NIG Zandvoort

**NIG Zandvoort** is a Dutch racing team based in Haarlem, Netherlands. The team is owned by a large consortium of many Dutch companies, including car manufacturer Spyker and beverage company Heineken, and had started making plans to debut in motorsport since 2037. In 2038, they made offers to take over Shadow and HSBC Nero, but both teams refused to do so. In the end, Shadow, which had won the title in 2039 but had some financial problems emerging, accepted a second offer and the consortium bought the team and rebranded them as their current guise. On their debut season, they had the best season in the history of the sport, having achieved an 100% win rate during that year, with Farid Esmaeilzadeh scoring 12 wins through the season.

## Origins

Following the spike in popularity of motorsports in Netherlands following the success of Max Verstappen and Giovanni de Ziel, several Dutch companies including Spyker, Donkevoort and Heineken, formed a large consortium with the intention of making a motorsport team in either Formula Earth or Formula International. Their first attempt to enter the sport was in 2037, when Toyota put the assets of the Lexus team for sale, but they lost the bidding war to Romagnoli.

Their second attempt came in 2038, initially offering Shadow, who was sponsored by Heineken, an offer to buy and relocate the team to Netherlands, but Shadow refused to accept the deal. Following this, the consortium contacted Formula International side HSBC Nero, but they also turned down the offer, as they were also planning to move up to Formula Earth, and in the end they entered the series after taking over Alpha Tauri.

Their third and last attempt proved to be the succesful one. Shadow won the double in the 2039 season, but were having some disputes with their title sponsor Heineken and also started to experience some financial problems. The consortium then initiated their last offer, which Shadow accepted shortly after the 2039 season ended. The consortium bought the team's rights from McLaren and relocated the team to Haarlem, Netherlands, with the team being renamed NIG Zandvoort, after the famous racetrack. All of the remaining stuff of the team remained the same, including drivers Farid Esmaeilzadeh and Joao Paulo Kitayama, team principal Michal Pierzchala and all of non-executive staff. Also, Giovanni de Ziel was appointed as head scout and operator of the team's development program.

## 2040: A tremendous debut campaign

With the team remaining pretty much the same despite having changed name and headquartets, NIG Zandvoort started as the favourites to win the title. During the season, it was proven that the car was by a large margin the quickest on the grid and turned out to be unbeatable, as Zandvoort scored wins in every race and had at least one car on the podium. The difference was so big between them and the rest of the grid that they won the teams title from the 11th race, making it the quickest title win in the history of the sport. Farid Esmaeilzadeh won the world title with 1 round to go and completed the season with a record 12 wins and 14 podiums and Joao Paulo Kitayama finished second with the 4 remaining wins and 13 podiums. As a result, Zandvoort became the first team to win the double on their debut since Brawn GP in 2009 and also broke the records for most wins, most podiums, most podiums by an individual driver and lastly most points scored by a team in a single season.

## Drivers

* Farid Esmaeilzadeh (2040-present)
* Joao Paulo Kitayama (2040-present)