F1 Drivers Expect ‘Crazy’ Debut for Madring

Formula 1 drivers believe the new Madring circuit will be “intense” and “crazy” as it prepares to make its debut as the host of the relocated Spanish Grand Prix.

The street-style hybrid Madring circuit, located on the outskirts of Spanish capital Madrid, is the first new venue to feature on the calendar since Las Vegas’ debut in 2023.

Madring features 22 corners, spread across an enormous complex on land owned by the IFEMA exhibition center, and on private land in Valdebebas.

There are elements reminiscent of Baku, Jeddah, and Sochi, with blind high-speed wall-lined curves, while Madring’s showpiece corner is expected to be La Monumental, a 24 percent banked right-hand turn that stretches a third of a mile before opening up into a compression.

Turn five, a left-right-left chicane that passes under a highway shortly after a high-speed curve, has also caught the attention.

“I think it’s one of the most complicated tracks of the year, on driving style and also engineering style,” said title leader Kimi Antonelli. “Driving-wise, you’ve got all kinds of corners, chicanes, fast corners, banked, medium-speed, also braking, you’ve got a lot of straight-line braking and also turning while braking. It’s a very tricky track, challenging, also exciting at the same time, zero margin of mistake.

“Then it’s also complicated on the engineering side because finding a setup that is a good compromise for the whole lap is not going to be easy, one through chicanes to cut cubs, or for fast curbs, to find one for everything is going to be difficult because whenever you do a setup, there’s always pros and cons.”

Antonelli’s Mercedes teammate George Russell described it as a “crazy circuit” which is “up there with the most risky circuits on the calendar.

“You have real high-speed corners, Jeddah-esque, the walls are very close, but then other corners like Baku where you come from high speed into a slow braking zone, braking while turning at the same time; locking tires will be easy, and if you lock up, you’re in the wall. It’ll be challenging, the race will be challenging to overtake, so on the whole not an easy one.”

Pierre Gasly, who was on pole for Alpine last time out in Italy, quipped that he hit the wall at every corner while sampling the circuit on the simulator, and is also expecting a challenge.

“It’s kind of slightly off-road braking zones which are not fully straight, kind of like snaky, very twisty type of corners, many corners, a lot of blinds, banking, up and down, undulation all the way,” Gasly said. “So I think I expect a very tricky track, challenging for us, which makes it good because you can always aim to do a bit more difference driving-wise. But again, it’s a type of track a bit like Monaco, where I think if you do a slight mistake, it can have big consequences straight away, so it’s about how you can reward every single braking zone and sort of speed that you carry through the corners. I must say it’s exciting, at the same time I think it’s going to be quite a disruptive weekend, how easy it will be to have a crash.”

Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg described it as “a very intense track—fast, flowing, a lot of corners,” while Cadillac’s Checo Perez called it “a proper track,” adding “it’s a bit scary, I’ll say, it reminds me a bit of Jeddah, good, proper track.”

Haas’ Esteban Ocon quipped that it could bring benefits for those lower down the pecking order.

“Obviously, it’s a crazy circuit,” he said. “There’s a lot of risk-reward on when to go fast, getting close to the walls. Yes, that’s going to reward the people that take the most risk. There’s a lot of unknowns and that’s very good because hopefully it will bring opportunities for the cars in the midfield. The unknowns in terms of strategy or red flag in the race or whatever is going to happen, hopefully we can take those.”

U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.