With the Dutch Grand Prix falling off the schedule after next year’s race, it may lead you to think that the event may be unfulfilled and constrained in its impact on F1.
With the 2026 race being the sixth since its return, it will mean that the staple to the calendar that many people thought Max Verstappen would encourage will not play out.
But this is not a blot against the world champion, because this event has been a realisation of his greatness.
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Fifteen years ago, a return to the Netherlands felt improbable. There had been drivers from the country that had made it to F1, like Jos Verstappen, but no Dutchman had won a race. And the sport, which had raced at Zandvoort for most years, between 1950 and 1985, did not envisage a market there.
But the market had been created within a heartbeat of Max Verstappen’s mark being made. The youngest F1 driver ever, the youngest race winner, youngest podium sitter, a tour de force of speed and commitment, a world champion and now an all-time great.
But from Verstappen’s formative years in F1, a following had been birthed. At various European rounds, even some away from the continent, an army of Dutch supporters were cheering on their lionheart. He may not have been in the quickest machinery at the time, but the wave of orange made his following the most visible.
Before his title winning years, the Austrian Grand Prix almost felt like Verstappen’s home race. His crowd thundered with delight with his race victories there, in 2018 and ’19. And it was the year before he became world champion that the sport was set to return to his country.
However, the covid-wrecked schedule meant that the track had to wait for an extra year before the orange colour would line the sand dunes, that comprise of the circuit’s wondrous view.
Take away the four-time world champion and the Netherlands would not be spoken about as an F1 venue. Take away the box office sensation that is Verstappen, and not only is the sport a poorer place, but the energy that the Dutch fans bring would simply not exist.
Akin to the inception of the Brazilian Grand Prix on the F1 schedule, in 1973, where the sport found a new corner in its cauldron because of the impact of Emerson Fittipaldi, such galvanising characters do not happen by chance, and not often.
But by that point, Fittipaldi was a world champion. Admittedly, the world worked very differently 50 years back, so a total like-for-like comparison is futile. However, Verstappen’s following transcends his world champion status, his support stems from the fearless competitor that he is. So, although a long-term deal did not transpire, that is nothing to sneer at.