A grand total of 305,000 weekend attendees cheered Max Verstappen to a second successive home win at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, setting a new record for the best-attended race in Zandvoort’s history.
All images: © F1Destinations.com
Max Verstappen charged to a home win for the second year in succession as he delighted the enthusiastic partisan crowd at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix. The sell-out event saw 305,000 attendees pass through the circuit gates over the race weekend, with 105,000 present on Sunday alone. The figure was a new record for the event in its 74-year history. De Telegraaf reported that over 400,000 applied for tickets to the 2022 race, with the event having already sold out by the end of November 2021.
This was Verstappen’s fourth consecutive win in the 2022 season. With a championship lead of 109 points, it seems only a matter of time before the Dutchman secures his second title.
The first full capacity Dutch Grand Prix since 1985
Due to coronavirus pandemic related restrictions, last year’s Dutch Grand Prix ran at two thirds capacity, making the 2022 event the first Zandvoort race to run at full capacity since 1985. While over a million people are believed to have applied for tickets for the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix, the comeback race had a total weekend attendance of 195,000, with 72,000 present on race day to witness Max Verstappen become the first Dutch driver to triumph at home.
2022 F1 attendance figures so far
The 2022 Dutch Grand Prix had the fifth largest weekend crowd of the season to date, behind Australia (420,000), Britain (401,000), Belgium (360,000) and Canada (338,000). The Austrian Grand Prix in July had a similar attendance figure to that of the Dutch race, with 300,000 attending over the event weekend.
The chart above shows weekend attendance figures for 2022 Formula 1 races. Weekend figures for the Bahrain, Saudi Arabian, Emilia Romagna, Monaco and Azerbaijan Grands Prix have not yet been announced.
The total attendance figure across 2022’s race weekends is now well over 3 million – which is higher than the total attendance across 2022’s 21 races. In April, a spokesperson for Formula 1 said that they expect the rest of this year’s races to be sell-out events.
Flares cause qualifying to be red-flagged
During qualifying for the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, a smoke flare was thrown onto the circuit, causing the session to be stopped. It was one of two incidents involving flares during the qualifying hour. The latter, during Q3, necessitated only a brief yellow flag as the smoke-emitting flare rolled off the track and into the pit lane.
The FIA confirmed that the people responsible were removed from the venue after being pointed out by fans around them. Verstappen branded those who threw the flares onto the circuit as “stupid”, though both he and fellow front row starter Charles Leclerc appreciated the visual effect of the smoke flares at the conclusion of on-track sessions.
Circuit bosses said that they would take a “zero tolerance” approach to flares on race day following the incidents in qualifying. A statement from race organisers read:
“All drivers, Formula One Management, the FIA and the organisation of the Dutch Grand Prix do not tolerate flares […] Their use is not allowed and creates very unsafe situations on the track for drivers and other fans. The organisation once again appeals to the common sense of all our fans and warns that the use of flares will not be tolerated.”
Although there was no repeat of the issues during the race, the now famous orange flog settled over the circuit as the drivers crossed the finish line, despite more stringent security checks at the circuit’s entry gates on Sunday morning.
