Dromo was appointed to help Circuit Zandvoort prepare for Formula 1’s return while preserving the compact, fast character of the historic track in the dunes. The 2019–2020 programme combined circuit geometry, safety upgrades, run-off, paddock and access work with two highly banked corners. Instead of flattening the venue into a conventional modern circuit, the design used the site’s constraints to create new racing possibilities.
The racetrack features two highly banked sections, with variable inclinations up to 35%. The section of Turn 3, named after the legendary racetrack designer John Hugenholtz, was created with a complex modelling around a Fibonacci sequence.
The renewed circuit received strong praise on Formula 1’s return in September 2021.
COUNTRY:
Netherlands
Project gallery
TEAM LEADER:
Jarno Zaffelli
PROJECT TEAM:
Francesco Grana (Head of Circuit Design),
Federico Vennarucci (Head of Engineering Design),
Alberto Marzi (Technical Director),
Filippo Piccoli (Site Manager),
Orazio Bonassi (Pavement Specialist),
Paolo Ferrari (Pavement Specialist),
Angela Riazzi,
Gabriele Feniello.
CONTRACTOR:
KWS
MIX CODENAME:
Flying Dutch™
YEAR:
December 2019, February 2020
DROMO AT ZANDVOORT · 18–23 AUGUST 2026
Meet Dromo at Circuit Zandvoort.
Jarno Zaffelli and Dromo will be at Circuit Zandvoort through Sunday 23 August. For confidential discussions on circuit development, banking, pavement engineering, construction delivery or venue performance, arrange a meeting on site.
Project engineering in detail
Banking as a geometric solution
The final Arie Luyendyk corner reaches approximately 18 degrees, helping the track accelerate toward the main straight without extending the physical footprint. Turn 3, Hugenholtz, uses a variable cross-section that rises from roughly 4.5 degrees at the inside to about 19 degrees at the outside. This bowl-shaped geometry offers drivers different lines rather than prescribing a single path.
The Fibonacci transition
Turn 3 is often described through the Fibonacci sequence because its inclination increases progressively across the corner. The reference was not a decorative mathematical gesture: it helped organise a complex surface in which radius, banking and elevation change together. The three-dimensional model also had to resolve drainage, pavement construction, barriers and the transition back into the existing circuit.
Keeping the character of Zandvoort
Formula 1 reported during construction that Dromo was responsible for the renovation and that the project aimed to reinforce Zandvoort’s identity. The completed circuit demonstrated how homologation and safety work can become part of the sporting concept. The banking created a distinctive visual signature, but its engineering value lies in load management, multiple trajectories and the way it connects constrained sections of the site.
Related Dromo capabilities
Project evidence
Hypertrack™ · first real-world expression
Zandvoort is where Hypertrack became real.
The 2020 transformation of Circuit Zandvoort was Dromo’s first real-world expression of the Hypertrack™ approach: performance geometry, vehicle dynamics, specialist paving, safety, drainage, buildability and venue experience engineered as one system.
Banked geometry
The Hugenholtz and Arie Luyendyk corners turned radical banking into usable, raceable and buildable geometry.
Transition engineering
Vertical alignment, crossfall and vehicle dynamics were resolved together, not as separate design layers.
Surface + drainage
Specialist paving control and water management protected the performance intent through construction.
Living asset
The circuit is treated as an operating system whose geometry, surface and venue performance continue beyond opening day.
From the Dromo project archive.
A Formula 1 circuit embedded in a sensitive coastal setting.
