F1 fans all say the same thing after Madrid Grand Prix track is revealed

Formula 1 fans have been treated to a first look at what next year’s Madrid Grand Prix will look like – and they’re not impressed.

At the beginning of last year, F1 announced that an all-new street circuit in the heart of Spain’s capital city would be joining the calendar in 2026.

The Madring will replace the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the home of the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991.

The official layout of the track was unveiled last year and as construction of the venue begins, a simulated lap of what racing at the Madring will look like has been released.

But while Catalunya has never been the most popular of circuits, based on the first reactions to the footage, it seems the Madring has its work cut out to win over motorsport fans.

‘Safety cars galore. Not much overtaking opportunities,’ Nicolas Braun posted on Twitter.

‘Instead of Mad-Ring they should have named it Bo-Ring,’ Victor Gomez jested, while another wrote: ‘Looks fun… for qualifying. For the race I don’t see a single obvious overtaking corner or section.’

Another fan mused: ‘Even if the cars are getting slightly narrower next year, the tracks too skinny. We don’t need another Japan. We need tracks that have wider corners for better overtaking.’

‘It’s terrible, no soul. Sochi vibes,’ Cesar said. ‘The banked corner, it makes absolutely no sense anymore, as it is preceded by a slow corner, cars will not have time to build speed.’

The increasing number of street circuits on the F1 calendar, at the expense of classic tracks, has long been a contentious subject for fans, with the additions of Jeddah and Miami splitting opinion, though Baku and Las Vegas have been more warmly received.

Some reactors to the footage were also baffled as to why the track itself was a red colour and why the simulated car nearly crashed during a twisty part of the circuit.

‘What they will use as surface? Clay from Madrid Tennis Masters?’ one fan questioned, while Matt wrote: ‘For a second I really thought they were going to spin out during the track demo.’

Not all reaction was negative, with one fan saying: ‘This track looks greatly fun to drive,’ while another stated: ‘The main issue is the size of the cars, not the tracks. Cars are excessively large nowadays.’

One person who is a supporter of the Madring is Williams driver Carlos Sainz, with the Madrid native announced as an ambassador of the new grand prix.

‘The drivers have asked me about the circuit, the corners, the layout… I’ve told them not to worry, that I’m going to try to help as much as possible to make the circuit a good show,’ the former Ferrari man said.

‘What I ask of an F1 circuit as a driver is that it has charisma and character, that it has a lot of corners that make it different. There are circuits like Baku, which has no major corners beyond the castle section, but it has character, because it’s very long straights, there’s a lot of overtaking, it’s spectacular.

‘And what I ask of Madring and what we are achieving is that it has that character between being a hybrid circuit, with an urban area with the walls very close and then that more open part, more like a traditional European circuit, which is what we drivers like the most.

‘The final part, the banked corners and fast corner sequences… it’s more what we like and what we see at the traditional European circuits. And this circuit has both, it has the open area and the more closed area of the walls.’

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