The announcement of the entry of the Madrid circuit into the Formula 1 world championship will bring the number of city tracks on the calendar to eight, adding Jeddah, Melbourne, Miami, Monaco, Baku, Singapore and Las Vegas.
If there are no defections from these venues, the races that will take place in the city from 2026 will be a third of the total Grands Prix. The tracks created on roads used for ordinary traffic have always divided enthusiasts and professionals themselves, pilots first and foremost: there are those who love racing between walls and those who consider it a very limiting exercise compared to the potential of the technical vehicle.
However, street circuits have played an important role in the expansion of the global Formula 1 market. In places like Azerbaijan, Singapore or Saudi Arabia, without the possibility of racing on road tracks it would not have been possible to host Grands Prix, as they are countries without tracks permanent. Running in the city was a great opportunity to reach new places, opening up new commercial scenarios and increasing the popularity of the sport.
Another advantage of races held in metropolises is the involvement of a general public who is captivated by an event close to home, with events that go beyond the race itself. In the cases of Melbourne, Monaco, Singapore or Las Vegas, the week that hosts the Grand Prix becomes the “Formula 1 week”, where the whole city is carried away by events that follow one another from day to day, creating an atmosphere of great involvement which stimulates investments from sponsors.
The atypical case of the Spanish GP
However, there is something different in the project that will bring the Spanish Grand Prix to the streets of Madrid. The first aspect that differentiates this case from the previous ones is that it is a country that boasts a great tradition in motorsport. Since 1986, Formula 1 has always stopped in Spain on racetracks, for five years in Jerez de la Frontera and since 1991 on the Catalunya circuit, the current home of the Grand Prix. In this specific case the role of the city circuit as an opportunity to enter a new country therefore ceases.
Madrid will not even be an added event, as was the case with the Miami and Las Vegas GPs which entered the calendar without creating problems in Austin. The new city track seems destined to exclude the Catalunya circuit from the game, a historic track considered among the most technical ever, to the point of having been literally 'worn out' for many years when Formula 1 had no testing constraints. It is in fact a new scenario, as are the reasons behind the choice.
Excluding the Catalunya circuit from the calendar means focusing on two aspects: the financial one (both for Formula 1 and for the region, given that according to the promoter of the event the race weekend should generate 500 million euros) and that of the return of image. There is also another aspect, and it is linked to some criticisms of the Montmelò layout in the past after boring and action-free races. In the latter case, the answer will only arrive in 2026, when there will be the possibility of experiencing first-hand what the 5.47 kilometers over which the circuit created around IFEMA will be developed.
At the moment the decision was courageous, especially on the Spanish Federation front. Formula 1 does its job, it looks for the most profitable locations that offer (at least on paper) the possibility of structuring large-scale events.
However, whoever manages motorsport in a country also has the responsibility to think about the whole movement, and in this case removing the Grand Prix from a circuit that has recently exposed itself on the financial front to renew its structure could be a cause for difficulty. There is also a world beyond Formula 1, and the racetracks of this world are a fundamental asset.
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