Boasting an ambitious plan that pledges to meet Formula 1’s targets for entertaining, accessible and sustainable race in destination cities, Madrid earned the right to take over the Spanish Grand Prix from Barcelona for a 10-year-period, held at the IFEMA fairgrounds by the Barajas International airport.
With less than three months to go until the so-called Madring’s F1 debut, 45 years after the Spanish capital last hosted an F1 race at Jarama, circuit organisers opened their doors for a glitzy opening ceremony, featuring regional dignitaries and race ambassador Carlos Sainz.
The event was also an opportunity for select media to snoop around the 5.4km construction site and get a first taste of what F1’s 22 drivers will be experiencing in September. Donning a hard hat and high-vis vest, we are ushered onto a bus to explore F1’s newest venue, which is a welcome reprieve from the scorching Madrid heat on a dog day afternoon.
What organisers understood is that any F1 circuit needs to have a standout feature. In Madrid, that comes in the shape of the spectacular Monumental, a banked corner featuring the maximum allowed 24% inclination. The 550-metre corner is much longer than Zandvoort’s final turn, as it draws a 270-degree arc around the northern, purpose-built end of the circuit.
The flat-out blast looked impressive enough on videos and renders, but seeing it up close really puts things in perspective. What it isn’t, is a consistent gradient, constant elevation corner like you would expect from a cookie cutter, oval-type turn. Instead, it’s a corner that is ever changing on a 3D plane, gradually opening up before going through a significant elevation change. The exit is uphill and therefore blind for the drivers. There’s not going to be any corner in F1 quite like it.
“I probably need a simulator to give you exact feelings and details of how it will feel, but I can already tell you it looks impressive, because we are going to be entering that corner at a very high speed already, around 280km/h,” said Sainz. “My feeling is the corner is going to be flat out and it is going to create an overtaking opportunity in the next tight left. The banking will allow you to maybe position the car higher up or lower down if you want to get clean air, but if you stay tucked you will produce quite a bit of slipstream.”
The Monumental has the maximum permitted incline
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
Sainz was pleased organisers, led by Fernando Alonso’s former manager Luis Garcia Abad, commissioned a circuit that would be appealing to drivers. “What I asked the manager of the Madrid circuit was to make a circuit with character, with charisma,” said Sainz who will also get his own grandstand at the event. “And not to fall into the trap of making circuits, I’m not going to give names, that the drivers did not contribute to much.”
Organisers have heavily leaned into La Monumental as the track’s hallmark, commissioning the Pininfarina bureau to design the trophies in the stylish shape of the banking, and it also features on the official event poster which was revealed on Tuesday.
Combining the best of both worlds
Beyond its banking, what is apparent is that the purpose-built section that accounts for 2.2km of the overall layout, is fast. Built on a barren plot of land, which used to be a festival ground, designers have used the space to open up the track and give F1 cars some room to stretch their legs.
As we hop out of the bus again, what will be a fan zone adjacent to the Monumental section is currently still a sandpit used by construction vehicles, but organisers are adamant that this particular area takes the least time to build before the September event.
The two motorway overpasses separate the northern arena from the IFEMA fairground itself, which also includes the start-finish straight and the paddock buildings. Here, the track gets a more familiar street circuit vibe with 90-degree corners and little runoff, but a long straight between Turns 3 and 5 should lead to potential overtaking opportunities into the tight chicane that follows.
The Madring will host its first F1 race in just three months
Photo by: Madrid Grand Prix
It’s not the most inspiring part of the circuit, nor is it the prettiest, as cars navigate the many concrete pavilions, so some care will have to be taken to make the final sector look more appealing on the broadcast.
With the track surface laid down, the biggest efforts now go into constructing the pit building, which is happening as we take our tour, as well as erecting the grandstands that should hold around 98,000 of the event’s 110,000 total capacity.
Far from the Madring crowd
Because of its two distinctly different parts, the circuit design inevitably feels a little disjointed, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The Madring is trying to combine the best of both worlds, the high-speed, high-downforce challenge of a traditional road course and the ease of access and other amenities that come with a street circuit.
“I have never seen a track that has an urban feel and then suddenly you go through a crest and it opens up into a massive, open, more flowing area. The combination of the two makes the circuit exciting,” Sainz said.
Because of logistics the track will physically split into two parts for spectators, with the majority of grandstands in the wide open “road course” part, while there is a bigger emphasis on hospitality around the start-finish straight.
“It’s a more traditional experience in the north, and a more VIP experience in the south,” said IFEMA COO Carlos Jimenez when asked by Autosport about the unique circuit division. “In terms of attendance, just over 60% will be in the north, with massive fan zones and a lot of space to create entertainment, and less than 40% in the south, including the Paddock Club and other hospitalities.”
Madring’s opening sequence of corners is a tight left-right chicane
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
One of Madrid’s unique selling points, especially compared to the likes of Barcelona and other traditional European venues, is that the event is built from the ground up around public transportation. The northern Valdebebas part will be serviced by commuter trains, while the main paddock area has a metro stop on its doorstep. “Both are very fast lines with very few stops because they were designed to connect the airport with the city centre,” said Jimenez.
“The connection, the experience for the fans to reach the circuit, we think it’s going to make a difference. The counterpoint to that is that you have to create a good experience inside so fans spend as much time as possible at the grand prix instead of going to the city centre.”
“The first thing that we did was to organise a survey,” event director Abad told Autosport. “What are our customers, our fans, looking for? They are looking for an experience with security, with the right access, no traffic jams, a nice city, nice weather. So we have been answering all these questions and we deliver the Madrid experience.
“We have been building a race track in the city, but it’s not an urban circuit. It’s not Singapore, it’s a different thing. In terms of performance, it’s a very high-speed circuit with high-speed corners. It’s quite challenging in terms of driving and performance.”
“There will be many lessons from year one”
Madring’s journey hasn’t been straightforward, hamstrung by various delays and legal action from local resident groups. As Madrid community president Isabel Diaz Ayuso and other dignitaries look on as a giant Spanish flag is hoisted by Turn 3, you can still hear the whistling of a dozen protesters who gathered on the opposite side of the fence sporting ‘Stop Formula 1’ signs.
When asked by Autosport how the race can prove to weary residents that it is adding more value than it detracts, Abad replied: “It’s an important question. We are building a circuit with around 14 hours of activity per year. That is a small sacrifice, and you realise that the value of the real estate around us is increasing a lot. They are opening new hotels. But at the end of the day, what’s good about our world is that everybody is free to say [what they want] and fight for what they believe in. And we are doing the same thing.”
Half of Madrid’s circuit is built on an expansive plot of land, giving organisers freedom the design faster corners and large fan zones.
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
Recent history from other new races on the calendar suggests that there will undoubtedly be challenges and hiccups in year one. This is where IFEMA’s pedigree as a year-round event organiser, with over 100 major events annually, will prove invaluable. But COO Jimenez is under no illusion that his team won’t get everything right at the first time of asking.
“Obviously, we want to deliver the best possible experience, but there will be many lessons to learn from year one to year two,” he acknowledged. “It happens everywhere, and we are not going to be an exception. We know that. We are honest and we try to be humble. But we also know that this is our strength.
“What we have tried is to make everyone, including me, understand how this event is run, because it’s very particular. But if you go to multiple grands prix, you rapidly recognise repeating patterns, things that one promoter does very well, and the things that have to be improved. So I think we are going to deliver a good experience, even in the first year.”
The Madring uses IFEMA’s 200,000m2 area and its 13 pavilions.
Photo by: Filip Cleeren
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– The Autosport.com Team
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