If you were commuting through the Spanish capital this week, you might have noticed a slight delay on the metro. And if you checked social media to find out why, you were probably met with a highly confusing viral image: a full-blown Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car parked directly on the subway tracks of the Madrid Metro.

While internet commentators were quick to joke that the championship-winning team had finally gone off the rails, the stunt was actually a highly calculated, literal piece of marketing. It wasn’t a mistake, it was the unofficial kickoff to the brand-new era of the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Welcome to the MadRing

After decades of racing at the beloved (but aging) Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Spanish Grand Prix has officially moved. For 2026, the high-speed circus is taking over the streets of the nation’s capital, although the original Barlona Grand Prix will still feature on the calendar in June.

The new semi-street circuit, officially dubbed the MadRing (Circuito de Madring), is woven around the IFEMA Exhibition Centre and the Real Madrid training complex. But what makes this track unique isn’t just its massive, 24-degree banked curve or tunnel sections, it’s how people are actually going to get there.

When Madrid organizers originally pitched the new track to Formula 1 executives, their primary selling point was extreme, sustainable accessibility. Unlike traditional circuits located out in the countryside that require miles of traffic jams and massive, muddy parking lots, the MadRing is strongly connected to the city’s infrastructure.

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The entire circuit is located just an eight-minute ride from the airport, directly situated on Line 8 of the Madrid Metro. Promoters have aggressively boasted that an estimated 90 percent of the 110,000 expected daily fans will be able to reach the grandstands entirely via public transit.

This is maybe where the rail-riding F1 car comes in…

Classic Red Bull Antics

Of course, anyone familiar with Red Bull Racing shouldn’t be surprised. The energy drink giant’s marketing department essentially wrote the book on putting Formula 1 cars in completely absurd, highly photogenic locations just to see the internet’s reaction.

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In the past, the team has performed pit stops in zero gravity, driven across the Golden Gate Bridge, thrown an F1 car down the snowy slopes of a ski resort, and, funnily enough, driven on the tracks of the Chicago L train system.

While the official promotional video for the Madrid shoot is likely still in the editing room, the leaked photos have already accomplished exactly what Red Bull intended. The internet is talking, and the hype for the inaugural MadRing race is officially boarding.

Image caption: SUZUKA, JAPAN – MARCH 29: Oracle Red Bull Racing team members on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka Circuit on March 29, 2026 in Suzuka, Japan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202603290652 // Usage for editorial use only //