It’s rare for a brand-new circuit to appear on the Formula 1 calendar and even rarer for it to make such a big impression.
But Spain’s Madring, a semi-street circuit less than 10km from central Madrid, has done exactly that.
Equal parts street track and permanent venue, with tight 90-degree corners mixed with high-speed sweeps and tricky chicanes, the response from drivers after walking the track — never mind tackling it at 300km/h — has been unanimous.
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“It’s a crazy circuit,” said George Russell, per The Race, capturing the vibe of driver feedback on Thursday.
“I would put it, arguably, as the most risky circuit of the whole calendar.”
WHAT DO DRIVERS THINK ABOUT THE TRACK?
Though the layout is unique, it shares some characteristics with some distinct venues already on the calendar.
The elevation changes and the centrepiece La Monumental banked corner are reminiscent of Zandvoort.
The fast runs to 90-degree corners with the walls looming close feel as though they’re borrowed directly from Baku.
The high-speed sweeps would feel at home in the rapid Jeddah layout.
They’re three tracks that seemingly have little in common bar one thing: risk.
There are no small mistakes at any of these circuits. They severely punish error through a lack of tarmac run-off and close-in walls.
Madrid has managed to combine all the high-profile, high-risk properties of these tracks into one venue.
Gabriel Bortoleto described it as a “mentally exhausting” concoction.
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It’s tough for drivers but also for engineers.
Most street circuits are straightforward in demanding a high-downforce car. Azerbaijan dilutes that requirement with long straights, but that only means drivers have to find the right balance between confidence and straight-line speed.
Madrid’s wild combined layout, however, is the “most complicated” on the calendar, according to title leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“Driving-wise, you’ve got all kinds of corners,” he explained, per The Race. “You’ve got chicanes, fast corners, banked, medium speed.
“Also braking — you’ve got a lot of straight-line braking but [also] a lot of braking where you’re actually still turning.
“Turn 17 is a corner where, when you hit the brake, you’re still turning, and then you straighten the car.
“It’s also complicated on the engineering side because finding a set-up that is a good compromise for the whole lap is not going to be easy.
“You can find a set-up that helps you in the chicanes, when you need to cut kerbs, or a set-up that helps you in the fast corners, but to find a set-up that is good over kerbs, good on changing direction, good on fast corners, is going to be difficult.
“It’s a very tricky track, very challenging, but very exciting at the same time with zero margin of mistake.”
“Diabolical situation for them!” | 01:19
HOW WILL THE WEEKEND WORK?
Drivers have been allocated the full three hours of practice, but it’s doubtful they’ll get all three uninterrupted.
“I’ll put my money on a red flag, that’s for sure,” Pierre Gasly said.
He won’t get good odds for that.
There’s been only one two-day test at this track, with Formula 3 breaking it in late last month. It featured 19 red flags over two days — more than one an hour.
Those red flags weren’t concentrated to any one area either — they were spread around most of the track, particularly the faster, permanent section of the course.
Unsurprisingly, expectations are that drivers will build up slowly to qualifying — similar to the approach taken in Monaco, for example.
“Finding that perfect lap is going to be very difficult,” Franco Colapinto said, per Autosport
“In the simulator putting together one complete lap could take me hours, so imagine what it is going to be like here when you only have two or three laps to do it.”
It’s not just drivers that will be gradually improving, though. The tarmac is still fresh, dusty and oily, even if it’s been jet washed ahead of the weekend, as has become common for new venues.
The good news is that both Formula 2 and Formula 3 will be in action to help clean up the circuit.
But there are some concerns that, similar to when Miami made its F1 debut, grip will improve only on the racing line, with the rest of the circuit remaining dusty and oily.
That will make overtaking unlikely in the race — as was the case in Miami — with drivers losing grip as soon as they divert from the racing line.
PIT TALK PODCAST: How did Kimi Antonelli win in Monza — and what does it mean for the state of the championship? | Listen to Pit Talk here >
But there’s another complication that could arise from what’s expected to be rapidly changing track conditions.
“There’s a lot of corners on this track that will be between 90 per cent and 100 per cent throttle,“ Alex Albon said, per Autosport.
“I think for the top teams it will be flat out.
“For the midfield teams and the backfield teams [it will be] a bigger lift, which has a big effect in deployment.
“If you can do a corner flat or not, it massively changes the way the deployment works.”
The 2026 power unit operated with certain built-in expectations about how fast a driver will go through certain corners, and it uses that model to decide where best to charge and discharge the battery.
If a driver suddenly goes much faster at a certain part of the track — say, in qualifying, when they take some additional risk because grip has improved more than expected — the engine algorithm can become confused, with unexpected losses or boosts in power elsewhere.
At such a high-risk circuit, both could be extremely problematic.
“You don’t want to go in qualifying, suddenly all these corners start to become flat and your deployment starts to move around a lot. That’s what we’ve found so far,” Albon said.
Every way you cut it, it looks like an unpredictable weekend.
Norris edges Piastri on final lap | 01:37
RUSSELL LOOKING FOR LUCK AS ANTONELLI HITS TOP GEAR
For all the excitement over Formula 1’s newest track, this is round 14 of the world championship — and it comes one week after an extraordinary round in Monza.
Antonelli improbably extended his championship lead to 66 points despite starting 19th — fully 17 places behind teammate Russell.
It was a seismic day for both the 20-year-old and a season that looks increasingly likely to deliver him his maiden world championship.
“The weekend itself was absolutely incredible,” Antonelli said, per the F1 website. “Definitely so far the best day of my life, and an incredible memory. I couldn’t wish for a better day.
“I wish [I had] a bit more time to realise and enjoy it, but now obviously we’re in Madrid and we’re ready to do our best, and we’ll try to repeat [it].”
Russell, though, will be hoping — praying — for anything but a repeat.
At 66 points down with perhaps as few as nine rounds remaining — a decision on the Middle Eastern races pending — it’s just about out of his hands.
“I’m not trying to be delusional,” he said. “The reality is my teammate has done a better job than me this year. I’ve had some bad luck, but he deserves to be leading.
“Right now he deserves to be in the position he is. From my side I’m just going race by race. I’m going to try and win as many as possible.
“If I’m going to win this championship, I’m going to need some luck. I’m being quite realistic about the position I’m in.”
While bad luck has been part of Russell’s story — though it has contributed to a small percentage of the 66-point deficit — he would need a remarkable slice of good fortune to exert any sort of control over his title destiny.
Antonelli’s back-to-front win was the sort of performance that defies fortune.
But the Madring could be the sort of circuit that generates the right kinds of circumstances that could reinject even a sliver of hope into the Englishman’s outlook.
Ferrari in chaos as Kimi seals comeback | 02:46
‘TAKE RESPONSIBILITY’: FERRARI SAYS ALL’S WELL AFTER MONZA DISASTER
While Antonelli is on cloud nine, Formula 1’s other Italian entity, Ferrari, is at perhaps its lowest ebb.
Its home race was disastrous, with execution errors from the pit wall through qualifying and then from the cockpit in the race, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton compromising each other at the first chicane before the Monegasque crashed out on his own at Parabolica on the following lap.
Hamilton was anonymous from there despite a brief comeback following the ensuing red flag, in part thanks to the team neglecting to pit him during a virtual safety car.
With Antonelli leading a Mercedes one-two, it was an all-but fatal blow to Hamilton and Ferrari’s outside title hopes.
The race ended with Hamilton in particular asking serious questions about the way the team operated both in terms of driver management and execution. He even invoked team boss Fred Vasseur’s leadership, declaring change had to come from the top.
With a few days to cool down, however, the team is putting on a united front ahead of a weekend it needs a good result.
Leclerc opened the batting by owning up to causing the first-lap incident that put Hamilton into the gravel, dropping him to 11th.
“After reviewing the images, it’s pretty clear I could have done a better job slowing down the car and not putting Lewis in a difficult situation,” he said, per the F1 website. ”This is something I can learn from.
“I have a lot of respect for Lewis. I told him in turn 2 I didn’t behave the way I should and the way a teammate should.
“We all try to do our best, sometimes you go a step too far. I’ll retune that to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
Hamilton accepted Leclerc’s admission, saying it was proof communication inside the team was better than it seemed.
“I think what’s great is that there was no shying away from having a discussion,” he said.
“We sat face to face, just him and I, and talked about it and we were just both open and honest.
“We squashed it, and we can move on. I think that shows the maturity from him, and I think it’s healthy.”
Vasseur, meanwhile, is attempting to lay down the law — and defend the way he manages the team.
“I reminded them of some fundamental principles of the way I manage the team, and I will continue to stick to them,” he told Autosport.
“My job is to protect the hundreds of people in the team and to take responsibility. That is what I have asked the drivers to do as well: if we want to achieve results, we need to protect the team and each of us needs to take responsibility.”
The bottom line from Italy, though, is that the team overall underperformed. Though it never expected to contend for victory, having two cars on the front row should have led to at least one podium finish.
Engine power was a big part of the story, but Madring is not anywhere near as power-sensitive as Monza.
Ferrari, then, shouldn’t be nearly as weak — in fact this downforce-sensitive circuit should play to some of the car’s best qualities.
That means there are fewer excuses for a bad weekend — and Ferrari can barely afford one of those right now.