Dutch Grand Prix still cancelled? 'I estimate the chance at 50 percent'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
In the run-up to the return of Formula 1 to the Netherlands, not everyone is happy with the event at Circuit Zandvoort. The last couple of weeks the Grand Prix was already under fire because of the, according to many, skewed corona rules for the Grand Prix and other events and festivals. Now there is also a lawsuit to stop the race because of the environment.
Next Thursday interlocutory proceedings
On Thursday 26 August, Johan Vollenbroek and his organisation Mobilisation for the Environment (MOB) will hear summary proceedings in Haarlem against the Grand Prix in Zandvoort from 3 to 5 September. "I estimate it at 50 percent", Vollenbroek thinks in Dutch newspaper AD Vollenbroek is concerned about the chances of the Grand Prix being cancelled. According to him, the event emits much more nitrogen than the organisation wants to believe. According to Vollenbroek, the event will emit ten times more nitrogen than the permit takes into account. In earlier proceedings, the court ruled that the Dutch Grand Prix is an event 'of great public interest for top-class sport' and a 'boost for the regional economy and tourism'.
In this procedure, the protection of animals in the nature reserve around Zandvoort was at stake. According to Vollenbroek that is very different now. "If the nitrogen standards are exceeded, the judge cannot argue that," says Vollenbroek. "An imperative reason of major public importance must first be submitted to the European Commission. And that did not happen. We show that nitrogen emissions are increasing, while the organisation claims that they are not. It will be a difficult decision for the court.
Own fault
Vollenbroek's organisation has already won several court cases concerning nitrogen policy, as a result of which various construction projects have come to a standstill and the expansion of farms has been halted. "The circuit is near a national park, a nature reserve. If you want to keep it there and not in Assen, for example, you know you are running risks. Now that the Formula 1 organisation has explicitly chosen Zandvoort, it will be their own fault if it has to be cancelled."
Apart from the nitrogen policy, there is something else that bothers Vollenbroek. "Countless events are not allowed to take place because of the corona measures, but this one is. That is a double standard. The entire cultural sector is being chopped off and then Formula 1 is allowed to go ahead? I find that incomprehensible. It's pure class justice.