After the anticlimax that was (or was not, as you might suggest) the Belgian Grand Prix, from a live spectator perspective, we can hope to turn the page with the return of an event that bodes well for a stadium-type atmosphere – the Dutch Grand Prix. Held on a re-jigged Zandvoort circuit, this country has always had its race at this venue. Having dropped off the calendar after 1985, it should not be overlooked that it was actually a staple for most of the Formula 1 World Championship for 35 years. With the exception of 1954, 1956, 1957 and 1972, it featured on the campaign every year.
It was mooted for a return various times, but it was finally slated for 2020 and had to be scrapped due to the pandemic. An environmental lawsuit also appeared to threaten the event in the run-up to this week, but in the end, the Grand Prix will go ahead.
Highly banked and cambered, the new Zandvoort circuit retains the essence of the original circuit. DRS Zone 2, which was due to run from the penultimate corner on to the start-finish straight, has been changed to the start-finish straight. Sporting Director of the Grand Prix and former F1 driver Jan Lammers has stated that he is hoping DRS can still be used here (the final turn is named Arie Luyendyk Corner), and that this can be considered after Friday Practice.
Either way, the track will be tough on which to overtake, but at least the character of the circuit appears to be somehow flowing, if tight.
The history
The inaugural Grand Prix (titled the Zandvoort Grand Prix) was organised in 1948, filled by a field of British entrants, and consisted of two 24-lap heats and a 40-lap final, the grids for which were decided by qualifying sessions and with drivers whose numbers were lower in Heat 1 and those whose were higher in Heat 2. Reg Parnell won Heat 1 in a Maserati 4CLT and Prince Bira of Siam took Heat 2 in a Maserati 4CL, with just a seven-second race time difference between the two heats over their approximately 50 minutes. The final was a close contest, with the prince just pipping Tony Rolt in his Alfa Romeo Tipo B, 0.1 seconds the gap at the flag. Parnell took the chequered flag a distant third, one lap back.
1949 drew a more diverse selection of entrants and followed the same format as the previous year, albeit adding one lap to the heats. Luigi Villoresi won Heat 1 in the Ferrari 125, with Parnell 1st in Heat 2 in a Maserati 4CLT/48. Ferrari drivers Villoresi and Alberto Ascari battled it out, swapping positions until Lap 34, when Ascari's wheel fell off and Villoresi's victory was sealed. Emmanuel de Graffenried and Prince Bira were 2nd and 3rd in their Maseratis, after Giuseppe Farina and Parnell (initially second and fifth) were given a one-minute time penalty for jumping the start.
In 1950, Louis Rosier, in a Talbot-Lago, took the spoils from the Ferrari pair of Villoresi and Ascari, in the renamed Dutch Grand Prix. Rosier repeated his triumph a year later, this time in a Talbot 1-2, with Philippe Étancelin a lap behind, followed by Stirling Moss in an HWM-Alta.
On its first venture into the World Championship, hosting the penultimate event of the season, the 1952 Dutch Grand Prix saw a Ferrari 1-2-3, with newly-crowned drivers' champion Ascari beating Farina and Villoresi over 90 laps.
1953's race was Round 3 of 9 and Ascari again carried off the win on a slippery track, which had been resurfaced prior to the event, but which still had loose gravel, as well the normal sand from the dunes. Maserati's Juan-Manuel Fangio was sandwiched by the Ferraris of Villoresi and Farina at Tarzan. Farina was 10 seconds back, while José Froilán Gonzalez, who had retired his Maserati on Lap 22 with a rear axle problem, took over Felice Bonetto's car, winning out over Mike Hawthorn's Ferrari and leaving the two Maserati drivers in third place.
After a hiatus in 1954 due to a lack of funds, the Dutch Grand Prix was reinstated on the calendar a year later, to form Round 5 of 7. After 100 laps, Fangio pipped Moss by 0.3 seconds, the Mercedes pair followed home by Luigi Musso, almost a minute behind in the Maserati. Despite being held in damp conditions, it was notable that by no longer using Formula 2 cars in the Grand Prix, the race time was only around 48 seconds slower, despite featuring an extra 10 laps and being run in damp conditions.
After another spell off the campaign, the race returned in 1958, and after a half-hour delay, due to the fire brigade not being ready, the event commenced and in some tricky cross-winds, Moss took victory in the Vanwall after the 75 laps, from the BRMs of Harry Schell and Jean Behra.
The next year, Jo Bonnier, in the BRM, took his only Formula 1 pole, podium and win, from the Cooper-Climaxes of Jack Brabham and Masten Gregory. Brabham followed that up with a first place in 1960, his Cooper-Climax finishing ahead of the Lotus-Climax and BRM of Innes Ireland and Graham Hill. A spectator was killed in an accident had by Dan Gurney. Jim Clark made his debut in this race.
In 1961, Clark starred in the Lotus, to come 3rd, while Wolfgang von Trips just beat Ferrari team-mate Phil Hill to the win, who had been shadowed by Clark and with whom he had swapped positions numerous times. This race was the first in Formula 1 history in which every starter was a classified finisher. The following year, the Dutch Grand Prix comprised Round 1 of the championship, and was held this time over 80 tours of the circuit. Graham Hill won in the BRM from the Lotus of Trevor Taylor and the Ferrari of Phil Hill.
In 1963, marking Round 2 of the championship, Jim Clark took the first of a hat-trick of Zandvoort wins, with a lap's margin over Gurney's Brabham and John Surtees' Ferrari. A year on, Surtees managed to end up runner-up in a Lotus sandwich, with Peter Arundell back in 3rd. Now Race 6, in 1965, and in a Grand Prix which took in 90 laps, Honda's extensive testing at Zandvoort somewhat paid off, with Richie Ginther grabbing a front-row slot and briefly leading. He ended up 5th. Jackie Stewart completed a Scottish 1-2 in his BRM, while Gurney was 3rd in the Brabham.
Run as Race 5, Brabham took the spoils in his eponymous car in 1966, pursued a lap down by Graham Hill in the BRM and Clark in the Lotus, securing a first podium of the season and leading, before undergoing a water pump failure, which dropped him down the order.
Zandvoort played host to Round 3 in 1967 and the Lotus 49 starred on its race debut. Hill claimed pole in it, although Clark had not driven it prior to the meeting and qualified 8th. He rose through the field, nonetheless, to claim a fourth win, with the Brabhams of Brabham and Hulme completing the podium.
In 1968, Chris Amon claimed pole in his Ferrari, but fell to fifth in the race, and in wet conditions, it was Jackie Stewart who led home Jean-Pierre Beltoise by over a minute and a half in a Matra 1-2. Pedro Rodriguez was 3rd for BRM. A year later, Jochen Rindt was on pole, but had a halfshaft failure on Lap 16. Stewart won again for Matra, with Jo Siffert runner-up for Lotus and Amon taking the final podium slot with Ferrari.
In 1970, Jacky Ickx led away in his Ferrari, but Jochen Rindt overtook him at Tarzan on Lap 3 on the Type 72's debut, going on to win from Stewart's March and Ickx. Williams-run Piers Courage, in the De Tomaso-Ford, was killed when suspension damage led to a fiery accident in which courage was hit on the head by one of his wheels.
Ickx took home the victory in his Ferrari in wet conditions a year later, with the race held over 70 laps, and Rodriguez was 2nd for BRM and Clay Regazzoni 3rd for Ferrari.
The race vanished for a year, while extensive safety changes were made, including the addition of Armco barriers and a right-left chicane installed at Panoramabocht. Nonetheless, it were to suffer another fatality when on Lap 7, Roger Williamson crashed his March, which was set on fire. David Purley stopped his car and tried to save Williamson, but with totally lacklustre stewarding and no useful assistance from marshals, the hapless Purley was unable to save him and Williamson perished. There were no red flags, and after 72 laps, Stewart led François Cevert home in a Tyrrell 1-2, with James Hunt 3rd in his March.
In 1974, another 1-2 occurred, this time for Ferrari, with Lauda 1st, Regazzoni 2nd and Emerson Fittipaldi 3rd for McLaren. 1975 bore witness to a big upset, when Hunt took the privateer Hesketh team's only victory in Formula 1, and his first. The race had started wet, but Hunt made up heaps of time on dry tyres to close down and pass Lauda's Ferrari and Jean-Pierre Jarier's Shadow on Lap 15. Jarier had an accident, but Lauda was 2nd and the other Ferrari of Regazzoni rounded out the podium. In 1976, Hunt conquered again, but it was a close-run event, as the McLaren driver was followed over the line by just under a second from Regazzoni's Ferrari and a fraction over two seconds by Mario Andretti's Lotus.
In 1977, Hunt overtook polesitter Andretti and defended robustly from him, with the pair colliding, as Andretti rode over his left-rear when Hunt left him with no room to go. The McLaren driver was out, but Andretti continued, exchanging places with Carlos Reutemann for third until the Lotus driver's engine blew up on Lap 14. Gunnar Nilsson tried to overtake him and they tangled. Lauda ended up winning for Ferrari, with Jacques Laffite just behind in the Ligier. Patrick Tambay in the Ensign had been running third, but ran out of fuel on the final lap, which left Jody Scheckter to pick up the podium pieces for Wolf in 3rd.
The Dutch Grand Prix had been edging closer to the end of the season, now at the end of the summer, rather than the beginning, as it had previously been. Mario Andretti led home Ronnie Peterson in their last 1-2 before the super Swede's fatal crash at Monza and the result at Zandvoort meant that only a Lotus driver could take the title. Lauda was 3rd for Brabham.
1979 bore witness to an iconic Gilles Villeneuve moment. On Lap 49, after having taken the lead from Alan Jones and then spinning, his left-rear tyre gave up the ghost and he continued back to pits, dragging the scraping car back, with the left-rear wheel dangling behind and the front-right in the air. Some denounced it as reckless, while others proclaimed it as the mark of the man. The Renault of polesitter René Arnoux clashed with Clay Regazzoni's Williams. Jones won in his Williams, while Scheckter, who had dropped to the tail of the field on Lap 1, climbed up to 2nd, with Laffite completing the rostrum in the Ligier.
The slight left-right at Hondenvlak was converted into a chicane in 1980. Early leader Jones pitted with damage to the skirts and Laffite passed Arnoux for first place, after which point Nelson Piquet got them both, the Brabham driver winning from Arnoux's Renault and Laffite's Ligier, after the two French drivers swapped positions again. Jones didn't score, and Piquet ended up two points behind him in the title race.
Alain Prost won for Renault in 1981, with Piquet passing Jones near the end in his Brabham, to claim the runner-up spot. Reutemann crashed with both Andretti on Lap 1, and with Laffite on Lap 18, this time terminally.
A year later, polesitter Arnoux had a big crash at Tarzan, but was unharmed. Pironi won for Ferrari, from Piquet's Brabham and Keke Rosberg's Williams, while in 1983, Arnoux claimed victory for the Scuderia, with his team-mate Patrick Tambay in 2nd and John Watson 3rd for McLaren. Watson's podium place was to the the last time a normally-aspirated engine would take a rostrum slot until 1988. Prost and Piquet crashed out while duelling for the win.
A series of McLaren 1-2s followed in 1984 and 1985, with Prost gaining the upper hand over Lauda in the first instance, where Nigel Mansell was 3rd for Lotus. In 1985, Lauda took his 25th and final Grand Prix win, after a battle with Prost in the closing stages. Ayrton Senna finished 48 seconds back for Lotus. The circuit owners went out of business and Zandvoort disappeared from Formula 1 for 36 years.
Trivia
The Dutch Grand Prix is fifteenth in the all-time Formula 1 list in terms of countries holding a race with their national title.
Jo Bonnier's only F1 pole, podium and win were all achieved in 1959 at Zandvoort.
Bonnier's pole and victory was also the first of 11 and the first of 17 for BRM in Formula 1.
Jim Clark has scored the most Dutch Grand Prix wins, with four.
Ferrari have won the most F1 races here – 8. Other teams which exist in some form now which have won are McLaren (3 wins), Williams (1) and (in a sense) Mercedes-Benz (1).
Two Dutch drivers have scored points in this event – Carel godin de Beaufort and Gijs van Lennep. Max Verstappen will be expected by many to achieve that and a whole lot more this weekend.
Both British drivers Piers Courage and Roger Williamson perished in fiery accidents around Tunnel Oost Corner.
James Hunt achieved his first Formula 1 win here, while Niki Lauda had his last.
The banking at the last corner is 18 degrees, twice as high as that of Indianapolis.
The track
Other information
Circuit length: 4.259 km
Number of laps: 72
Race distance: 306.648 km
Dry weather tyre compounds: C1, C2, C3
Race Lap Record: n/a
First Grand Prix at this circuit: 1948
First Dutch Grand Prix: 1950
First World Championship Grand Prix: 1952
First Grand Prix on current configuration: 2021
Join in the fun with the F1 Predictions Contest and Fantasy F1:
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthre...35#post4071135
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156053
What are your Dutch Grand Prix memories?