"Formula One should maintain its European races," reckons Sainz
Former Ferrari and future Williams driver Carlos Sainz reckons that Formula One should maintain its European races as "that's where the sport comes from."
Formula One announced earlier this month that the Dutch Grand Prix secured a one-year extension to its current contract, but the race will disappear from the F1 schedule after the 2026 season. The sport confirmed that the promoter elected not to remain on the calendar after 2026.
The Dutch Grand Prix returned to the F1 calendar in 2021, and its return saw local hero Max Verstappen dominate the first three years. However, this year's Dutch Grand Prix saw Lando Norris take the honours, winning the Zandvoort round with a comfortable margin over his rivals.
Asked about the F1 calendar that sport ever more races outside Europe, former Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz insisted that Formula One should strive to stage at least "six to eight" European rounds.
"I think it's a very delicate matter. You know, I don't understand fully the whole picture of why Zandvoort may or may not stay longer than the 2026 season. I think as a whole, the sport has definitely moved towards having more races outside of Europe than in Europe.
"Probably for economic and obviously political and economic reasons for the sport. In an ideal world, in my opinion, the Formula 1 season should have around 20 races. Out of those 20 races, I strongly believe six to eight of them should be in Europe because that's where the sport comes from. And all of the others should remain rotational.
"If Zandvoort cannot keep the budget to run a Formula 1 race when some other races can, it doesn't mean I think Zandvoort should completely disappear from the calendar, but maybe come back every two or three years back to a calendar to give all the Dutch fans and all the supporter of Max the opportunity to watch Max live, you know, and the same would apply to Spain, the same would apply to the UK if that's ever the case.
"So, yeah, find ways to, even if these old school circuits, European circuits that maybe don't have the big budgets that outside of Europe, they have these budgets, still find a way to give them the opportunity to keep coming back to a calendar now and then. I don't know if it's doable or not, but in my ideal F1 calendar scenario, I would try and fit that in," concluded Sainz.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who is set to replace Sainz at Ferrari next year, finds it unfortunate that races that do not have many visitors take the place away from other venues that have passitonate crowds.
"I mean, I think it's really sad to be losing Zandvoort, particularly if you look, the crowd is incredible there. There's such a huge following, obviously, mostly for Max, but in general, the fans are what make the sport what it is.
"And then there are several races in the calendar – I'm not going to mention which ones, but you know which ones – which don't have a lot of people that come, yet financially, obviously, they can cover, I guess, whatever the cost is.
"So I don't know. I think the business is doing very, very well. And I think we've got to make sure we hold on to the heritage races, which Zandvoort, for me, is one of those," added the Briton.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri echoed Sainz' and Hamilton's words, insisting that the sport should be "careful not to get rid" of the track that have been part of Formula One for a long time and thus have established themselves as the most famous and favourite tracks with drivers and fans.
"I think we need to be careful as a sport not to get rid of all the tracks that we all grew up racing on and loving. I think if you ask most of the drivers on the grid, their favourite track, maybe apart from Suzuka, is probably guaranteed to be in Europe somewhere.
"And I think we need to be careful to not get rid of all of these tracks. There's some that already aren't on the calendar that I think we all would love to go back racing on. Again, I don't know the full ins and outs of why Zandvoort is not returning after 2026.
"It's a bit of a logistical challenge racing in Zandvoort, with the layout of the track and the kind of split paddock and stuff like that, so it is demanding and obviously we're getting another team which is going to add to that demand.
"But yeah I think we need to be wary as a sport that a lot of the tracks that will disappear from the calendar are probably the ones that we all love a lot. So, yeah, I think we just need to be a bit careful with which ones we get rid of," concluded Piastri.
