(Motorsport-Total.com) – The Formula 1 debut of the Madring is getting closer. On the weekend from September 11 to 13, the premier class will visit the new track in the Spanish capital Madrid for the first time. Carlos Sainz was allowed to test the circuit for the first time.
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Although the track is not yet fully completed, everything is going according to plan, and it is expected that the deadlines will be met so that everything is ready in time for the FIA inspection on May 31.
After the asphalt was laid, the Spanish Williams driver got into a sports car cockpit to drive on the 5.4-kilometer course with its 22 corners.
The track surprised Sainz. According to him, it is “faster than it looks,” thanks to its fast, flowing corners, hard braking points, blind sections, and especially “La Monumental,” which Sainz describes as “from Madrid to the sky.”
As expected, the Spaniard started his first lap on the Madring on the start-finish straight before reaching Turn 1, which he sees as a clear “overtaking spot” where “you have to work a bit with the car.”
Afterwards, he liked the one-kilometer straight where drivers can reach more than 320 km/h. At the same time, he warned: “You have to be very strategic about how you use the battery in Turn 1 and Turn 4 to overtake.”
The tunnel section and the subsequent climb (Turns 6 and 7) feel very good to Sainz before reaching Turn 8, which will be completely blind. Immediately after follows a chicane as well as “significantly faster corners where we can go full throttle in the Formula 1 car.”
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It is a section where Sainz also highlighted the track width, which will allow wheel-to-wheel duels. The highlight comes at Turn 12 (“La Monumental”): “We will go full throttle there, even if we might have to lift slightly in the middle so that the front axle grips.”
“That impressed me the most: the elevation change in the middle of ‘La Monumental,’ and you come out completely blind. You only see the sky. From Madrid to the sky,” he reports.
Renderings of the Madring: Spain’s new Formula 1 track
His experience with the GT car in “La Monumental” even exceeded his expectations: “I thought ‘La Monumental’ was just banking, but suddenly it is not only banked but also blind. A good mix of everything.”
Upon reaching Turn 13, the Madrid-born driver indicated that he expects another “overtaking spot” there before a series of fast corners that remind him “of Spa and Silverstone.”
After another small tunnel, there is a combination of corners with “a wall that could surprise us all” at Turn 20. Then it goes into two slow corners and back onto the start-finish straight, which will also be “an important overtaking spot.”
This first lap of a Formula 1 driver on the Madring marks another milestone for the Spanish capital, which returns to the Formula 1 calendar in 2026 after 45 years of absence.
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