Pirelli is preparing for its 500th Grand Prix.

      The upcoming Dutch Grand Prix will be an important milestone in Pirelli’s history with Formula 1: the Italian tyre maker is preparing for its jubilee 500th race.

      This story began at the same time as the championship itself: on 13 May 1950, at the start of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, four Alfa Romeo and four Maserati cars entered the race fitted with Pirelli tyres. Victory that day went to Giuseppe Farina in one of those Alfa Romeo 158s, but two other drivers in identical cars also climbed the podium – Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell.

      Over the past 75 years the Italian company has supplied tyres at 499 World Championship rounds, but with interruptions: from 1950 to 1958, then from 1981 to 1986, from 1989 to 1991, and finally it returned to Formula 1 in 2011.

      Pirelli say they will begin celebrating the anniversary at Zandvoort and continue in Monza during the Italian Grand Prix, where the company is the title sponsor. But it is in the Netherlands that all cars will carry a special logo to mark the 500th Grand Prix, and that logo is also applied to the sidewalls of all slicks.

      For the Zandvoort round the tyre makers have prepared compounds one step softer than a year ago: teams are offered C2 as the Hard, C3 as the Medium, and the softest will be C4. In 2024 these were C1, C2 and C3. The decision was made jointly with the FIA and Formula 1 in an effort to diversify strategic options – this will make two-stop strategies more likely.

      Another factor that could influence such a choice is the increase in the pit-lane speed limit from 60 km/h to 80 km/h, meaning the time cost of pit stops will be somewhat reduced.

      However, calculations made by teams on simulators indicate that the fastest way to complete the Dutch Grand Prix distance is with a single pit stop – primarily because overtaking at Zandvoort is very difficult.

      Of the 14 turns on the Dutch circuit, two are banked – the third and the final corner of the lap, where the banking angles are 19 and 18 degrees respectively, which is more than at Indianapolis. Of course, in these corners the tyres experience very high vertical and longitudinal loads, so teams pay great attention to choosing optimal setups to achieve the most seamless interaction between chassis and tyres.

      Zandvoort demands a high level of downforce, comparable to the Hungaroring. At the same time grip, especially at the start of the weekend, is at a fairly low level, and this can be worsened by sand blown in from the coast by the wind, since the circuit is only a few hundred metres from the North Sea.

      Of course, the weather in these parts is changeable, and late-summer temperatures already drop below 20 degrees Celsius.