Madrid's Madring wows fans on debut but drivers demand changes after 'boring' Spanish GP
Madrid's new 'Madring' makes a dramatic entrance
In Madrid's Puerta del Sol this week, Formula One fans were not shy in calling on the gods to look kindly on their favoured drivers on a newly built circuit that appears punishingly unforgiving. Legend has it that rubbing the paws or backside of the bear in the famous El Oso y el Madroño statue at the square's heart confers good luck. The drivers may well need it.
The Madring, as the new home of the Spanish Grand Prix is known, is billed as a street circuit but is in fact a hybrid of public roads and purpose-built track. Narrow, with fast corners and walls looming for much of the lap, there is virtually no margin for error. The circuit sits around the Institución Ferial de Madrid (Ifema) convention centre area between the city centre and the airport — exactly the kind of "destination race" Formula One has pursued in recent years.
A brutal test from the outset
Day one of action began in alarming fashion when F2's Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak careered into the barriers, his car catching fire. George Russell, watching from the Mercedes motorhome, was left shocked. "Oh wow," he said. "This circuit is mental."
Russell, who had previously described the Madring as the "most risky" on the calendar, argued it offered even less margin than Monaco. "I would put this as a circuit that has less margin, purely because of the speed," he said. "In Monaco the walls are closer but because you're going slower – if you make a mistake you're not into the wall as quickly, and you can recover it sometimes. It's more lock-up. Here, there's less margin."
The issue, Russell explained, is that the fast corners are combined with the angles of the barriers on exit. "You see at this barrier, it's kind of like coming back on to the track," he said. "So if you are to go wide and hit the wall, you're not hitting it at the same angle as the car is going. The car is going towards the wall but the wall is sort of coming in."
When F3 held a test here recently, there were 19 red flags and three cars suffered broken chassis. "They're Formula 3 drivers, but it's a track that kills cars," said Williams team principal James Vowles. Russell said he was surprised it was only 19 red flags. Lewis Hamilton echoed the concern: "It's a massively challenging circuit. Of all the new tracks I've gone to, this one, maybe Saudi, are the two closest in terms of how difficult it was to get on top of the car and find the right lines."
In the second practice session, Arvid Lindblad came a cropper, losing the rear of his Racing Bulls car in turn 13 and slewing sideways into the barriers in another heavy impact, though he emerged unhurt.
Spectacle delivered, but questions over racing
Despite the fears, the sense of spectacle was delivered. The signature corner, La Monumental, is a 550m stretch of 13.5-degree banking through which cars accelerate to great effect, compressing into the track amid an amphitheatre of grandstands before heading over a blind crest and barrelling downwards. Turn eight – "El Bunker" – is named for La Mata Espesa, two bunkers built in 1936 by Republican forces during the Spanish civil war, whose preservation was a condition of the track being built.
Kimi Antonelli topped the timing sheets on his way to victory in the race, leading Russell by 66 points in the world championship, with Charles Leclerc and Hamilton following in practice. But the racing itself drew heavy criticism.
Drivers demand change after 'boring' race
After the inaugural race, drivers lined up to criticise the lack of overtaking. Williams' Alex Albon claimed the race was "pretty boring" and Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto said he "almost fell asleep". Race winner Antonelli admitted: "It definitely doesn't create overtaking opportunities and it doesn't push you to try and make a move because 80% of the time you might have a contact. There are some corners that need to be changed to create more overtaking opportunities because right now, yes, it's nice over one lap, but for sure in the race you're just stuck behind."
World champion Lando Norris, denied victory for McLaren by the unfortunate timing of a virtual safety car, was blunter: "There are some obvious changes they should make. They should get rid of [Turns] 18, 19 - useless. Just have more of a straight into a hairpin. I don't know how someone looks at this design and goes, 'mint'. There's a lot of opportunity. They can make it into a track that's good for racing, and I'm excited to come back here next year if they can make these changes because I think it's a track that is good fun to drive and it can be a great racetrack." Norris had earlier said one section was "useless" and it was "not a great racetrack".
Max Verstappen had pinpointed the problem before the race: the main braking zones such as turns five, eight and 17 are angled, making passing all but impossible with drivers simply putting their car in the middle of the track. "You can't really go for an overtake because you're braking but you're steering either right or left, which is the worst thing you can do for creating an overtaking opportunity," he said. The four-time world champion warned this would put huge emphasis on qualifying and raised the spectre of a procession on Sunday, potentially only interrupted by what many considered inevitable red-flag stoppages.
Praise for the event, and promises of change
Team bosses were more generous. Ferrari's Frederic Vasseur said: "First, I have to say that we can discuss about overtaking, but overall, for me, the event was mega. The infrastructure, we were mega welcome in the city. We have also to be fair with them and to congratulate Madrid for the job done on this side. They are keen to do modifications in the future. They have probably more latitude in Madrid than in Monaco to change something."
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "For a first [race], it's probably one of the best, or maybe the best, that I've seen so far. It's a temporary circuit. They've built something that is challenging for the drivers. A mini Macau or a mini Monaco. The location is good." Wolff added that organisers were "totally open-minded about next year" and had discussed with the FIA how to lay the track out to improve overtaking.
Madring managing director Luis Garcia Abad, the former manager of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, said: "The FIA defined clearly which is the way to improve the track layout, and we will be open because we will have to reinstall the track for the next year. I really believe that the drivers enjoyed qualifying a lot. But for sure we will try to make an improvement for next year. We have the space, we have a venue, we have the facilities, we have the capacity to do it."
Fans, however, also criticised access and facilities on social media, including having to sit on earth trackside, poor visibility and broken facilities — a reminder of how tight the build schedule was and the objections over cost, construction and noise that the project faced. But for a circuit that many doubted would be ready at all, delivering a grand prix is, as one observer noted, no little feat.