F1 News: Dutch Grand Prix Shows Rest Of World What Sustainability Looks Like

The parking area was covered with a sea of bikes.

Though the Dutch Grand Prix was surrounded by protests and controversies before the race weekend, the town of Zandvoort has shown the world how a Grand Prix event could be held with an almost nil or minimal environmental impact that other circuits could take note of, especially in the wake of climate change protests that occurred ahead of the British and Dutch Grands Prix.

When I say minimal environmental impact, it means that people actually made an effort to use public transport or travel via bikes (bicycles) that don't emit harmful gases. The other advantage is that bikes don't take up as much parking space as a car. Imagine the amount of space you'd save if two people came on bikes instead of a big  SUV.

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An image on X has been doing the rounds lately which shows how sensitive the Dutch are when it comes to saving the environment. The image displays the Dutch bicycle culture with Zandvoort Circuit's parking area covered in a sea of bikes. The sidewalks leading to the parking area are covered with visitors who chose to walk to reach the venue. The absence of cars or taxis in the image around an F1 circuit like Zandvoort is just staggering. 

Zandvoort Circuit authorities have also played a major role in pushing people to use alternate modes of transport such as trains, buses, and bicycles as public roads around the circuit were closed for vehicular movement. 

The result was an attendance of more than 100,000 people out of which, around 45,000 of them opted to travel on their bikes while the others used public transport. The person making the tweet proudly states that "no other country could pull this off," which to be honest is quite a big achievement. 

Considering the fact that the forecast for the weekend did predict rain, it didn't stop fans from riding their bikes to the circuit to watch their Dutchman Max Verstappen dominate another Grand Prix. That is quite an inspiration! 

Fans reacted to the tweet in many ways. Some worth reading are mentioned below.