Circuit chief confirms F1 fan-favourite Grand Prix could fall of calendar after 2025

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Formula 1 faces the real prospect of a fan-favourite Grand Prix falling off its calendar soon after a circuit director confirmed there is no agreement for the race after 2025.

The pinnacle of motorsport is staging a record 24-round calendar this year as F1 visits tracks in five continents. Europe is home to the baulk of F1’s schedule with nine races, plus rounds in North and South America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia – only missing one in Africa.

F1 even goes to 21 countries among the 24 rounds on the 2024 Formula 1 calendar with just the United States of America (three) and Italy (two) staging multiple Grand Prix. But a nation with just one race may no longer have any after 2025 with F1 yet to agree to a new contract.

Zandvoort chief confirms the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix could stop after 2025

Robert van Overdijk, the Zandvoort circuit director, has confirmed that the Dutch Grand Prix is at risk of falling off the Formula 1 schedule. F1 only just returned to the Netherlands after 36 years in 2021. But the circuit near the North Sea coast only has a contract through 2025.

The emergence of Max Verstappen as a Formula 1 powerhouse helped Zandvoort to get F1 back and revive the Dutch GP. It has also proven to be a hugely successful event with more than a million fans applying to attend the 2020 race when F1 initially tried to hold the race.

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Verstappen winning three drivers’ championships in a row has also helped Zandvoort’s high popularity increase. After 195,000 fans attended the Dutch GP weekend in 2022, the figure rose to 305,000 in 2023. The Dutch GP’s attendance slightly pipped the Italian GP at Monza.

But Zandvoort chief Van Overdijk has confirmed that the circuit still does not have a deal to keep the Dutch GP in F1 past 2025. The track is not giving up hope of finding an agreement with Formula 1, but there are no certainties and the deal must work with Zandvoort’s plans.

Van Overdijk stated, via RacingNews365: “If you ask factually, it is currently the case that in 2025 we will have the last race at Zandvoort. That doesn’t mean that we won’t continue to work hard in the coming months and keep talking to all kinds of parties and people.

“But I don’t expect there to be any white smoke there anytime soon. If all the puzzle pieces fall together, we will still be very positive. It’s just not a given.”

F1 is not afraid to drop a popular Grand Prix as countries clamber to stage races

RacingNews365 also reports that Zandvoort and Formula 1 are in discussions about keeping the Dutch Grand Prix on the calendar. But a sticking point amid the negotiations is the $32m (£25m) fee that Zandvoort currently pays F1 per year to stage the Dutch GP in hosting fees.

Being a very popular event thanks largely to Verstappen, F1 might be loath to lose the Dutch GP after 2025. But Formula 1 is in a very advantageous position as CEO Stefano Domenicali regularly boasts about how more countries want to stage a race than F1 can have on its bill.

Formula 1 is even already planning to take the Spanish Grand Prix away from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and move it to Madrid in 2026. The race was the third-best attended amongst the first 10 in 2024 at 288,218 behind Australia (452,055) and Canada (350,000).