There are still plenty of days left in August, but with an overflowing weekend of action and the final day being on a Monday, we pay our respects to the highlights of the month now, and respects are the proper way to describe this exercise. The end of the year is still a ways off, but this August was an end, in one case for an event, in another case for a few careers. There might be a third of the year remaining, but the final chapter does not always see the start of winter.
So Long, Zandvoort
A return was a farewell.
Formula One's summer break finished, and the teams resumed the 2026 season from the shores of the North Sea, but this trip to Zandvoort and the Dutch Grand Prix is indefinitely the final visit. Zandvoort's exit was known long before this season started. It was known before the 2025 season started. Contracted through 2026, the race was seeing out its contract and then disappearing into the sea breeze.
The send-off could not have been much more thrilling than what we saw Sunday. A myriad of strategies, safety cars and virtual safety cars mixing up the bunch and produced a rather outstanding race, even if the sprint race was rather dull the day before.
It closed with a Lando Norris victory. Mercedes got Andrea Kimi Antonelli to second while George Russell held off the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for third. The native son went out with a bang. Max Verstappen slammed the barrier on exit of the banked Arie Luyendyk corner, and Verstappen's race was done before he could complete a lap.
For 35 years, The Netherlands went without Formula One. At the height of its greatest driver, it returned and proved to be a tremendous host. The passion for Verstappen brought out an orange swarm, and it filled every corner of the 2.646-mile circuit. That is not an exaggeration.
There are not many places to put people around Zandvoort, but nearly the entire permanent was occupied with on-lookers. The biggest possible grandstands were erected in some of the narrowest plots. Very few grand prix look like this. It is safe to argue no grand prix matched this. It felt like the race was taking place inside a school gymnasium, and the entire country came out to watch.
Zandvoort was built during a different time, and it modernized the best it could ahead of Formula One's return. It could only make up for so much. Modern Formula One cars do not quite fit on this circuit. You could go back 20 years and those cars would be a tight squeeze as well. It is a circuit stuck in another era. It was fortunate to get the six years it got on the calendar.
The final race was something special. Even 2024 was pretty fun. The 2023 race had wet weather mix up the result. It will be hard to look pass how difficult overtaking was at the circuit. The top five starters in 2021 finished in the exact same position. Last year could have been the same if Norris' car had not failed on him. We could not count on Zandvoort to be a lock for a lively race. Somehow, it turned out that way more than we expected. What we can celebrate was how much passion came out every year Formula One visited.
We don't know if Zandvoort will ever return. It came back once. Never say never. We don't know if Formula One will ever return to The Netherlands. If it does, it might not match those scenes. It was spectacular to see.
Most countries each year do not host a Formula One race. About 22 countries are lucky to get a race a year. At a time when one of the best drivers hails from the country, it was fitting The Netherlands got a race on the schedule and Verstappen got a home race.
Looking over all the past World Drivers' Champions, only Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and the Finns Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen never got a home race. The Australian Grand Prix would join the calendar nearly 20 years after Brabham's last title. Brabham and Hulme both got to race at home. The Tasman Series brought Formula One's best drivers to the Antipodes each winter. It is a shame Formula One has never tried to organize a Finnish Grand Prix. The country has been so fruitful and present for over 40 years.
There are so many people who have not had the chance to see Formula One in their backyard that calendar expansion makes sense if it brings the series to new places, especially those with ties to the series.
If there is any hope post-Dutch Grand Prix it is for a revival of the European Grand Prix and having it be a rotating race that can see underserved and somewhat forgotten areas gifted a chance to see the best in the world. Maybe it is the way Zandvoort can remain in the rotation along while finding ways to get to Finland or Denmark or back to Germany and France and Sweden or possibly getting back to Mugello and Jerez though each country already hosts races. Maybe it is how Switzerland can host a race again. It just lifted its 71-year motorsports ban on July 1.
There can be some melancholia in Zandvoort's end. We will lose an extraordinary scene, but perhaps we can gather hope from its inclusion to see more inspired visits in the future.
Formula E's Duo Departure
We can quickly acknowledge Pascal Wehrlein's second Formula E title in three seasons after rather controversial driving in the final race of the season from London. It was the not the first sour end to a Formula E season in the capital of the United Kingdom. The first two perpetrators of a messy London finish each were a storyline ahead of this year's finale. It marked the end to two of the original Formula E drivers, arguably the series' first rivalry.
Lucas di Grassi and Sébastien Buemi each announced this would be their final Formula E seasons prior to the London finale. Di Grassi announced his full retirement from motorsports. Buemi will continue with Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Both drivers set the tone in Formula E, and sometimes for the wrong reasons.
Since day one, these two drivers competed at the highest level in the series. They both were fighting for the first championship. Buemi won the second title despite di Grassi's best efforts to take out the Swiss driver in the 2016 finale from Battersea Park. Di Grassi won the third title fair and square. Each driver raised the game of the other.
They went back-and-forth for titles. They went back-and-forth for race victories to the point they were first and second until earlier this season when Mitch Evans ascended to the top spot. They are two of the most experienced drivers in the series history, dating back to the very first race from Beijing. Buemi had a few missed races due to Toyota WEC responsibilities, but both have been Formula E lifers, so much so that we forget two-time champion Jean-Éric Vergne and 2019-20 champion António Félix da Costa both also date back to the very first season, though neither competed in the very first race, and both Vergne and da Costa will continue into 2026-27.
Buemi and di Grassi are different. In the first years of the series, when it was attempting to gain its footing while carrying the weight a mid-race car swap and slower speeds, Buemi and di Grassi's rivalry gave the series character, a storyline to watch every week. Both were known names from Formula One and sports car racing. There was legitimacy in the competition on the racetrack because of the pedigree each driver brought.
Their battle waned in the last few years. Neither was the Formula E stalwart they were in that first half-decade of the series. Buemi only won once in the final seven seasons. Di Grassi won four times in that period, but he only won once in the last four seasons, and both drivers each only had one top five championship finish in the last seven seasons.
Both had gone from the top teams to fighting from the midfield and further back. The next generation arrived and took the factory-affiliated roles Buemi and di Grassi originally had, the old guard shuffled to the privateer entries fighting from behind.
It is fitting they leave together. It would not feel right one racing without the other in this category. We will get a few more days with Vergne and da Costa, and then the first generation will be gone. For as much animosity Formula E has created for its existence and the lack of what it is, the series has beat many expectations. For a series many gave a year or two, three tops of survival, it has completed a decade and it is onto its fourth generation of car. The car swap has been long gone. Permanent racetracks are now the common stomping grounds, a change that is worthy of discussion on a later date.
However, we have now seen one generation call a close on a career in the series with a second already underway and in full control. Whatever happens next in Formula E history will occur thanks to the exploits of Buemi and di Grassi setting the foundation.
September Preview
This is when the motorsports season start to get serious.
A number of championships are rounding into the final stretch. IndyCar will be over in a little over a week. We are running out races, opportunities, and soon we will see the final checkered flag. Not only will trophy presentations and champagne celebrations follow but change will occur. Drivers will leave teams. Manufacturers will leave series. What we saw will be gone, never to be repeated, and we will later return to see something entirely different yet familiar.
There will be two FIA World Endurance Championship rounds this month, Austin and Fuji. IMSA has its penultimate round from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, though it is a two-hour and 40-minute sprint and not a six-hour endurance race. The European Le Mans Series has its penultimate round at Silverstone. GT World Challenge America has its penultimate round from Barber Motorsports Park. It isn't the antepenultimate round in GT World Challenge Europe, but it is the Sprint Cup's penultimate round from Zandvoort. Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters only has one more round after this month's visit to the Sachsenring.
For sports car series, September is the month where all championships get busy. If you want to be champion, you will need an outstanding September, and even that might not be enough.
Other events of note in September:
IndyCar concludes at Laguna Seca.
NASCAR's playoffs begin.
Formula One has a full September with Monza, a new race in Madrid and a Saturday in Baku.
MotoGP finishes off the main European portion of the calendar at Misano and the Red Bull Ring.
After nearly two months off, World Superbike will race at Magny-Cours and Cremona.
There will be the Suzuka 1000km, the 50th edition of the race, and it will be the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season.
