![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Madrid-La-Monumental-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFerrari’s filming day at the Madring in July has given the Scuderia a head start on the rest of the F1 paddock, and Charles Leclerc has now shared his first impressions of the circuit that will host the Spanish Grand Prix in September.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The nine-time grand prix winner, alongside Lewis Hamilton, completed laps of the 5.416km quasi-street circuit built around Madrid’s IFEMA exhibition complex.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Ferrari covered the full 200km allowed under FIA filming-day regulations, running the SF-26 on Pirelli demonstration tyres on 9 July, while the venue remained very much a construction site.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“I did some laps behind a Stelvio, or whatever that car was,” Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Obviously, it was in the middle of the works. There was still so much work, and there was so much dirt on the track.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“But it looks like a cool track, and I love city tracks. It felt like a very challenging city track, which has all the characteristics that I like. So I cannot wait to try it properly once we go there for the race weekend.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLa Monumental leaves its mark<\/p>\n
The 22-corner layout features tunnels, significant elevation changes and, most notably, La Monumental, a sweeping, 547-metre right-hander banked at 24%, the maximum gradient the FIA permits.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It is set to become the longest single banked corner on the current calendar, with drivers expected to endure around 4G for approximately six seconds through the turn.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
When asked whether La Monumental has the soul to become a truly iconic corner in Formula 1, in the mould of Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps or Maggotts and Becketts at Silverstone, Leclerc was emphatic.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“It’s a very, very special corner,” he said. “It’s a corner where I feel, in qualifying, we’ll have to, I’ll say it in a polite way, but we’ll have to be very brave because it’s going to be on the limit.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“So that’s going to be really cool. I think it’s going to be a really cool corner. And, yes, I do believe it can become one of the most iconic corners of the season, especially once the grandstand is built. I think that will also add to the experience of that corner.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Comparisons with Zandvoort’s banked final corner were quickly drawn, but Leclerc noted key differences. “The final corner at Zandvoort is actually flat out,” he explained. “Maybe Turn 3 at Zandvoort, which is really cool as well. It’s slower, though.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“But at Madring, it doesn’t look flat as of now, at least. I was very, very far from being flat during testing, mostly because of the dust that was on the track.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
On whether the layout suits his driving style, the Mon\u00e9gasque driver was direct. “I like city tracks in general, so I have little doubt that I’ll love Madring,” he added. “Whether it will fit me or not, I don’t really know.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“But one thing for sure is that you will have to go full commitment, and this I always enjoy on city tracks.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari’s filming day at the Madring in July has given the Scuderia a head start on the rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-845680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}