Meet the Madring: Formula 1's Answer to a Racing City Break

A first look at the brand new Spanish Grand Prix ahead of its September debut.

This September, Formula 1 will race in Madrid for the first time since 1981. That last race ran at Jarama, a circuit 16 kilometres north of the Spanish city; getting there meant a drive out for a day that began and ended with the racing.

Since Liberty Media entered F1 in 2017, it has reshaped the sport for the experiences that surround a race, turning a Grand Prix into a week-long carnival of activations, concerts, and parties.

The venues built hardest around that model, such as Miami, Las Vegas, and Jeddah, now run close to Super Bowl scale. The Madring, the new home of the Spanish Grand Prix, is the fullest expression of that yet in Europe.

Just months out from its debut this September, the Madring is still in construction. But it’s already clear to see just how strongly Madrid plans to attract F1 fans at every level.

Digital rendering of the final track.

The Track

For all of the fanfare, a Grand Prix still rests on the racing. And on first evidence, the Madring delivers a track worth watching. Running 5.4 kilometres, 22 turns, and 57 laps around the IFEMA convention centre on the city’s northern edge, a driver’s lap will weave around the exhibition halls and over a motorway bridge, cresting a blind rise where they’ll brake without sight of the corner below, down the long run to Turn 5, where the cars will reach 340kph before braking hard to 80kph for the chicane, the clearest overtaking chance across the lap.