– Jan, do you look ahead to the final Dutch GP on 23 August with mixed feelings — isn’t it the end of an era?
Jan: “There will be emotion and a touch of melancholy for me, and for others involved and the fans. Personally, that’s fine. I’m hitting 70 this year. Getting older is a luxury, so I savour it. But ageing also means you become progressively less relevant and less able to contribute. Actually, this moment suits me. Imagine the Dutch GP carried on for years — in a few years they’d probably be saying to me: ‘Jan, you’re starting to fall apart a bit now.’ But no kidding: in that case it would be logical to look for someone from a younger generation with a different dynamic. For me, this feels like a logical conclusion.”
‘We’re proud of that’
– Is there any feeling of regret about the decision to stop organising F1 after this season?
Jan: “First of all, it wasn’t my decision. Regret? I don’t think it goes further than ‘a pity’. In my view you can’t expect private promoters to shoulder that kind of financial risk. So if we’re talking about regret, that’s maybe something the government could have been open to. Prime Minister Mark Rutte was the first to say we had to stand on our own. Well, we did that — and we’re proud of it.”
“I think the biggest loss will be for the municipality of Zandvoort and the whole region. A seaside resort lives and thrives on its appeal. In that respect Zandvoort has picked up a few stars in recent years. Thanks to the Grand Prix we had the opportunity to get some striking airshots of Zandvoort out to the world. But again, the choice was made from a corporate and commercial perspective, not from national or political considerations.”
