Madring gives F1 a blind date with ‘Monumental’ mayhem

Formula One rolls into Madrid this weekend for a first look at the Madring, a new Spanish Grand Prix venue with a banked beast of a corner and enough unknowns to have drivers reaching for the word of the day: challenging. Spain is hosting two races this season, with Madrid’s street circuit around the Ifema exhibition centre following Barcelona’s Catalunya Grand Prix on the calendar. The Madring is the first new circuit since Las Vegas three years ago and brings down the curtain on the regular European leg of the season. The Madring’s signature flourish comes at Turn 12, where “La Monumental” slings the cars around a long, banked arc before spitting them over a crest, leaving drivers momentarily aiming at grandstands built to hold up to 45,000 fans – and the blue sky – rather than tarmac. Until now, most of the field have only met the circuit in the simulator, leaving teams to untangle set-ups and racing lines on a layout whose pecking order remains guesswork. “It looks different. It looks that the track has character, that is charismatic, with a lot of different kinds of corners,” Madrid-born Williams driver Carlos Sainz, an ambassador for the track, told a press conference on Thursday. “At least we can take that away, that that is going to be a different track to what we’re used to.” Sainz has driven a few laps in a road car on an unfinished version of the track, but said that was “nowhere as representative as the laps that I did in the simulator”. Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton are the only other drivers with some prior experience of the Madring after driving there during a filming day in July, when the circuit was still more building site than Grand Prix theatre. Hamilton, the seven-times world champion, was quick to pour cold water on any suggestion of an advantage. “I think it’s hardly any,” he told reporters. “It was dusty, super, super dusty. There was zero grip. We couldn’t change the car because it’s not a test. It was filming. “We weren’t even flat out in many of the corners. We were low, just low power, low grip. The benefit, the only one thing is I’ve seen which way the track goes. So honestly, I don’t think we have any advantage.” SWEEPING SPECTACLE The circuit is built partly inside Madrid’s convention centre and partly on the streets of Valdebebas, across from soccer side Real Madrid’s training ground. Its mix of enclosed sections, tight walls and sweeping spectacle has intrigued drivers, though overtaking may be at a premium. La Monumental, with its diagonal banking and vast grandstand backdrop, carries echoes of American oval racing and has the potential to feel more like a stadium than a conventional circuit. Hamilton said the layout reminded him partly of Montreal’s kerbs, but compared the difficulty of learning it to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah circuit, introduced in 2021. “It’s a massively challenging circuit,” he said. “Of all the new tracks that I’ve gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, I like the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines.” Leclerc also expects qualifying to take on extra weight. “It looked like a very challenging track, and I think exactly the kind of track that I enjoy as a driver,” he told reporters. “It’s true to say as well that I think coming Sunday the amount of overtaking opportunities there will be, will be very little, but I think in qualifying it will be a very cool and challenging track for all drivers.” That could make Saturday the weekend’s main act. “I think it’s the kind of weekend where you want to focus more on the qualifying pace than on the race pace,” Leclerc said. “The priority will be shifted a little bit more towards qualifying.”