendar, and that math eventually caught up with it. Organizers pointed to rising costs, including a planned VAT increase on tickets, as part of why a longer-term deal didn't happen. Rather than let the event fade or get squeezed out later, the promoter chose to walk away while it was still thriving.
That's the part that makes this weekend different from a normal round. This isn't a farewell forced by declining interest — it's a goodbye that F1's own economics couldn't sustain, even at full houses.
Verstappen goes into his final home race sixth in the standings, and has said himself that his own fame can't be what keeps Dutch motorsport alive long-term. That's the real tension of this weekend: a race the fans never stopped showing up for, ending anyway.
Six years. Three wins. One sea of orange that never got old. This weekend, F1 says goodbye to Zandvoort.