Madrid has never lacked for spectacle. This is the city of 15 European Cups, of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, of Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé. A place where 75,000 people think nothing of roaring a volley into legend on a random August evening against Malaga.
Now Formula 1 is walking straight into that noise and asking for a share of the stage.
F1 Walks Into Football’s Capital
For two decades Spain has waited for another world champion after Fernando Alonso. For more than 40 years, Madrid has waited for another grand prix. In the meantime, the city has been busy cementing its status as the epicentre of elite football, its identity wrapped around the white shirt of Real Madrid and the snarling defiance of Atletico.
Does F1 really need another European race wedged into an already crowded calendar? This weekend, the sport will find out if it can carve out space in a city that already feasts on greatness every week.
The Santiago Bernabéu, rebuilt into a gleaming steel spaceship without losing the menace of its steep, theatrical stands, sits just across town from Real Madrid Femenino’s more modest but atmospheric home. Right next to that, the new F1 circuit snakes into life. The question is simple: will Madridistas lift their eyes from the pitch to the new playground of carbon fibre and downforce?
“Yes, [the F1 race] is good for Madrid,” says one fan, leaning on the sense of civic pride that underpins this city. “Madrid is an open city with open people and open minds. The race can take Madrid’s identity outside of football… But I’m more than excited, I’m curious – I want to see how it goes.”
Another supporter has already chased F1 across Europe. “We’ve always been dreaming of having something closer to home. Having it back is great. I’ve been to Barcelona and the Belgian GP… 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.”
From Palaces to Paddocks
Madrid knows how to present itself. The Prado guards its masterpieces. Crossing signals chirp like birds. Mexican conifers sway above traffic framed by grand Palaciosian facades. It is an elegant, layered city – but its flat, grid-like inner core was never an obvious canvas for a thrilling street race.
So the organisers went elsewhere. Away from the flamenco boutiques and wine bars of Salamanca, they chose the Ifema complex, an expo zone near the airport that outsiders might once have dismissed as soulless. Now it is the centre of a 10-year bet on F1.
“It started as a joke, it was a fantasy,” admits Luis Garcia Abad, Madring boss and former manager to Fernando Alonso. “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?’ After one morning here I said: ‘It’s possible.’”
Madrid’s compact size and efficient public transport gave organisers licence to be bold. Many car parks are gone; fans are being told to leave their own cars at home and ride in on metro and bus. The city’s stars, of course, will glide in differently. Patrick Dempsey, Rafael Nadal, Mbappé and the rest will not be queuing at Avenida de América for the pink line. They will step straight into the plush VIP zones that ring the vast six-unit paddock.
However they arrive, they will walk into a venue designed as much for experience as for lap time.
“It’s a real experience, not just to be in Madrid but for F1,” Abad says. “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.”
The Beast Called Monumental
Monumental. The name has stuck, and with good reason. It is the corner everyone in the paddock is talking about.
Turn 12 is a 26-degree banked wall of tarmac, longer than the famed banking at Zandvoort. It cuts through what will feel like a small temporary town on race weekend, crowned by a VIP platform built grand enough to host the King of Spain. The structure sits like a fortress on a hill, brutally steep to climb and, in 44C heat, impossible to sit on.
“Luis wanted to think of something recognisable in our circuit. Something iconic,” says Carlos Jimenez, operations director for Ifema.
The track has not come cheaply. Around 65m euros has gone into additional construction around the site, with the circuit itself costing 85m euros. Jimenez argues it is money spent with an eye on the future. Power for the race comes from renewable sources, and existing buildings have been woven into the layout to cut down on new builds.
“There were a lot of challenges,” he explains. “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. 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.”
A Street Circuit With Teeth
Make no mistake: this is a street track. Part public road, part purpose-built ribbon of asphalt squeezed between unforgiving walls. Stand at ground level and the place feels claustrophobic. The barriers lean in. The straights never seem to open up. On first glance, overtaking looks like a fantasy.
“From a driver’s point of view it’s quite a harsh circuit,” Abad says, almost with relish. “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.”
Those gladiators have already sent their apprentices to test it. Formula 3 drivers have pounded around Madring and returned with eyes wide.
“It’s going to be really edgy,” says Madrid’s own F3 racer Bruno del Pino. “You are always on the limit, the corners are quick and the walls are close. It’s like 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. 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.”
British F3 driver Freddie Slater is even more effusive. “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.”
Does F1 Need Madrid – Or Madrid Need F1?
Abad knows the numbers, the contracts, the logistics. But he also understands that circuits live or die by something less tangible.
“Not just Madrid needing F1, maybe even F1 needing Madrid,” he says. “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.”
That is the gamble. In a city where 3-0 leads and last-minute winners already feel routine, F1 must deliver something different, something that can sit alongside the Bernabéu’s drama rather than be drowned by it.
The engines will answer soon enough.
