Stakeholders behind Formula 1’s new race in Madrid have fired the starting gun on construction of a new circuit that aims to provide a multi-purpose facility for the Spanish capital.
A ceremony today (Friday) saw the presentation of what has been named the Madring circuit, with the foundation stone being laid for the development. Today’s event came after Formula 1 announced in January 2024 that Madrid would join the calendar in 2026, with the race to take place on a circuit that will incorporate both street and non-street sections.
F1’s 10-year deal with IFEMA Madrid will see the Spanish Grand Prix take place in the capital until 2035. The 5.4km circuit will be built around the IFEMA exhibition centre and will feature 22 corners.
Madrid last staged the Spanish Grand Prix in 1981, when the Circuito del Jarama racetrack played host. The new track will be split across two primary zones, with the first spanning IFEMA’s existing Recinto Ferial site and the second running through the Valdebebas northern expansion area, which will eventually be served by a new subway line.
The plans detailed today came complete with a video illustrating how a lap of the new circuit will appear. Some 57 laps will be raced on a fast, technical layout with highly complex sections, on a circuit that will be 12 metres wide, except for the main straight and the first corner, which are 15 metres wide.
The showpiece element of the new circuit appears to be the ‘Monumental’ section incorporating a 540-metre banked turn. Madrid officials are positioning the new facility as setting a new benchmark for urban circuit development, with the grand prix touted as the first to be held in the heart of a major European capital.
The development will involve more than 200,000 square metres of covered pavilions, 10,000 square metres of multi-purpose meeting spaces, and 10,000 parking spaces that are intended to cater for a range of events. Furthermore, it will be a carbon-neutral grand prix, aligned with sustainability policies, while officials have pledged Madring will be the best-connected circuit by public transport in F1.
Today’s event was attended by the likes of Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida; Isabel Díaz Ayuso, President of the Comunidad de Madrid; and Carlos Sainz. Born in Madrid, Sainz, who now races for Williams having left Ferrari at the end of last season, has been named an official ambassador of the Madring.
Almeida said the event represents a “commitment to the future” that responds to “the vocation and ambition of the people of Madrid to continue moving forward, to excel, and to make Madrid a better city every day”. He added that the F1 deal is an indication that “in this city, the best is yet to come”.
Madrid’s grand prix is projected to generate annual revenue exceeding €450m (£384.3m/$511.8m) and create more than 8,200 jobs. The F1 project is being entirely privately funded, with IFEMA Madrid in December selecting Match Hospitality to operate the hospitality programme through a €400m deal.
With Madrid City Council granting a construction licence for the project yesterday, work is expected to begin in earnest on Monday. Earlier this month, IFEMA Madrid awarded the construction contract for Madring to a joint venture formed by ACCIONA (60%) and Eiffage Construcción (40%).
The project, with a base tender budget of €111m, was awarded to the joint venture for €83.2m. The two companies will have to deliver to a tight deadline, with completion expected by May 2026.
Ayuso added today: “From the Comunidad de Madrid, we are going to throw ourselves heart and soul into it. We are going to do this with the City Council, with the promoters, and all the key players, to make it a success and also to show the world what a thriving society is capable of when it thinks big and walks freely, as happens in Madrid.”
