Assen Ends F1 Bid After 2030 Calendar Warning

TT Circuit Assen has ruled out hosting Formula 1 after Formula One Management told the venue it has no realistic chance of landing a race before 2030 and only a very small chance after that, prompting the circuit to abandon the multi-million-euro push for FIA Grade 1 homologation.

The decision ends any serious prospect of Assen replacing Zandvoort as the Dutch home of Formula 1. Assen circuit director Mark van Aalderen said he and circuit president Arjan Bos were told by Louise Young, the Formula 1 executive responsible for Grand Prix promotion, that the chances of a race at Assen were effectively closed off for the rest of the decade.

"We would have liked to do it," Van Aalderen told De Telegraaf. He said TT Circuit had always been prepared to adapt the venue if a promoter came forward for a Formula 1 race, but that position changed once F1 made its view clear. "Now that it has been made clear to us that the chance until 2030 is negligible and afterwards barely greater, we have decided not to make that multi-million investment."

That investment would have been unavoidable. Every Formula 1 circuit must hold FIA Grade 1 status, and Assen concluded there was no financial logic in spending millions to upgrade the track and infrastructure for an event it was unlikely to secure. Van Aalderen said the circuit could never recover the money required to make those changes, making the project untenable.

Assen will now redirect that spending toward MotoGP, which remains the venue's priority and will also require significant investment in the coming years. Bos said the circuit could only spend its money once, and that management had chosen to commit fully to MotoGP and the future of TT Circuit.

The wider consequence is that the Netherlands now appears set to lose its place on the Formula 1 calendar after 2026. Zandvoort has already announced it will stop hosting the Dutch Grand Prix after that season, and with Assen stepping away, there is no domestic fallback unless Formula 1 changes course in the years ahead.