The promoters of the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix have revealed the first official video simulation of the track which will host the race.
Construction work is due to begin this month on the Madring, a semi-permanent track running around the Ifema event venue in the north-east of the Spanish capital.
Although the track will use some public roads, the majority of its near-five-and-a-half kilometre length will be purpose-built track.
This includes the track’s distinctive ‘Valdebebas’ corner, a high-speed right-hander which forms turn 10. The video indicates this corner will be steeply banked, similar to Zandvoort’s Hugenholzbocht and Luyendykbocht. However Valdebebas appears to involve higher cornering speeds sustained for a longer time than those two corners, which will inevitably place the cars’ tyres under considerable strain.
The video reveals other details of the expected elevation changes at the track. Turn five, which cars will approach at high speeds after around 14 seconds of flat-out acceleration, is slightly blind and dips as the track passes beneath the M11 motorway.
After negotiating Valdebebas, drivers will arrive at high speed again for turn 11, which has a correspondingly wide run-off area. Another pair of quick corners brings the drivers to a sharp right-hander, after which they pass beneath the motorway again.
One point of note for F1 strategists is that the current pit lane design joins the track after the turn one-two chicane, similarly to the configuration seen at Jeddah. This should reduce the amount of time drivers lose making a pit stop, which can encourage teams to attempt more multi-stop strategies.
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But precisely what kind of racing the track generates will be heavily influenced by the performance characteristics of the cars built to the new power unit and chassis rules for the 2026 F1 season.
Construction work on the circuit is due to be completed by May next year. The venue has a 10-year deal to host the Spanish Grand Prix from next season.
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