Madrid's Madring: The New F1 Circuit with La Monumental

Formula 1 has a new stage, and before a single lap has counted for points, one corner already dominates the conversation.

The Spanish Grand Prix has packed its bags and left Barcelona for the capital, trading the familiar sweep of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the raw, unfinished energy of a brand-new venue: the Madring. The deal runs until 2035. Madrid is not dabbling in F1; it is committing to it.

This is no conventional Tilke-style ribbon on the outskirts of town. The Madring stitches together public roads and private land, a hybrid that will at times feel like a street race hemmed in by concrete, and at others like a permanent circuit built for pure speed. It’s 22 corners long, but one defines it.

Turn 12. La Monumental.

La Monumental is not just a corner; it’s a statement of intent. A long, 270-degree banked hairpin, rising up to 13.5 degrees of banking, it sits somewhere between a modern rollercoaster and an old-school oval turn. On paper, that banking is less extreme than Zandvoort’s 18 degrees. On track, it should be far more ferocious.

The difference is speed. F1 expects drivers to take La Monumental flat out.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz has already had a taste. Earlier this year he lapped the layout in a Ford Mustang GT, and even in a road-based GT car, the scale of Turn 12 hit him.

“My feeling is the corner is going to be flat out the whole way, and it's going to create an overtaking opportunity into the next tight left,” he said. That next left-hander suddenly looks like one of the prime attack points on the circuit.

The banking, Sainz believes, will turn La Monumental into a multi-line battleground.

“The banking will allow you to maybe position the car higher up or lower down if you want to get clean air to follow,” he explained. The image is clear: cars fanned out across the camber, some hunting grip low, others sweeping high to keep their tyres alive and their wings in clean air.

There is another twist. If the corner is indeed “easy flat”, as Sainz suggests, it could become a slipstream generator as potent as anything in modern F1.

“If it's easy flat, then it will also be a corner where if you stay tight, you will produce quite a bit of slipstream, like you see in Zandvoort.”

So the recipe is simple: high speed, heavy banking, multiple lines, and a tight left-hander waiting on exit. If the cars can follow through La Monumental, the Madring may have just given F1 something it constantly craves and rarely nails – a signature corner that actually encourages overtaking.

A title race with one driver in clear air

While the circuit is new, the championship picture coming into Madrid is brutally familiar: Kimi Antonelli in clean air at the front.

The Mercedes driver arrives with a 66-point cushion over teammate George Russell after a stunning victory in Italy. That win at Monza was not a straightforward lights-to-flag cruise. Antonelli started 19th on the grid and still found a way to the top step on Sunday, a drive that hardened his status as the man everyone else is chasing.

Behind him, the numbers tell their own story.

• Antonelli leads the drivers’ standings on 267 points.
• Russell sits on 201, keeping Mercedes comfortably on top in the constructors’ fight.
• Lewis Hamilton, now in Ferrari red, is third on 191.
• Lando Norris on 171 for McLaren and Charles Leclerc on 155 for Ferrari.
• Max Verstappen, no longer the untouchable benchmark of recent years, sits sixth on 127 points for Red Bull.
• Oscar Piastri holds seventh on 116 for McLaren. The Australian finished fifth at Monza, a solid result, but he trails Antonelli by 151 points. “Title outsider” already feels generous. For Piastri, Madrid is less about the crown and more about momentum.

Behind them, the middle order is as tight and unforgiving as ever.

• Isack Hadjar (71) leads the Red Bull junior charge, ahead of Liam Lawson on 51 for Racing Bulls/Red Bull.
• Pierre Gasly has 41 for Alpine, Arvid Lindblad 29 for Racing Bulls, and Franco Colapinto 21 for Alpine.
• Oliver Bearman has 18 for Haas, while Audi’s new era shows on the board through Gabriel Bortoleto (10) and Nico Hülkenberg (6).
• Sainz has 6 points for Williams, Alex Albon 5, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso 3 apiece for Haas and Aston Martin respectively, and Yuki Tsunoda 1 for Racing Bulls.
• Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez are still searching for their first points of the season with Aston Martin and Cadillac.

The constructors’ table was not listed, but one glance at those driver totals tells you enough: Mercedes hold the cards.

Madrid under lights, and under scrutiny

The Spanish Grand Prix takes place this Sunday, September 13. For Australian viewers, it’s a late one.

The race will start at:

• 11pm in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, ACT and Tasmania
• 10:30pm in South Australia and the Northern Territory
• 9pm in Western Australia

ABC Sport will run a live blog from 9pm AEST, tracking every lap of F1’s latest experiment.

Because that is what Madrid is in 2026: a test. Not just of a new layout, or a new city, but of what modern Formula 1 wants to be. The Madring mixes public roads with permanent sections, leans into spectacle with La Monumental, and dares to create a corner that might join Eau Rouge, 130R, and Parabolica in the sport’s shared memory.

On Sunday night, we find out whether it deserves that ambition – and whether anyone can drag Kimi Antonelli out of his own private championship.