The Zandvoort Grand Prix from the infamous Tarzan corner: ‘If Verstappen comes through, the race is decided’

It seems for a long time that Giedo van der Garde is just right. “If Max Verstappen gets through the Tarzan corner well the first time from pole position, then the race is probably decided immediately,” said the former Formula 1 driver a few hours before the Zandvoort Grand Prix.

The 38-year-old Dutchman indeed sees his 25-year-old compatriot go through the first corner without any problem, and sees him start his victory lap two and a half hours later as the winner in the same place. It was Verstappen’s ninth win in a row.

Still, the rain showers, tire changes and crashes made it anything but ‘an ordinary regular race’. The difference with the two previous, very sunny Zandvoort editions, was big. Although the winner was the same for the third time.

The Tarzan corner is one of the few constants of the circuit, which dates back to 1948. The 180-degree corner just after the start is one of the few places where drivers can overtake each other in Zandvoort.

There are several stories about the origin of the name. The most famous story is about allotment gardens, which had to disappear before the circuit was built. A very large man nicknamed ‘Tarzan’ became the face of the resistance that would only have been broken when the then mayor of Zandvoort promised that he would become the bend’s namesake.

There is almost always something to do around the Tarzan Corner. And Sunday was no different. This time the bend and the rain were the executioners of a Grand Prix that seemed very predictable for a long time, but ended in a spectacular water ballet. Sergio Pérez lost an almost certain second place with a slider from the wet track to the gravel of the Tarzan corner. Verstappen’s Mexican teammate saw Fernando Alonso pass after 64 laps.

And suddenly one after the other car slid off the track in the pouring rain. Massive ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ sounded from the stands. The race came to a temporary end when Guanyu Zhou slammed the boarding popped. The Chinaman’s car was taken out of the Tarzan Corner with a tow truck. Pérez and Zhou were the biggest losers of the day.

The race was stopped for half an hour because of the rain. After the restart – in which Verstappen again went through the Tarzan corner without any problems – the victory of the Dutch world champion was no longer in danger during the last five laps.

From all sides the Dutch fans celebrated in the stands around the first iconic corner of the circuit. On the one hand, there was a bustling crowd in the stands, and directly opposite the VIPs at the Paddock Club, laughing, throwing their beers into the air. Shortly afterwards, both sides with King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and Crown Princess Amalia sang the Wilhelmus along with Verstappen.

Ultimate attempt

Pérez’s face was like a thunderstorm in Zandvoort, which had now cleared up after the race. The number two in the world championship position had to pay for a final attempt to make up for his slide with a time penalty. He would have driven through the pit lane at too high a speed before the restart, even dropping him back to fourth place behind Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and a very happy Pierre Gasly.

Under the watchful eye of former driver Jacques Villeneuve (52), Verstappen showed himself to be a master of taking the Tarzan corner and of driving in the rain. “Verstappen is really in a class of its own,” sighs the 1997 world champion.

The Canadian never raced on the Zandvoort circuit himself, but he does have sharp childhood memories of it. As a small boy, he saw how his father Gilles Villeneuve came to a stop in the Tarzan corner in 1979 just after the start with a flat tire and lost a wheel. End race.

Villeneuve laughs as he recalls the incident. “I can only see it in flashes,” says the former driver before the race. “But Tarzan I remember. It fits very well with this circuit. A little old school. There you can see the difference between the different racers. It’s a beautiful curve that you can take in different lines. I don’t know if you can say that you can win a Grand Prix there like Verstappen, but many others have certainly lost a race there.”

Full in the wall

The crash of Gilles Villeneuve, together with the accidents of Andrea de Cesaris (1981) and the Frenchman Rene Arnoux (1982), belongs to eye-catching incidents in the Tarzan corner. The bang against the wall of Zhou can now reach that. And Van der Garde confesses that he once lived in a LMP3car full into the wall in the Tarzan bend. “The brake and accelerator pedals were very close together, so I unintentionally accelerated. So I lost a race there too.”

Maxime Bijmans can also dream of the Tarzan curve. From the grandstand she sees the drivers exit the corner 72 times, which she herself has taken countless times. But in a simulator in her ‘racing room’ on the 28th floor of an apartment building in The Hague. Bijmans earns her money as a professional simulator racer “It is a wonderful part of the circuit. After the long straight, it’s important that you brake at the right time, then you have to accelerate, try to pass on the outside and you’re heading for the finish in a line”, explains 26-year-old Bijmans for the GP.

Also read the report from Zandvoort: Formula 1 is ‘a men’s party’ with a lot of drinking and ‘crazy talk’

A few hours later, the Spaniard Alonso overtakes his compatriot Carlos Sainz in exactly the same way in the 52nd lap under loud cheers.

Bijmans has to admit that it is different for Formula 1 drivers to round the Tarzan curve ‘in real life’. Bijmans: “I can turn off the damage button in my simulator.” Verstappen did not need that for 105,000 fans. Zhou, the latest victim of the turn, does.

A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on August 28, 2023.