Madrid · R14
R14 · 11–13 September
Speed, gears, throttle and brake around the whole lap – once you sign in with the bot. It’s free.
Sign in with the botOn 23 January 2024 Formula 1 announced that from 2026 the Spanish Grand Prix would move to Madrid, under a contract with the city covering ten seasons, up to 2035. The track was to be built around the IFEMA exhibition centre in the north-east of the city, near Barajas airport.
The project was named Madring. It is a hybrid circuit: part of the lap uses ordinary roads in the exhibition centre and the surrounding district, and part was purpose-built. The capital region returns to the calendar for the first time since 1981, when Jarama, north of Madrid, hosted its last Spanish Grand Prix.
The lap is 5.416 km long, with twenty-two corners. The main straight and the pits are by the IFEMA pavilions, and the lap’s signature is Turn 12, La Monumental: an arc about half a kilometre long, banked at 24 per cent — the longest banked corner on the championship calendar.
Like Miami, it is a hybrid track: part of the lap runs on ordinary roads and part was purpose-built, and the venue can be reached by metro and suburban trains — something the organisers have made a point of since the announcement. The track’s racing history is only just beginning: the first Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid is the 2026 race.
The first World Championship Spanish Grand Prix was held in 1951 on the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona. From 1968 to 1981 the race was hosted by Jarama near Madrid and Montjuïc in Barcelona, from 1986 to 1990 by Jerez, and from 1991 to 2025 by the circuit in Catalunya.
Jarama hosted nine championship rounds; the last, on 21 June 1981, was won by Gilles Villeneuve, who held off four faster cars for the entire second half of the race. Catalunya stays on the 2026 calendar as the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
The 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid is the fourteenth round of the season, with the race on 13 September, a week after Monza. The season runs under the new rules: new power units with about half of their power coming from electricity, active aerodynamics and eleven teams — Cadillac joins the championship, and Sauber is taken over by Audi.