Reportage
ZANDVOORT
he 2026 Dutch Grand Prix closed the chapter on one of the calendar’s most beloved races—and on a way of measuring success that F1 no longer seems to reward.
Orlando Ríos has been covering Zandvoort since 1979, when he first arrived from Argentina with a group of journalists at a circuit unlike anything else on the calendar at the time: right next to the beach, in the middle of summer. He fell in love with the track from the moment he first set foot there, and has not missed a single edition since Zandvoort returned to the calendar in 2021.
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WHAT FORMULA 1 LOSES
“Not much has changed here,” he says now, decades later. He pauses for a moment, as if briefly returning to that summer of 1979, before continuing: “The layout has changed, but the spirit of the circuit has not. It is a small, narrow circuit, overtaking is not easy, and it is still just as attractive. It gives you the impression of being at a circuit from another era — the press room, the width of the paddock, everything — but Formula 1 has adapted to the circuit,” rather than the other way around.
READ FULL ARTICLE ON ISSUE 81 | SEPTEMBER
