After 36 years, Formula One is back to racing at the traditional Zandvoort circuit, located in the Netherlands. The last time the track hosted the category, in 1985, the legendary Niki Lauda won, his 25th and last victory in the category. Completing the podium in second place was Alain Prost, that season’s champion, and in third place, the young Ayrton Senna, who was making his second season in F1.
Lotus driver that year, Ayrton suffered from some reliability problems with the car, but he got his first win in the category in Portugal in April, and second place in the Austrian GP in August. Senna managed to get a good stability at Zandvoort circuit, after starting from fourth position. Even struggling once again with the high fuel consumption of the Lotus-Renault set-up, Senna managed to get a good position at the end of the race.
At the 1985 Dutch Grand Prix only 10 cars out of 26 completed the 71 laps. Senna’s third place finish placed him fourth in the championship and it was in this position that he finished the season with 38 points.
Although still an “old-school” track, Zandvoort has already undergone some changes and the current layout features 4.259 km of length, 14 curves, two DRS detection zones and is scheduled to run 72 laps.
In principle, the Dutch GP was to return to the Formula One calendar in 2020, however this was made impossible due to the covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, it will be held on the first weekend of September and the expectation is of a great duel between Max Verstappen, home driver, and the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
