At first glance, the atmosphere could be mistaken for a football match or a summer festival. Grandstands packed with thousands of fans in head-to-toe orange, flags waving and music blaring.
But this isn’t a stadium or concert. It’s the Dutch Grand Prix. And the Dutch fans, now known worldwide as the ‘Orange Army’, have turned race weekends into something closer to a national celebration.
At the centre of it all is one man: Max Verstappen. His rise to superstardom hasn’t just filled grandstands, it has transformed the way the Netherlands connects with Formula 1 and reshaped the culture of the sport itself.
The Pre-Verstappen Era
In the decades before Verstappen, F1 sat in the background of Dutch sporting culture. Unlike countries such as Italy, Britain or Germany, where racing heroes were household names, Dutch drivers never reached the same heights.
Jan Lammers kept the Dutch flag on the grid in the late 1970s and early 80s. Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, brought excitement in the 1990s with a pair of podiums. In the 2000s, Christijan Albers added further representation, although mostly in struggling teams.
Each played a role in sustaining Dutch interest, but none managed to ignite mass appeal. TV audiences stayed loyal, but F1 remained overshadowed by football and cycling.
The Verstappen effect
Everything shifted in 2015. Verstappen made history when he joined the F1 grid at just 17 years old with Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls), becoming the youngest driver ever to start a race. Although his debut at the Australian Grand Prix ended in retirement, his flashes of raw speed made him impossible to ignore.
A year later came the turning point. After just four races of the 2016 season, he was promoted to the Red Bull team. Incredibly, he repaid their faith immediately and in his very first outing for the squad, and at 18 years and 228 days old, he became the youngest race winner in F1 history.
Suddenly, the Netherlands had its superstar. It wasn’t just the records that set him apart, but the way he raced: fearless, aggressive, and unafraid to take on established champions. That same fire carried into the paddock, where his blunt answers and meme-worthy one liners to the media made him refreshingly direct and unapologetically himself.
The Orange Army
From there, a fan movement exploded. Dutch supporters rallied around Verstappen and began travelling in massive numbers to races across Europe, especially to nearby tracks like Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps and Austria’s Red Bull Ring. Whole grandstands became seas of orange, the national colour of the Netherlands, creating a carnival-like atmosphere wherever they went.
In many ways, it redefined what F1 fandom could look like. Italy has Ferrari and their dedicated Tifosi, whose passion runs deep but is tied to one team above all. Britain has its Silverstone loyalists, patriotic and knowledgeable, who turn their home race into a celebration of motorsport heritage.
The Dutch, however, brought something entirely different. Their fandom wasn’t confined to a single circuit or tied to decades of tradition. Instead, they turned following Verstappen into a travelling movement, more like a football away crowd, with orange shirts, wigs and flags aplenty. They created a visual and vocal spectacle that occupied entire grandstands.
What makes them stand out even more is that their devotion has grown in lockstep with Verstappen’s dominance. As he racked up victories and World Championships, setting records for consecutive wins and season victory totals, the Orange Army only became louder and more visible.
The Dutch F1 boom
The Verstappen effect wasn’t limited to the racetrack. As Dutch FIA Deputy Race Director Claire Dubbelman recalled on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast, “The last time I lived in the Netherlands was around 2015–2016, and motorsport was in a very difficult place. When Max entered Formula 1, it’s been the revival of the sport in that country.”
That revival came into full view in 2021 when the Dutch Grand Prix returned to Zandvoort after 36 years. Tickets sold out within hours, millions tuned in worldwide, and Verstappen delivered the fairytale by winning the first edition. By the following season, attendance at Zandvoort had surged by 81 percent, a clear measure of Verstappen’s influence. He claimed three consecutive victories from 2021 to 2023, all from pole position, before Mclaren’s Lando Norris ended the streak in 2024.
Sponsors were quick to capitalise. From global giants to local homegrown brands, companies lined up to associate with Verstappen. His face appeared on billboards, in adverts, and across merchandise that stretched far beyond core motorsport circles.
With that came something larger: a sense of national identity. Verstappen was no longer simply an athlete. He had become a cultural icon, embodying Dutch pride both on and off the track.
From Zandvoort to the world
The ripple effects have extended far beyond the Netherlands. The Orange Army is now part of F1’s global identity, their seas of orange as recognisable as Ferrari red or Mercedes silver. Their travelling presence adds spectacle to broadcasts and has inspired other fan groups to raise their game, making races louder, more colourful, and more vibrant.
Verstappen’s rise has opened new doors for the sport. Dutch fans quickly became one of the sport’s fastest growing markets, while the Orange Army’s spectacle turned into a selling point for promoters worldwide.
Their energy is celebrated in broadcasts, documentaries, and campaigns highlighting a new era driven as much by fans as by the racing itself. And through it all, Verstappen’s story sits at the heart of this shift. His dominance has given his fans more to celebrate, and their devotion has helped redefine the atmosphere of the sport.
With the Dutch Grand Prix back at Zandvoort this weekend and for the second-last time before a scheduled farewell in 2026, the Orange Army may be gearing up to make its most passionate statement yet.
Whatever comes next, Verstappen’s legacy is already secure. He did more than win races, he gave the Dutch a reason to fall in love with F1 – and in doing so, changed how the world experiences it.
