Madrid’s 10-year tenure of the Spanish Grand Prix, taking over the moniker from the now biennial Barcelona race, is Formula 1’s latest effort to bring its series to urban population centres.
It does so for 57 laps on a two-headed monster of a circuit that will take drivers and teams some time to wrap their collective engineering minds around.
Initial concept renderings of the so-called Madring drew mixed reactions with fears the Spanish GP’s move from Barcelona’s permanent circuit to the Valdebebas area near Madrid’s main airport would see F1 add another generic street circuit, a concrete jungle that would soon be abandoned. One doesn’t even have to look beyond the Spanish borders to evoke memories of the long-defunct Valencia grand prix, an uninspired flash in a paella-sized pan on what is now a ghost track.
Our first site visit in June suggested the circuit – originally designed by Dromo before the final stages of construction were handed over to Tilke – showed that the end product is certainly nowhere near as dramatic as that. But it certainly isn’t like any other circuit on the calendar either.
A monumental driving challenge?
The area around the start-and-finish straight is located around the IFEMA fairground concourse and public access roads, which certainly gives the first sector a stop-start feel reminiscent of the likes of Miami and Singapore.
But then the purpose-built sector on former Mad Cool festival grounds, where designers had a blank canvas to work with, is a combination of challenging medium- to high-speed corners with plenty of elevation and camber changes woven into it, which dispels any notion that the Madring will be a forgettable cookie cutter track that won’t put drivers to the test.
The standout landmark, which features on the race official poster and other promotional material, is La Monumental; a long, fast banked corner featuring the maximum allowed 24% inclination. The 550-metre corner is much longer than Zandvoort’s somewhat comparable final turn, as it draws a 270-degree arc around the northern, purpose-built end of the circuit.
The steep banking of La Monumental has a continuously changing gradient and elevation
The towering corner, which features a grandstand on the outside, made a staggering impression in person because of its continuous changes in gradient, radius and elevation that sets it apart from other banked corners on the calendar, or those found in oval races. There is no runoff, but the outside is lined with a SAFER barrier.
“It’s a very, very special corner,” Charles Leclerc said after exploring it during a dusty filming day with Ferrari. “It’s a corner where I feel in qualifying we’ll have to be very brave because it’s going to be on the limit.
“I do believe it can become one of the most iconic corners of the season, especially with the grandstand. That will add to the experience of that corner. One thing is for sure, and that’s that you will have to have full commitment.”
That corner is followed by a number of high-speed direction changes with little run-off. As a red-flag-ridden F3 test suggested, the circuit will be tricky to handle in year one.
Madring track map
Will Madrid have an overtaking problem?
Early indications suggest that the Madring, if not an outright driver favourite, will be a respectable driving challenge in qualifying. The jury is still out on whether the circuit will be able to deliver a compelling spectacle, though. Because of its many braking zones, the circuit should sit in the middle of the pack in terms of energy-harvesting challenges. Overtaking does not look particularly easy, with the straight between Turns 3 and 5 the most obvious opportunity.
“It’s going to be a very challenging track,” Leclerc said diplomatically. “I don’t know about the overtakes, I’m not sure there will be that many overtakes, I hope I’m wrong. But I think qualifying and the challenge of driving such a track is going to be one of the very cool ones of the season.”
What Madrid can offer F1 that Barcelona still struggles with
Where Madrid wants to make a real difference is its accessibility. The circuit is not just a close drive from the airport, but is also connected to Madrid’s extensive underground and commuter train network. The organisers promise hassle-free access to the circuit from anywhere in the capital, something which has long been a pain point in Barcelona.
In that respect it is exactly the type of venue that F1 management has become infatuated with. An urban race well integrated into a ‘destination city’, with all the amenities, baked-in mobility and sustainability solutions, and room for extensive VIP facilities.
“Well, you know better than me that coming in and out of a traditional circuit is a nightmare. Here we have both the metro in the south and the commuter train in the north, which is going to be extremely convenient,” IFEMA’s COO Carlos Jimenez promised. “Both are very fast lines with very few stops because they were designed to quickly connect the airport with the city centre. So, the experience for the fans to reach the circuit, we think it’s going to be a difference-maker.
“It’s very convenient, but the counterpart is that it obliges us to work harder to provide a good experience. Otherwise, the fans will quickly go back to the hotels and restaurants in the city, because we are competing with the city centre.”
Formula 3 conducted a track test at the circuit at the end of August
Photo by: Madring
Whether or not Madrid can make good on its promise to organise a smooth inaugural edition of its event, for a maximum capacity of 110,000 spectators, remains to be seen. There have been many recent examples of year one being a learning opportunity, including Miami and Las Vegas. F1’s return to Madrid will likely be rough around the edges, too, but the organisers say they are prepared for that.
“It’s not easy,” said Luis Garcia Abad, Fernando Alonso’s former manager and now the managing director of the event. “I have been involved in F1 for the last 25 years and I never thought that it was going to be so difficult in terms of all the things that you have to be aware of.
“I have been speaking with all the promoters, and the problems are more or less the same when you are trying to build something from scratch. But IFEMA gave us a lot of solutions. We didn’t have a racetrack, but we had Wi-Fi, we had energy, we had a metro station at the main entrance. If you are trying to organise something in a different circuit, it’s a nightmare. But with all these parameters [already in place], we were able to build it.
“Now we have to deliver the best customer experience we can.”
