ByMatt WarwickBBC Sport Senior Journalist in Madrid
- Published23 minutes ago
You could never accuse Formula 1 of shirking a challenge.
Who else would consider competing for the attention of a football-obsessed country, home to the World Cup winners, in a city where a constant stream of the world’s most talented players do awe-inspiring things most weeks?
F1 last had a Spanish world champion 20 years ago and there hasn’t been a race in Madrid since 1981.
Does F1, which has experienced a huge rise in popularity in other territories around the world, need another track in its crowded European heartland?
This weekend the sport, and Madrid itself, will find out.
Madrilenos know how to make sport great
Real Madrid are considered to be the greatest football club in history.
They have won 15 European Cups and 36 La Liga titles, and then there are the famous Galacticos: the generational set of the world’s best players which began with the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo and has extended to the modern crop that includes Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe.
Some 75,000 Madridistas roared home Mbappe’s majestically deft volley to make it 3-0 after half an hour against Malaga at the end of August, and their city rivals Atletico aren’t far adrift of them in La Liga. It’s hard to see what else the locals need to sate their sporting needs.
But in both the stunning, newly reconditioned steel spaceship of the Bernabeu, which has lost none of the drama of its frighteningly steep theatrical terracing, or Real Madrid women’s atmospheric if less salubrious stadium right next to the new F1 track, will fans be turning their attention to the roar of the engine noise this weekend?
“Yes, [the F1 race] is good for Madrid,” says one. “There is pride in our sport, Madrid is an open city with open people and open minds.
“The race can [take] Madrid’s [identity] outside of football, and the most we can be seen [by the outside world] is the best.
“But I’m more than excited… I’m curious – I want to see how it goes.”
“We’ve always been dreaming of having something [from F1] closer to home,” adds another. “Having it back is great. I’ve been to Barcelona and the Belgian GP and I think let’s see how it goes. Organising tends to be messy in the first year – I don’t want to be the guinea pig.
“Let’s hope it brings the city more into the spotlight. Madrid has a lot to learn from F1 about how to run a global spectacle; F1 could probably learn the true Spanish way. Barcelona is more international, the drivers and fans coming to Madrid will get more of a taste of Spain.”
Welcome to Madring
As the Prado museum demonstrates, Madrid knows its fine art.
The crossing signals resemble birdsong and the Mexican conifers gently sway over the waiting traffic with a backdrop of stunning Palaciosian architecture, which is in contrast to the relatively flat, block layout of the inner city.
This may not have made for the best race experience so instead, organisers plumped for what outsiders may see as an unloved expo area run by the quasi-state owned Ifema organisation next to the city’s airport.
“It started as a joke, it was a fantasy,” says Luis Garcia Abad, Madring boss and former manager to Spain’s only world champion Fernando Alonso, among other Spanish sports stars.
“An F1 grand prix is like a unicorn – you are trying always to see the unicorn but at the end you realise [sometimes] it’s impossible.
“The queue of cities trying to organise an F1 GP is huge. They have to choose right – we signed a contract for 10 years.
“Maybe seven or eight years ago we talked about this race. At some point Ifema called me and said ‘what are you thinking [about its viability]?’ After one morning [here] I said: ‘It’s possible.’
The new venue may be a world away from the flamenco-inspired boutiques and wine bars of the intimate Salamanca district, but Madrid is relatively diminutive compared to other high-profile capitals, and has high-quality public transport.
As a result, organisers are cutting out many of the car parks and asking fans to leave their own motors at home.
But don’t expect Patrick Dempsey, Rafael Nadal and Mbappe to be standing on the platform of Avenida de America to hop on the pink line to the circuit – they will breathe easy at the VIP spaces near to the expansive six-strong VIP area paddock.
Regardless of the journey there, what will fans find?
“It’s a real experience, not just to be in Madrid but for F1,” says Abad. “Every part of the track has its own personality. Monumental… Turn 12, is huge, amazing.
“We really wanted to have an iconic part of the circuit – more than 30,000 people around one corner.”
Ah yes, Monumental. The corner everyone in F1 is talking about when discussing this race.
A 26-degree banked challenge, substantially longer than the one at the Dutch Grand Prix’s Zandvoort. Monumental scythes through what will feel like a small town come race day.
It comes complete with a VIP viewing area that could house the King of Spain and his family and sits, appropriately, like a castle on top of the hill. It’s a difficult structure to walk up, and in 44C heat, impossible to sit on.
“Luis wanted to think of something recognisable in our circuit. Something iconic,” says operations director for Ifema Carlos Jimenez.
Monumental was not the only complex part of a track build, which Jimenez says lends itself to sustainability. Power for the race comes from renewable energy and there is partial use of existing buildings around the site. However, additional construction around the circuit has seen 65m euros of investment, and the track itself cost 85m euros alone.
“There were a lot of challenges,” he says. “We started building it in the wettest winter in 20 years in Spain. The rain was torrential. We suffered a lot, and had to stabilise parts of clay which behaves badly with wet conditions. It was very challenging. There are three layers of asphalt here. We learnt from one layer to the next.
“In 2022 it seemed like a little bit of a crazy idea,” adds Jimenez. “But Madrid has momentum right now; it’s a vibrant city, very well known for football.
“Like a ski resort must have entertainment for apres-ski, a circuit must have good after-race entertainment. Madrid will become in top position – the offer of this city is incredible in terms of gastronomy, a spectacular climate, which is very mild in September. And the party in Madrid is unbeatable.”
What could happen in the race?
Make no mistake, Madring is a street circuit: part public roads, part purpose built. And it feels intense to stand on the track, let alone drive it, with the walls on either side appearing to close in on you. And that lack of width, on the eye at least, suggests overtaking will be virtually impossible.
“From a driver’s point of view it’s quite a harsh circuit,” says an excited Abad. “Twenty-two corners, up and down, banking corners – the circuit is adapted to the new [F1] regulations.
“I spoke with Charles Leclerc and he said it was an amazing track, and in the race I believe you will have the opportunity to overtake, but not by free. We’re talking about gladiators – the best drivers in the world.”
Plenty of drivers have already experienced Madring in anger during a Formula 3 test.
“It’s going to be really edgy,” says Madrid’s own F3 driver Bruno del Pino. “You are always on the limit, the corners are quick and the walls are close. It’s like [Saudi GP circuit] Jeddah but with more difficulty.
“With Monumental, you see so much of an angle it never ends. The first time around, you see it going straight up and you feel like you’ll fly straight out [of the track].
“It is flat for us because of the downforce so it’s not really a corner, but the previous combination of Turns 10 and 11 are high speed and close to the wall – quite a few drivers will kiss the wall.”
Britain’s F3 driver Freddie Slater goes even further: “A lap of Madrid is so exhilarating, and the adrenaline is pumping – it’s an incredible track to drive. It’s one of the best tracks on calendar, if not the best.
“It’s got character, it’s got bumps, uphill and downhill – it’s a bit more old-school.”
Abad believes it’s the spectators who will determine this race’s success.
“Not just Madrid needing F1, maybe even F1 needing Madrid,” he concludes. “We’re investing money to create an experience inside of a city.
“The future of the [F1] championship is something in this direction – we need to take care of customers and spectators. They are our future.”
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Slide 1 of 4, Madring’s La Monumental banked corner , Madring’s La Monumental banked corner proved a huge challenge simply to lay the tarmac at a 26-degree angleEnd of image gallery