Madring

• Madring is a 5.416km, 22-corner semi-street circuit in Madrid built around the IFEMA exhibition centre and the Valdebebas district, hosting the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix from 2026 through 2035.
• It brings F1 back to Madrid for the first time since 1981, and takes the Spanish Grand Prix name outright, Barcelona-Catalunya keeps its own race but now runs under its own name in rotation with Spa-Francorchamps from 2028.
• The signature corner is La Monumental, a 547.82m banked sweep taken at 24 percent banking in front of roughly 45,000 spectators, a corner Carlos Sainz described as “not only banked, it’s also blind. You’ve created quite a cocktail.”

Formula 1 hasn’t raced in the Spanish capital since 1981, when the sport last visited the Jarama circuit. That changes on 11-13 September 2026, when Madring hosts the Spanish Grand Prix for the first time. It’s a big shift for a calendar that has run the Spanish GP at Barcelona-Catalunya since 1991, and it comes with a genuinely distinctive circuit: part permanent racetrack, part public road, built around Madrid’s IFEMA exhibition centre and the Valdebebas district just past the airport.

Why Is F1 Racing in Madrid Now?

Madrid’s regional government, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, pursued the race for years before landing it, reportedly offering close to €48 million a year in hosting fees, nearly double what Barcelona had been paying. Construction ran to around €83.2 million, with hospitality operator Match Hospitality separately committing roughly €400 million over the ten-year deal for VIP facilities. The project wasn’t without local pushback, Madrid’s opposition politicians questioned the wisdom of the spend, and projections from Deloitte suggesting €450 million a year in visitor spending were met with scepticism by critics. None of that stopped the deal: MADRING signed on for ten years of the Spanish Grand Prix, through 2035.

It’s worth being precise about what actually happened to Barcelona. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya didn’t lose its race entirely, it lost the Spanish Grand Prix name and, for now, its yearly slot. Barcelona-Catalunya ran its own Grand Prix under its own name in June 2026, and returns to the calendar from 2028 in rotation with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Madrid holds the Spanish Grand Prix title every year from 2026 to 2035. In short, Spain had two Grands Prix in 2026, just not both called the Spanish GP.

The track itself was designed by Jarno Zaffelli, whose past work includes Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps and Mugello, with the final layout coming from Studio Dromo, the firm behind Yas Marina and the Zandvoort and Spa renovations. The venue opened with a capacity of around 110,000, with room to grow to 140,000 within five years, putting it in the same bracket as Barcelona-Catalunya’s own 140,700 capacity.

In concept, Madring sits closer to Miami, Las Vegas and Yas Marina than to a traditional European road course: a semi-urban “show circuit” built to double as a downtown event as much as a racetrack, rather than a purpose-built facility out in the countryside. That’s part of why the layout mixes permanent racing surface with sections of closed public road, and why hospitality and fan experience were treated as core parts of the design brief rather than an afterthought.

How Long Is the Madring Circuit?

Madring runs 5.416km per lap across 22 corners, with an average lap time of around 1 minute 34 seconds and an FIA Grade 1 licence, the top tier required to host a Formula 1 round at all. Cars top out at 340km/h on the run into Turn 4, along Ribera del Sena, the same stretch that also carries the circuit’s longest straight at 837m. Braking loads are severe in several places, most notably into Turn 5, where cars go from that 340km/h peak down to just 80km/h in the space of a few hundred metres.

Every Corner at Madring, Explained

Turn 1 is the first major overtaking chance of the lap. Cars arrive at 320km/h off the 589m start-finish straight and brake down to 100km/h, with barely 200m between the start line and the corner itself, a 77.5-degree right-hander with only mild, 3 percent banking to help drivers hang on to the outside line.

Turn 2 is a slow right-hander at the circuit’s lowest elevation point, 671m above sea level, feeding into the fast Turn 3, Hortaleza, named for the nearby Madrid neighbourhood. Hortaleza is a fast right-hand sweeper, taken with slight negative banking, that launches cars onto Ribera del Sena and the circuit’s longest straight.

Turn 4 is taken flat out at the circuit’s top speed of 340km/h, opening out from 12m to 13m wide at the exit, before Turn 5 punishes that speed with heavy braking down to 80km/h, another clear overtaking zone.

Turns 6 and 7 make up the Subida de las Cárcavas, an 8 percent uphill climb along public roads that gains 10m in elevation and crests at Turn 7, a blind, near-90-degree corner and the highest point on the circuit at 697m. From there the track drops away on a 5 percent downhill gradient into Turn 8, El Búnker, named for its proximity to the Spanish Civil War-era fortifications at La Mata Espesa. El Búnker marks the entry into the fast, technical Valdebebas section of the lap.

Turn 9 is a high-speed right-hander opening that Valdebebas section, followed by Turns 10 and 11, La Chicane, a 57-degree right into a 78-degree left, the second corner banked the opposite way to the first, specifically designed to scrub enough speed for cars to take the next corner flat out.

That next corner is the lap’s centrepiece: Turn 12, La Monumental. At 547.82m long with 24 percent banking, it’s the longest corner on the calendar, named for its resemblance to a bullring. Around 45,000 spectators will watch cars sweep through it in roughly six seconds. Carlos Sainz, after driving the circuit, called it the most impressive part of the lap: “I thought La Monumental would just have banking, but suddenly it’s not only banked, it’s also blind. You’ve created quite a cocktail.” Sainz expects it will be taken flat out, though he noted drivers “might lift off a bit in the middle to get the front end to grip.”

Out of the banking, Turn 13 is another overtaking zone, with cars slowing from over 300km/h to 140km/h, a strong exit here counts for a lot heading into the next section, Las Enlazadas de Valdebebas. Turns 14, 15 and 16 make up that linked, flat-out sequence through the Valdebebas area, all three a consistent 12m wide, before Turn 17 brings the hardest braking of that stretch, down from 280km/h to 100km/h, and another passing opportunity.

Turn 18, Norte, is named for the nearby North Convention Centre and sits just past the tunnel connecting Valdebebas back to IFEMA. At 25m wide, it’s by far the widest corner on the circuit, and Secondary Hospitality guests will get prime views of the action here. Turn 19 is a fast left-hander alongside IFEMA’s exhibition Halls 14 and 12, reaching 260km/h.

Turn 20 is the slowest corner on the circuit, a tight 117.5-degree right-hander that follows heavy braking from 260km/h. It’s also one Sainz flagged as a genuine trap: the exterior wall there, he said, “could take us all by surprise.” Turns 21 and 22 close out the lap alongside Halls 14 and 12 respectively, a slow 71-degree right followed by Turn 22, El Parque, a 90-degree right named for the Parque Juan Carlos I backdrop, opening out to nearly 15m wide at the exit as it leads back onto the start-finish straight.

What Driving Madring Is Actually Like

Carlos Sainz has more first-hand experience of Madring than almost any other current driver. He completed the first-ever lap of the finished circuit in a 450bhp Ford Mustang GT road car ahead of the venue’s opening, giving F1 its earliest look at how the track would actually drive. Beyond La Monumental and Turn 20, he was particularly taken with the fast section beyond Turn 9, calling it a stretch “where we’ll enjoy a Formula 1 car at its absolute best.”

Sainz’s laps were promotional, not in a Formula 1 car. That distinction belongs to Charles Leclerc, who became the first driver to lap Madring in a current F1 car when Ferrari brought the SF-26 to the circuit for a filming day on 9 July 2026, run under F1’s usual filming-day restrictions on mileage and tyre compounds.

Getting to Madring

The circuit sits around IFEMA MADRID and Valdebebas, five minutes’ drive from Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport, and organisers expect roughly 90 percent of fans to arrive by public transport rather than by car, with parking around the venue described as limited.

Metro Line 8 (Nuevos Ministerios-Aeropuerto T4) runs directly to Feria de Madrid station with a south gate straight into IFEMA MADRID, and also connects to the airport. The Cercanías RENFE C1 line (Príncipe Pío-Aeropuerto T4) stops at Valdebebas, with connections further into the city and out to the airport. Bus services run to all three areas around the circuit, IFEMA MADRID, Valdebebas and Las Cárcavas, with extra services laid on for race weekends, and taxi ranks will be set up with signage around the venue. MADRING has also stated a priority on accessible circuit design, with dedicated accessibility information published for visitors who need it.

Tickets and Hospitality

General admission and grandstand tickets for the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix are sold through MADRING’s official channels, with grandstands positioned around the circuit’s key overtaking and viewing points, La Monumental among the most in-demand given the sightlines that corner offers. On the premium end, Match Hospitality’s roughly €400 million, ten-year investment in the venue points to a significant permanent VIP offering rather than temporary marquees, and corners like Turn 18, Norte, have been earmarked for Secondary Hospitality guests specifically. As with any inaugural Grand Prix, exact ticket pricing and category availability are best checked directly against MADRING’s official site closer to the event, since first-year demand for a new venue on the calendar tends to move quickly.

When Is the Madrid Grand Prix?

The inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at Madring runs 11-13 September 2026, supported by FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 races the same weekend. GR Cup Spain uses the circuit the month before, in August. Beyond the headline race, Madring is contracted to host the Spanish Grand Prix every year through 2035.

For how Madring stacks up against the rest of the current calendar, our full breakdown of every circuit on the 2026 F1 schedule covers layouts, lap records and key stats for each track in one place.

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