Formula 1 News: Series set to announce 2026 grand prix in Madrid

Europa Press is now reporting that Isabel Diaz Ayuso, president of the community of Madrid, and mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, is ready to make an official announcement for a Madrid F1 race.

“I believe that there is no administration or country that could reject such a project,” Ayuso is quoted as saying.

In her New Year speech, Ayuso added that “on January 23 there will be a big announcement”.

“There is so much that the Madrid brand and the Spain brand can contribute that I hope to see the two administrations make the announcement on that day.”

Mayor Almeida also commented: “I have space on the agenda reserved on the 23rd for very good news for Madrid related to sports.”

The Spanish sports newspaper Marca claims that F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali will also be present at the announcement event next Tuesday.

It is believed the initial Madrid GP contract will be for a full ten years, and could eventually replace Spain’s existing grand prix in Barcelona.

January 16, 2024

Multiple reports in Spain claim that a Madrid Grand Prix is edging ever closer, and an announcement over a race in the Spanish capital could come as early as next Tuesday, January 23rd.

AS reports that the announcement for the race could come as soon as next week, claiming a “long-term agreement” in place with Formula 1 to host a race on a semi-urban track that would see the sport take in some of the city’s landmarks.

December 11, 2023

Not so fast. An F1 race in downtown Madrid, Spain is nowhere near ready to be announced.

Speaking to selected media including Autosport, the FIA president of the Senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, who is also president of the Spanish automobile federation (Real Automóvil Club de España) said he would love to see F1 return to Madrid, but was clear that there were a lot of things to be sorted.

“There is a clear process to have a grand prix in a place, and I don’t think that the process is being followed based on what you read,” he said.

“The Spanish automobile federation is where the process starts, because whenever there is a new competition that wants to happen in a country, you have to go to them.

“So, have the Spanish Federation received as of today this project to be analyzed, studied and focused? No, they have not seen it. This special step has not happened yet.

“Then, when the Spanish federation consider that this project is a valid project and that they are interested, they channel it to where? To the FIA, because they have to homologate it. If they are talking about a semi-urban circuit, the first thing you have to do is to homologate it and certify, things like that.

“So, if the Spanish federation have not received anything, then therefore they have not sent anything to the FIA, so the FIA have not received anything. So, nobody [inside the FIA] has been working so far on this project that has been in the press in the last few days.”

It is only when the above steps with the FIA and its national sporting authority are complete then the door can be opened for the race to find its way onto the calendar.

“I’ve been reading also a lot about Madrid trying to steal from Barcelona, and trying to kill Montmelo or things like that…and definitely I think that the way it is being positioned is not correct,” he said.

“This has been probably influenced by the political situation we are living in, of Madrid versus Barcelona.

“Also, and I don’t know if this was announced, but we had some experience in the past, when we were trying to bring the 2030 Olympic Games to Madrid and due to leakage and due to not following processes, this has not happened.

“I hope that this is not the case [with the Madrid race] because I would love to have race in Madrid. But is it the only project that I’m aware of to have F1 in Madrid? No, I know of at least another two.”

December 5, 2023

It will soon be announced that Madrid will host an F1 race from 2026 onwards. The race around the IFEMA convention center will be for 10 years. The F1 calendar will grow to 25 races unless another race is axed.

(GMM) Formula 1 will have an early Christmas present for fans of the sport in Madrid.

This year, speculation has ramped up to fever pitch about a likely new street race in the Spanish capital – including news that F1 has registered the ‘Formula 1 Madrid Grand Prix’ trademarks.

It is believed F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and his MotoGP counterpart Carmelo Ezpeleta are even working on a plan to host both two and four-wheeled events on the same weekend.

And the Spanish digital newspaper Ok Diario now claims that Formula 1 is ready to make an announcement this week about the first Madrid GP in 2026.

The report said the street layout will center around the Ifema venue, located not far from the Ciudad Ral Madrid – the football club’s training complex in Valdebebas, near Barajas airport.

The new Madrid GP would – at least initially – apparently complement rather than replace the existing Spanish GP, held annually at the Circuit de Catalunya and with a contract through 2026 inclusively.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem confirmed recently that a race may be on the cards.

“It is a matter of meeting around a table and negotiating what is best for Formula 1, also on the commercial side,” he said.

“Can Spain have two races? I think so. We have to study the commercial part, but I am sure that Formula 1 will be doing that. And then it will work very well.”

July 14, 2023

(GMM) Organizers of a grand prix in Madrid claim they will soon be signing a race contract with Formula 1.

In recent months, rumors have ramped up about a potential rival bid for the existing Spanish GP in Barcelona.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of the project and everything,” Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz said, when asked about the proposed street circuit event.

“I just can say that I will do my maximum and just to ensure that there’s still a Spanish GP, independently of where,” the Spaniard added.

On Thursday, the president of Ifema, the entity in charge of the organization of major events in Madrid, claimed that a race deal is close.

“We have a confidentiality agreement and I cannot reveal when we are going to have the contract,” said Ifema president Jose Vicente de los Mozos.

“But I know when we are going to sign it and when we are going to announce it,” he added.

“I speak with Stefano Domenicali and there is mutual trust. We are going to do things together.”

As for whether a new event in Madrid would oust Barcelona from the calendar, de los Mozos answered: “If in the end there are two, as there was in the past, I’m delighted.

“But I speak and work for Madrid.”

July 13, 2023

Any potential move would not please seven-time drivers’ world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has previously said he’d like to keep the current track around.

“I don’t think I would want to lose Barcelona,” he said.

“I do think it’s really important we keep some of the classic circuits, at least the ones that provide great racing.”

However, Spaniard Fernando Alonso does not share the same view – saying he’d be happy to move on.

He said: “At the end of the day, it’s up to the region if they are happy to host the race or not.

“So if they don’t want the race, it is very easy then, because some other region will love to have it.”

July 13, 2023

This rumor is upgraded to very ‘strong’ today.

IFEMA says Madrid Grand Prix will happen in F1 The President of the Executive Committee of IFEMA comments on signing the contract with F1:

“I know when we are going to sign it and when we are going to do it” As per the Spanish version of Motorsport.

The Madrid F1 GP is expected to generate close to 500 million euros a year for the city, and the Ifema pavilions will be used to house the teams and make the event in Madrid “not a race, but a whole an experience, the best in Europe”.

Among these, more than 12 pavilions will be a part of the circuit, which will pass inside Ifema and then come out again.

Barcelona has a contract to host the Spanish GP through 2025, so it will be interesting to see whether Madrid takes over the Spanish GP starting in 2026.

June 21, 2023

(GMM) The mayor of Madrid says he is “optimistic” the Spanish capital will secure a Formula 1 race.

Although the Spanish GP at Barcelona has a contract until 2026, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali freely admits that there are now “two projects on the table” for the future beyond that.

“All I can say is that I will do my maximum to ensure that there’s still a Spanish GP, independently of where,” Spaniard Carlos Sainz said recently.

He also thinks it’s “not feasible” to expect that both Barcelona and Madrid can be present on an annual Formula 1 calendar.

“I don’t think that’s anyone’s intention, especially when you look at where they (F1) are going with the races and the new horizons they have in the States and everywhere.”

And so, at present, all the buzz around a grand prix in Madrid appears to have put Spain’s most populous city in pole position for the 2027 Spanish GP and beyond.

The city’s mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida admitted this week that the chances of a Madrid GP are “real”.

The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida

He said at Madrid’s Business Confederation meeting (CEIM) that it will be an “urban circuit” that is in the “vicinity” of the Ifema headquarters in north central Madrid.

“We have been working, through Ifema, over the last few months on this project, and we hope and trust that Madrid can have that grand prix,” Almeida said.

“We are optimistic,” he added. “We think we have certain and real possibilities that Formula 1 can come to Madrid,” the mayor added.

“Obviously, with respect to the residents of the adjoining neighborhoods, we are going to adopt all the measures that are necessary to minimize the inconvenience that may arise as a result of holding a Formula 1 race,” he said.

“Formula 1 is very important for Madrid, but the rest and tranquility of the neighborhood also has to count.”

The Ifema fairgrounds are located in the Corralejos neighborhood, in the Barajas district close to the international airport.

June 15, 2023

On F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Stefano Domenicali said Madrid’s earliest chance of joining the F1 calendar is 2027 because he does not think Spain can host two races in one year as it previously did.

“In that time the vision was not so big. We were still a European-centric calendar. Today we have a worldwide calendar approach with more races. I think that in Europe, even in the future, I am expecting to see races where the rotational principle could be applied. But not two in the same year [in the same country].”

“For sure it’s very important that the historical races have their own personality,” he said. “And I’m laughing when I hear people that are saying F1 is not respecting the historical races. It’s absolutely the other way around.

“What I have always said is that the word historic has great responsibility, but historic cannot be seen as an old and out of fashion place. This is not historical, it’s old. I think that what we want is to use this incredible moment where F1 is growing to make sure that everyone is doing the right thing, and that’s it.

“It’s a matter of understanding that the world is evolving. When you hear, and you maybe can be shocked, that a certain new generation of guys or people that are now in love with F1 do not have a clue who was the driver of five years ago, not [even] 55. And they don’t have a clue on a certain technical element of what we are doing. It would be wrong not to recognize it.

“I’m not saying they’re right. I’m saying that we need to understand what is the right balance of the [historic] things that we need to take in order to take the right decision for the future.

“So historical races will be always part of the calendar, but there is the need for some of them to recognize the step change that they have to do to, for example, work on the infrastructure.

“That is not changing the layout of the races. But the fans are coming more and more with their different needs and if you don’t give them what they deserve, it’s not any more historical, it’s an out of context place where we shouldn’t go.”

As an example he said the Belgian Grand Prix promoter had earned a contract extension by showing they were willing to adapt to F1’s changing needs.

“If you remember, there were two years ago when there was the discussion of Belgium [being off] the calendar. And the result was Belgium is on the calendar. But they reacted very well.

“They invested in infrastructure that is related to the best experiences that we want to give to the fans. That’s the right thing that we want to see from the place where it has this historic approach, or historical approach in terms of being always there.”

June 8, 2023

It would seem that the chances of Madrid snatching the Spanish GP are far higher than we were recently led to believe.

Respected F1 journalist Joe Saward writes in his latest Green Notebook that “the latest suggestion about the future of the Spanish Grand Prix is that it will be moved to Madrid as quickly as possible to turn it into the biggest VIP event in Europe. This is not going to happen in Barcelona because VIPs tend not to be keen on visiting racing circuits surrounded by scrapyards, abattoirs and warehouses. And the traffic jams have not helped… This year the race drew a three-day crowd of 284,000, which is a decent score, but it is clear that the Barcelona circuit cannot handle more, whereas a city race in Madrid might top 400,000.

“The Madrid project is attractive and plans are far more advanced than people know, with a delegation of interested parties visiting the recent race in Miami. The track design is completed and work will start as soon as a contract is agreed.

“The circuit is around the IFEMA exhibition center and would use existing roads and infrastructure. However, there will be two tunnels to go out to, and return from, an area of land that will be developed specifically for the track.

“This would include a high-banked corner similar to the new Hugenholzbocht at Zandvoort and would also go into an event area which houses the huge MadCool music festival. There is public transportation in place and the development will be adjacent to a vast new forest area that has already been planted. Thus, the race has decent environmental credentials as well.

“Barcelona has a deal until 2026 but they may conclude that there is no point investing further in F1 if they are going to lose the race no matter what they do. There several bidders for the role of promoter, including Grupo CIE, a company which promotes the Mexican GP and is looking to expand to other events; Stephen Ross’s RSE Ventures, which is involved with the Miami Grand Prix and, so they say, LiveNation, which is owned by Liberty Media itself.”

June 3, 2023

Stefano Domenicali does not believe that Madrid and Barcelona can coexist on the calendar.

“It’s true that Madrid wants to host a Grand Prix. In the next… I don’t want to say months, we will make the right decision for the good of the sport.”

“I don’t think in the medium term, after 2026, we will be in that situation of having two races in Europe in the same country unless something changes, and it’s different.”

“I don’t want to rule out Madrid and Barcelona rotating on the calendar, but it’s not the focus of the discussion. You have to understand how the two projects want to evolve.”

May 17, 2023

(GMM) Reports that Madrid is gearing up to host Formula 1 in the future are more than unsubstantiated rumors.

That is the view of Alejandro Agag, boss of the all-electric series Formula E.

There is no doubt that plans are afoot for street circuit in the Spanish capital that hopes to secure a place on the calendar, but Agag thinks talks with Formula 1 are actually well advanced.

“I think Formula 1 is going to Madrid,” he told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

“The rumors I’m hearing are good, I think they’re doing very well,” he added. “I see it as very feasible.

“I can’t tell you if it’s done or not because I’m not Formula 1, but what I hear is that it’s going very well. So it looks like it,” said Agag.

The Spaniard’s knowledge of the situation could be because he is also in talks with Madrid, with Agag also admitting the chances of a Spanish round of Formula E in future are at “50-50”.

F1’s contract with current Spanish GP host Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, runs until 2026.

May 10, 2023

A Madrid Grand Prix at a street circuit in IFEMA is looking very likely by each day.

José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid said: “The negotiations on F1 and Madrid are going reasonably well.”

Almeida stressed that Formula One “It is a great event that has been negotiated for months by IFEMA.”

“It is one of the great events out there and cities are measured by their ability to attract great events.”

If it came to fruition, Madrid would once again host a Formula One World Championship race after more than 40 years of absence from the last one at the Jarama circuit. All indications are it would be a street race through the IFEMA fairgrounds. Source

March 26, 2023

It has come to light that the capital of Spain, Madrid, is looking at two options to host a Formula 1 race:

Upgrade Jarama to current FIA Level 1 standards. Jarama is 9 miles north of Madrid. The track opened in 1966, and hosted the Spanish Grand Prix a total of nine times, before it was decided that the track was too short (2.392 miles) and narrow for Formula 1, after the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix. It has a short main straight and most of the course consisted of tight, twisty corners so overtaking was extremely difficult.
Jarama, Spain Circuit 2023

Jarama, Spain. There is obviously no way to lengthen the main straight. The track would have to be flipped and the main straight located to where all the cars park. In essence the entire track would need to be plowed under and a new one built.
A street circuit in, or just outside of Madrid. Various layouts have been studied. This is apparently the preferred option. In Madrid’s letter to the FIA they state:”As you may know, the region of Madrid is experiencing an outstanding economic and social development in the Spanish and European contexts,’ their letter added.”We are welcoming an increasing number of visitors from all over the world and the sporting competitions are becoming more and more prestigious and appreciated in the Community of Madrid.”We have an extensive and efficient transport network, a pleasant climate, first class cultural, gastronomic and natural tourist attractions, a wide and excellent hotel infrastructure and a diverse commercial offer with a unique freedom of opening hours.”Even more important, the Madrilenos are enormously open and welcoming to visitors.”

Spain has hosted two races in a single season before, from 2008 to 2012 when the unpopular Valencia Street Circuit was the venue for the European Grand Prix.

March 24, 2023

(GMM) F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali admits Madrid is still pushing to host a grand prix.

The sport’s top boss on Thursday was in the Spanish capital to mark the beginning of an official F1 exhibition, in which cars, memorabilia and even Romain Grosjean’s charred Haas from his fiery 2020 crash in Bahrain are on display.

Domenicali, meanwhile, admitted that Madrid harbors serious F1 ambitions.

“They are working to have a race and F1 is delighted to have so many applicants,” the Italian told the Spanish sports newspaper Marca.

“Formula 1 is increasingly popular worldwide and we know the passion that exists in Spain. I have worked with Fernando (Alonso) and I know him well,” he said.

“It is a pleasure to see how interest continues to grow in Spain, which is also because of Carlos (Sainz). We know the interest from Madrid, obviously Barcelona as well and it’s great news for us.

“You can never say never in life,” added Domenicali.

“Two races in Spain of course is very difficult, so we are happy with Barcelona who have a contract and a strong relationship – but it is true that Madrid wants a race so we will see.

“All of this is good for F1.”

—

Having a competing city in Madrid will force Barcelona to cough up more money if it wants to keep its F1 race. An old Bernie Ecclestone negotiating ploy.

December 21, 2022

(GMM) The Circuit de Catalunya is playing down reports this week that Madrid could snatch the Spanish GP away from Barcelona.

The current Spanish GP host is currently planning to upgrade the well-known circuit and has even approved a major layout tweak for 2023 – the return of the once-beloved final two super-fast right-handers.

“We have approved the circuit with the two configurations,” said Circuit de Catalunya general director Josep Lluis Santamaría.

“So it will depend on the desires of the promoter. We are giving them two options.”

The large Spanish GP crowd heads to the podium after the 2022 race

As for reports about Madrid sweeping in with an attractive proposal for Liberty Media, he insisted Barcelona is not worried.

“We have a contract until 2026, and we want a long-term contract,” Santamaria said.

“If instead of five more years we get ten, all the better.”

He said that if Madrid wants to host Formula 1, that doesn’t mean the Circuit de Catalunya will need to make way.

“It already happened when we had Jerez and Valencia,” he said. “There could be two.”