Why F1's new Madrid track is a 'car killer'

Formula 1’s new Spanish Grand Prix venue has been described as a “car killer”.

The first-ever race at the brand-new Madring circuit will take place this weekend, but only now are F1 drivers starting to realise what a huge challenge the circuit is going to be.

It’s been described as a mix of Monaco, Macau and Jeddah by those who have already driven it.

It’s an old-school circuit with proper character and corners that have the potential to be instant classics. But there are fears about what kind of race it will produce and how brutal it could be for the cars and drivers.

Having explored the circuit during its construction in June, we’ve since dug more into exactly what kind of challenge the track will present and what we can expect this weekend.

The biggest indicator of that was the two-day Formula 3 test held there a couple of weeks ago.

“In the Formula 3 test there were 19 red flags and three broken chassis, broken suspensions…OK, they’re Formula 3 drivers, but it’s a track that kills cars,” Williams F1 team principal James Vowles told Spanish outlet Sport.

The Race understands some F3 teams were less than impressed by having to test there, because the damaged parts list was very long.

But that F3 test was highly valuable as a pilot episode for F1’s Madrid event, one requested by the circuit organiser to try to avoid the kind of issues that plagued Las Vegas’s debut when errant drain covers disrupted practice, wrecked Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and infuriated team principal Fred Vasseur.

The chaotic F3 test has also acted as a warning sign for F1 teams and drivers about how much of a challenge it will be.

Ferrari conducted an F1 filming day there back in July, but that was on a much rougher version of the circuit, so the F3 running was the first proper test for the venue.

What’s worrying F1 teams and drivers is that the 19 red flags in F3 were scattered throughout the circuit (see below). It means there isn’t just one danger zone to navigate, as there are so many places where you can come unstuck and find yourself with a hefty repair bill.

With many teams working out their remaining development budget within the 2026 cost cap, the last thing they’ll want is a wrecked car.

The danger zones

We spoke to several F3 drivers and teams to find out why the Madring is so challenging in so many different ways and why there were so many red flags.

Asked why it’s so challenging, Audi-backed F3 championship leader Freddie Slater told The Race: “Because the corners that are there, they're so tight and they're not forgiving and also the walls come at you on the exit of the corners. They don't go away from you like most tracks.

“You're always coming out of the corner and trying to drive away from it instead of maximising, so it's a very tricky track to get in the rhythm of things.

“You have to push otherwise you're slow. So I think that's why it creates so many crashes because if you don't push you're just not on the limit.

“But honestly it's probably one of the best tracks on the calendar in my opinion, just because it's got that old-school feeling to it. Kind of like some of the old-school UK tracks, Macau, places like that. So I'm really excited to have the [F3 championship] finale there.”

The Madring lap starts with a slow-speed chicane akin to Jeddah’s, followed by a flat-out blast through Turns 3 and 4, which builds up into the first real danger zone - the second chicane.

It’s a high-speed chicane where the wall certainly comes at you on the exit, and it was the site of many a crumpled F3 car in the test.

“That's where there's so much laptime because there's uphill section after that, so there's so much laptime to gain going uphill,” Slater said.

“That's why I see a lot of people risking obviously for maximum laptime but also it's probably the place where the most crashes are.

“Also the kerbs are not very forgiving so you have to get it correct otherwise, you're going to end up crashing.”

It’s essentially an even harder version of the now-removed triple-apex Singapore Sling where the trajectory is 'head-first into the wall if you get it slightly wrong'. It’s not anything like some of the laps in the virtual world make it look where you’re able to effortlessly skip over the kerbs.

And the entry to the chicane is one of only two straight mode zones on the circuit, so drivers will be arriving at around 340km/h (211mph). It’s certainly not the kind of place you’d want a straight mode failure like those on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull earlier this year.

Negotiate that wall and you drive beneath the underpass and start climbing uphill through another tricky session that also claimed many an F3 car as a victim.

The standout feature of the circuit is the banked La Monumental corner but actually the corners just before it caught out just as many F3 drivers in the test.

There’s a tight chicane followed by a quick right/left in quick succession at Turns 10 and 11 that’s very easy to get wrong.

That then propels you into La Monumental, a 24% banked corner that dwarfs the challenge of Zandvoort’s banked turns.

Pirelli’s chief engineer Simone Berra labelled it “the most severe turn” in the championship and when The Race asked him how it compared to Zandvoort’s banking, Berra said La Monumental places 20 to 30% higher energy on the tyres.

Plus it has a completely blind exit and it’s grip-limited rather than power-limited like Zandvoort’s banked corner is, i.e. it’s a huge strain on the tyres and cars to give the drivers the grip they need.

F3 drivers were trying lots of different lines during the test and expect F1 drivers to do the same on Friday.

"It feels like I'm in an IndyCar [on an oval]," Slater told The Race.

"So yeah, it's pretty cool. It's just about flat, probably, in a Formula 3 car. I think it's going to be a little bit more difficult in your Formula 2 and maybe even Formula 1.

"But it's quite difficult to get the right line because obviously where the crest is, the bottoming can get quite bad. It looks an easy corner when you look at it but actually to drive it, it's quite a difficult corner to get the rhythm."

La Monumental only marks the halfway point in the lap and there are plenty more challenging corners after that, like the tight Turn 17 right-hander.

There’s very little breathing room around the lap and going conservative doesn’t work either.

Monza F3 sprint race winner Taito Kato explained: “If you want to gain laptime, you have to push until you’re close to the wall, so it’s risky but fun to drive.”

Is it dangerous?

F1 drivers were swapping first impressions of Madrid on the drivers’ parade at Monza, with Sainz revealing “everyone seemed quite shocked by the track that Madrid has come up with”.

Sainz, who is an ambassador for this grand prix, explained he meant shocked in terms of F1 adding a track that has actual character, as opposed to some of the blander street tracks that have joined the calendar in recent years.

And while he acknowledges it’s been an F3 car killer, it remains to be seen whether it will be an F1 car killer.

Sainz did also say “we are all expecting safety cars, red flags and yellow flags in qualifying”.

Audi F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto said: “It looks like a very interesting track, dangerous track, but at the same time very challenging and it's nice to race in a new track like that.”

Asked if it was dangerous, Sergio Perez pointed out: “I don't think it's any more dangerous than Jeddah, to be honest”.

Of course, Jeddah has sometimes been a car-killer too, with big accidents like Mick Schumacher’s huge qualifying crash in 2022 that meant he couldn’t race his Haas the next day.

So “not any more dangerous” still leaves an awful lot of room for it to be really brutal on the cars.

With a high risk factor, there is hope that drivers will be able to make a difference, plus the layout is very technical and there are so many low-speed corners.

Arvid Lindblad labelled it "a real drivers’ track” and there’s predictions of an edge-of-the-seat qualifying with razor-thin margins and the potential for a Monza-like surprise.

But it’s those same reasons that are leading to fears about the Sunday product.

Race day fears

So expect a nail-biting qualifying in Madrid, but there are concerns the grand prix could be something of a procession.

With such tight corners, very few straights and a lack of heavy braking zones, there are not many obvious overtaking opportunities.

There’s plenty of recharge opportunities around the lap so you’d expect a more traditional F1 race like Hungary than the overtaking bonanzas of Monza, Silverstone or Spa.

Alex Albon even joked, “I don’t think there’s going to be any overtaking. I hope you guys got your fix in [Monza] and ignore next weekend.”

Of course, chaos could liven up the race if there are safety car or red flag interventions.

But there’s also the element of F2 and F3 racing there this weekend too, having five races between them before F1’s grand prix. F3 is holding its title-decider too, so there’s an added element of this being the last chance for that grid to impress future employers.

Remember 10 years ago for F1’s first race in Baku, F2 predecessor GP2 had probably its craziest round ever before the F1 grand prix, with 17 retirements across the two races because of accidents.

The F1 drivers at the time were consequently cautious in their race and it turned out to be a dull debut, with the predicted Baku F1 chaos coming in subsequent years instead.

“The grand prix was boring, right? Yeah, I remember. I was there in 2016 in Baku and I think F1 drivers, we tend to be a bit more disciplined in these things,” Sainz said.

“We obviously have bigger responsibilities in the fact that we represent a thousand people at the factory building those cars and we need to be a bit more careful with the material.

“We know we have also sometimes parts constraints and we have more experience also, so we also drive faster cars, which normally if anything is easier to crash.

“But yeah, we tend to have a bit more discipline with that.

“Also from a safety and circuit recommendation perspective, I think even by watching an FP1 live, we could almost sometimes text the race director and say this kerb there doesn't make sense, it's going to generate a crash or a bad moment.

“We can help the race director and the FIA learn through the weekend with us as we observe the same kind of patterns.”

It does feel almost inevitable somebody will be caught out this weekend. And there aren’t many places around here where you can get it wrong and emerge unscathed.

Whichever way it goes, Sainz has urged his fellow drivers not to be too quick to judge the circuit’s merits, calling for a “good debrief” after the race of what can be improved in the future.

Sainz said F1 does “need to see if it’s [producing] a bit too much” chaos and he expects there will be things that “go greatly, and other things that don’t go as well”.

He pointed out Miami had what he called a “bit of a disaster” of a debut in 2022 before turning into a “great grand prix”, so he wants that same patience for Madrid.

But with so many cities vying for grands prix now, Madrid will want to make an immediate impact to justify its place on the calendar, even if it does have a 10-year contract.

Its car-killing traits and old-school characteristics should make for a thrilling qualifying session. The main question is whether the racing spectacle can live up to that on Sunday.