Leave It to the Dutch to Make F1 Racing a Bicycling Event
Over 100,000 people attended Sunday’s Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, a seaside town just outside of Amsterdam. So, you guessed it, they rode their bikes. Formula 1 estimated on social media that 97 percent of attendees used sustainable transportation to get to the track this weekend.
That’s because cars were essentially banned from the local roads. Zandvoort only has 17,000 inhabitants, and last weekend they welcomed 300,000 visitors. So they knew they couldn’t allow car traffic. Which wasn’t a problem at all for spectators, many of whom are used to biking everywhere they go. And the bike parking lot was impressive to say the least. Even police, paramedics, and security were patrolling on bikes.
Over 100,000 people attended Sunday's Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
But with event organizers closing public roads, 45,000+ people took bikes, and the rest used the train or bus.
This is what the parking lot looked like!
No other country could pull this off 👏 pic.twitter.com/av0pY8zJ5x— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) August 28, 2023
According to the BBC, the Dutch event had a goal to be the most sustainable on the F1 calendar. “Almost a third of supporters are expected to arrive by public transport, a third by bicycle or scooter, and the rest will travel by foot, coach or cab,” event organizers predicted leading up to the race.
There was a train running every five minutes between Amsterdam Central and Zandvoort, and a fleet of electric buses to carry fans to stops just outside the stadium.
The BBC reported that Zandvoort has been praised by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali for delivering “fresh air,” and helping to set a precedent for modern era Grand Prix events.
But the sport itself emits hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 each year. It’s great if fans bike and take electric buses to the events, but what about the race itself? F1 racing now has a goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2030. According to Ars Technica, F1 plans to switch to carbon-neutral synthetic fuels that are made by capturing CO2 from the air and combining it with hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water.
“That won’t make F1’s fuel bill any cheaper, but it should mean none of the CO2 that comes out of an F1 car tailpipe went into the fuel tank in the form of fossil fuels.”
In the meantime, we’ll look to Dutch fans for inspiration to bike to events, and hope that more cities supporting F1 will make the infrastructure available to do so.
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