Madrid has never been short of noise. Fifteen European Cups, 36 La Liga titles, and a weekly parade of Galacticos have seen to that. From Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo to Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé, the city is used to greatness trotting out at the Bernabéu and doing the impossible on command.
So why, in a place where 75,000 Madridistas recently roared Mbappé’s effortless volley to make it 3-0 against Malaga inside half an hour, would anyone think to invite in another global circus?
Because Formula 1 doesn’t back away from crowded stages. It walks straight into them.
A football citadel opens the door
Spain has not celebrated a Formula 1 world champion since Fernando Alonso two decades ago. Madrid has not staged a grand prix since 1981. In a country where the national sport is a religion and Real Madrid are its cathedral, the idea of elbowing in a race weekend sounds fanciful.
Yet this weekend, the city will find out whether its obsession has room for a second act.
Around the gleaming, reimagined Bernabéu – a steel spaceship dropped into the heart of the capital without losing the menace of its steep, theatrical terraces – the mood is not hostile. It’s curious.
“Yes, [the F1 race] is good for Madrid,” says one fan, standing in the shadow of the stadium. “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.”
Another supporter, who has chased F1 to Barcelona and Spa, welcomes the idea but with a veteran’s caution. “We’ve always been dreaming of having something [from F1] closer to home. Having it back is great… 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.”
In a city that already knows how to stage a masterpiece – the Prado can attest to that – this is a new canvas.
From Palacios to paddocks
At street level, Madrid hums with a softer rhythm. Crossing signals chirp like birds. Mexican conifers lean over the traffic, framing elegant Palacios-style facades. It’s beautiful, but its flat, gridded centre was never going to lend itself naturally to a world championship street race.
So the planners looked elsewhere. Away from the flamenco boutiques and wine bars of Salamanca, they chose an area that, to the untrained eye, feels unloved: the Ifema expo zone by the airport, run by the quasi-state organisation of the same name.
“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 [about its viability]?’ After one morning [here] I said: ‘It’s possible.’”
The choice makes sense. Madrid is compact, its public transport sharp and reliable. Organisers have sliced away many car parks and are urging fans to leave their own vehicles at home. The everyday supporter will filter in by metro and bus.
The stars will not. Patrick Dempsey, Rafael Nadal, Mbappé and their ilk will glide into VIP compounds beside a vast, six-strong paddock complex, far from the platforms of Avenida de America.
However they arrive, they will walk into something F1 has not quite seen before.
Monumental by name, and by intent
“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.”
Monumental is the corner everyone is talking about. A 26-degree banked sweep, longer than the famed banking at Zandvoort, carving through what will feel like a temporary town on race day. Above it, a VIP structure sits like a fortress on a hill, a perch fit for the King of Spain and his family.
It is steep enough to make the climb a slog, and in 44C heat, sitting on it is out of the question. It is not meant to be comfortable. It is meant to be unforgettable.
“Luis wanted to think of something recognisable in our circuit. Something iconic,” says Carlos Jimenez, operations director for Ifema.
The banking is only one piece of a complex puzzle. Organisers pitch the layout as a sustainable model: race power drawn from renewable energy, partial use of existing buildings. Yet the numbers reveal the scale – 65m euros spent on additional construction, 85m euros on the track itself.
“There were a lot of challenges,” Jimenez 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, hemmed in by concrete and catch fencing. Stand on it and the walls feel close, claustrophobic. You don’t need a timing screen to imagine how hard overtaking will be.
“From a driver’s point of view it’s quite a harsh circuit,” says Abad, almost relishing the description. “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.”
Some of those gladiators of the future have already tested Madring in Formula 3 machinery. They came back wide-eyed.
“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 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.”
Old-school is a loaded word in modern F1. It hints at jeopardy, at punishment for mistakes, at circuits that ask questions rather than simply showcase machinery. Madring, with its blind crests, tight walls and that towering banked corner, seems determined to join that club.
Does F1 need Madrid – or Madrid need F1?
Strip away the banking, the VIP decks, the renewable energy story, and one question remains: who stands to gain more?
Abad is clear. “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.”
F1 has chased new markets in recent years, from the neon glare of Las Vegas to the marina gloss of Miami. It has boomed in territories far from its European roots. Yet here it is, back in Spain’s capital, daring to share the stage with the most decorated football club on earth.
Madrid knows how to host a big night. It knows how to turn sport into theatre, how to make a stadium feel like a pressure cooker and a gallery at the same time. This weekend, the engines will try to match the decibels of the Bernabéu.
If the Madrileños embrace it with the same fervour they reserve for their football, the unicorn Abad once imagined won’t just be visible. It will be charging straight down the main straight, with the whole city running alongside it.
