There will temporarily be no Dutch Grand Prix at the TT Circuit Assen. TT director Mark van Aalderen announced this. The management of the circuit in Drenthe has decided not to make the necessary multi-million investments to obtain the required safety license for a Formula 1 race, Grade One, after clarification from the premier class: ‘It has been made clear to us that the chance of a Formula 1 race in Assen is zero until 2030 and very small thereafter,’ says Van Aalderen.
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With the last Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort at the end of August, Formula 1 in the Netherlands will come to an end. For a brief moment, hope was still placed on the TT circuit of Assen, which last year indicated it was holding talks to take over from Zandvoort. However, the management of the motor circuit in Drenthe now makes it clear that there will also be no Dutch Grand Prix in Assen for the time being.
The Formula 1 calendar is full until 2030, the management tells De Telegraaf, and even after that, the chance of Assen still being allocated a Formula 1 race is small. TT director Mark van Aalderen, together with chairman of TT Circuit Assen Arjan Bos, was told this personally by Louise Young, Chief Race Officer of Formula 1. As a result, Van Aalderen sees no point in multi-million investments to obtain the highest safety license, the Grade One license. Every circuit on which a Formula 1 race is held must possess this license.
‘We would have liked to do it’
“We would have liked to do it,” the director says. “The TT circuit has always said that if a promoter were to come to host a Formula 1 race, we would adapt the circuit. Now that it has been made clear to us that the chance of a Formula 1 race in Assen is zero until 2030 and very small thereafter, the management and board have decided not to make the necessary multi-million investments to obtain a Grade One license. And so, no F1 race can be organized in Assen.” The focus is now shifting back to MotoGP.
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Very unfortunate, says Van Aalderen, who wants to provide clarity for everyone who secretly hoped that Formula 1 would come to Drenthe. “It is a compliment to us that so many people saw it happening in Assen, that so many people advocated for us to be able to organize a Formula 1 race here alongside a MotoGP weekend,” he continues. “That there is so much support for it feels like an honor. But we also have to be honest: the millions we would have to invest to adapt the circuit, we would never be able to recoup. We prefer to invest those millions to keep our circuit MotoGP-worthy. Because that too will cost a lot of money in the coming years.”
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