Traveling to watch Formula 1 Grand Prix races has been a college roommate tradition since 2016. Through the years, we’ve attended races in amazing locations from Japan to Mexico City to Italy, cheering along with local and international fans alike. Unfortunately, our annual trip was interrupted in 2020 with COVID shutting down travel. After our vaccinations in spring 2021, we decided to try for a 2021 trip.
Our destination? The Netherlands, where the country would be hosting its first Grand Prix at Circuit Zandvoort since 1985. It would be a historic return and potentially a historic season with hometown hero Max Verstappen in the title fight for what could be his first-ever championship. We would also get to stay in and explore beautiful Amsterdam, a city that’s been on my travel bucket list for many years.
The only thing in our way was a little roadblock called Delta. Not only would we need to figure out how to travel in this new world, but we would also soon experience some heart-wrenching possibilities of missing the race altogether. But I digress – let’s start from the beginning and go from there.
How We Got Tickets
Getting tickets for the race was surprisingly easy. Back in May 2021, I started looking around for tickets and realized that the Official F1 Ticket Store had plenty of availability and seating options. This is probably the safest and easiest way to get F1 race tickets, essentially directly from the source.
Apparently it was near-impossible to get Dutch GP tickets when the race was originally scheduled in 2020 (and then canceled because of COVID). But because of the pandemic cancellation, a lot of people might not have known that tickets were available again, so we considered ourselves very lucky. We ended up purchasing Arena – In Grandstand tickets, which would provide us a nice view of the race cars before they went into Turns 11 and 12. You can read up on more seating recommendations over at F1 Experiences.
As I mentioned earlier, there were several moments in this process that threatened the very possibility of attending the race. For one, the rise of Delta cases threatened to once again cancel this year’s Dutch GP. A few weeks before the race, the Dutch government and Formula 1 came to an agreement that the race would proceed but with 2/3 capacity, which meant that 1/3 of tickets would be randomly canceled.
With the clocking winding down, we found out a week before the race that our tickets were good to go – we’d made the cut! As we also found out during our trip, many other folks – locals included – were not so fortunate. Quite a number of international travelers arrived empty-handed, while others re-purchased expensive tickets from the secondary market or skipped the race altogether.
Traveling to the Netherlands
With our race tickets purchased, we looked for flights to Amsterdam. The historic city was the perfect place to stay for the duration of our visit – it had lots of things to see and explore, and it was only a 30-40 minute train ride to Zandvoort. There were plenty of direct and 1-stop flight options when we looked, with flight durations ranging from 10 to 12 hours from the West Coast.
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Where We Stayed
With so many awesome neighborhoods and areas in Amsterdam, it was tough choosing where to stay. We ended up booking a lovely Airbnb in the Haarlemmerbuurt neighborhood – located next to the canals and close to other well-known areas such as Jordaan and De Wallen. But with its incredible public transit system as well as plenty of bike paths and pedestrian-friendly walkways, Amsterdam is one of those cities where you could stay pretty much in any neighborhood and enjoy the time.
Getting to the Circuit
I was impressed with the ease of getting to the race track from Amsterdam. For race weekend, there were extra trains to Zandvoort and extra personnel directing people where to go. We rode from Amsterdam-Centraal station to Zandvoort aan Zee station, purchasing roundtrip tickets from the train ticket kiosks (under $10 each way). The trains were so frequent that the rides never felt too crowded, and everyone complied with wearing masks and respecting space.
Once we got to the Zandvoort station, it was a quick 10-15 minute walk with plenty of signage. It’s just one direction to the track so it was pretty much impossible to get lost. For 2021, track entry required proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. There was an app where we had to load vaccination or test info, but we found out it didn’t work well for non-EU residents. So we ended up showing our US vaccination cards at the gate for Saturday qualifying and also got a rapid test for Sunday race day so we could load it into the app for faster entry.
Race Day
I have to say, all the planning and headaches that went into this trip were well worth it – the Dutch GP turned out to be an exciting, fun, and memorable race! After scoping out the track grounds during qualifying on Saturday, we were well-acquainted with the area come Sunday race day. There was one large main area with lots of merchandise tents, beer kiosks, race exhibits, and a Ferris wheel. Every attendee this year had a grandstand ticket, so from there, we walked over to our grandstand, which had more food and beer vendors nearby. It was fun to walk around and see the sea of orange shirts, hats, and other gear that fans wore to support Max and the Netherlands.
Soon, it was almost the start of the race. We got to our seats and noticed that plenty of folks were moving around to other empty seats in the general area, so we also picked out some empty seats closer up and stayed there the entire race, likely a 2021-only perk.
The music and fans were something else. While each race location has its share of passionate fans, the Dutch fans were some of the most fun and expressive fans I’ve seen. From singing along to songs like “Sweet Caroline” to clapping and dancing to the beat of Dutch electro house (that classic 2010s EDM sound) to lighting up flares that gave off orange clouds of smoke, the Dutch knew a good time and made sure everyone knew they were rooting for Max. I had a smile on my face and enjoyed all the cheering throughout the race. And best of all, even though they had plenty of reason to boo Lewis Hamilton, Max’s main rival, the fans actually clapped for him at the end of the race.
It was a storybook-ending to the race weekend – Max Verstappen handily won the race. He was locked in the entire weekend and it wasn’t even close. The roaring fans made the victory that much sweeter. After the podium presentations and celebration, we were treated to a nice little bonus – Tiesto performed a DJ set on the back of a huge flat-bed truck that drove through the entire track. Since we were still in COVID times, the organizers opted for this fun little substitute to the usual crowded post-race music performance gathering and track walk.
Closing Thoughts
It was another F1 trip in the books and I’m so glad we were able to pull this one off. To witness a hometown victory with passionate fans and also spend over a week in Amsterdam made this trip a very special one, especially after an extremely tough 2020. I’m looking forward to future trips with the crew and already eying some possible destinations for 2022. So until next time!
