Lapping Zandvoort with Esteban Ocon

The current home of the Dutch Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2021 after modifications for modern Formula 1 machinery, but has hosted 34 world championship events. As the 2025 season resumes at Zandvoort, Haas driver Esteban Ocon is your guide to the 2.646-mile track.

“The first time I raced here was in DTM. So it was the old configuration – basically the same layout, but no banking in Turn 3 and the last corner. So the last corner was much more of a challenge back then, and Turn 3 was a different line. There was also no runoff in Turn 3, so you were crashing and you didn't have the elevation, to stop you going there.

“But straight away when I came here, I thought, ‘OK, this is an awesome track!' In DTM, it was awesome because it was almost flat in Turn 7, and that didn't really change from then.

“It’s an old-school track, like we like them. And I think for once these new changes have made it even better. It's not normally the case – when we put new curbs in and stuff like that, the tracks lose character and I'm not the biggest fan of that. But this track hasn't done that, so that's good.

“I think it would have been possible to race here without the banking, but it would have been probably even harder to overtake. And probably would have been less interesting in Turn 3 at the start too, because now you can get a couple of different lines when before there was only one.

“So you would not probably have seen overtakes in Turn 3 – or not as much – but I don't think it would have changed the world. I mean, they raced in the '70s and '80s here, so it is possible.

“We don't get banking often. We certainly don't get it as severe as we've got here. And Turn 3 is a very different challenge to the final corner as well. It's quite crazy. Especially when you go there walking, you just can't go to the top very easily. For the American fans, it's like Daytona, where they can't also climb to the top.

"I know it’s fewer degrees [18 degrees angle at Zandvoort, 31 at Daytona], but what’s interesting is that you can get so many different lines. I don't think you ever get it perfectly every lap, because you have a way to enter the banking which is very narrow as a window, and if you are a bit too far in, you can have the inside wheel locking and not have all the corners on the ground.

“If you enter too early as well, you are not positioned the way you should. And the higher you go, the more grip you have. So it is very interesting corner and probably the most difficult of the year, technically.

“In Turn 3, it's compressing you a lot. There is a way where when it compresses you, you feel like it's going in the right direction. Basically, it means that the grip's coming nicely and that you can turn more to exit – it's like a ramp when you exit it. You just take more of the slope and you take speed when you go down to exit, which is really cool.

Zandvoort's banking promotes a number of different lines, which Ocon says makes for some interesting technical challenges. Andrew Ferraro/Getty Images

“The final corner is just easy flat. If it was like a flat surface, it would probably not be possible to use DRS. It would be flat, but not with DRS.

“From a setup point of view, I would say it's the same compromises as you have everywhere else, really. There is no special setup in terms of camber or stuff like that that you would get in some oval racing because we have only one limited-grip corner. All the rest of the track, you need to set the car up normally.

“You are quite fixed on the cambers anyway in terms of Pirelli regulations – you can't really go above what they tell you. So you are wearing the outside of the tire a bit more compared to a normal track, I would say, especially the last corner. But that doesn't change the world.

“I like the track. I really, really enjoy it. I think it's very difficult in wet weather – like it could be this weekend – which is a good thing because it's nice for the fans and it's nice overall to be here and having opportunities like this.

“But it's not the most fun track in the wet. The grip level is quite low for some reason. There’s high track evolution in the dry, but for some reason, the intermediate tires here are not the best.”

AT A GLANCE
Race distance: 72 laps/190.5 miles
2024 pole time: 1m09.673s (Lando Norris, McLaren-Mercedes)
2024 winner: Lando Norris, McLaren-Mercedes
Pirelli tire allotment: The compounds in play will be the C2 as the hard, the C3 as the medium and the C4 as the soft. This selection is one step softer than that brought to the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix.

Drivers will get two sets of the hard tire (C2, marked white), three sets of the medium tire (C3, marked yellow) and eight sets of the soft tire (C4, marked red), as well as access to the green intermediate tire and the blue full wets, should they be required.

HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX WEEKEND SCHEDULE (all times ET):

Friday, August 29

6:25am - 7:30am - First Practice, ESPN2

9:55am - 11:00am - Second Practice, ESPN2

Saturday, August 30

5:25am - 6:30am - Third Practice, ESPN2

8:55am - 10:00am - Qualifying, ESPN2

Sunday, August 31

8:55am - 11:00am - Dutch Grand Prix (72 laps or 120 minutes), ESPN