Williams’ Carlos Sainz drove around the brand new Madring at his hometown in Madrid, Spain, as F1 returns to the city in September 2026 for the GP.
The Spaniard took journalist Lawrence Baretto for a hot lap, completing the first drive around the brand new circuit. Sainz proudly talked about the construction and preparations for the upcoming F1 race, and reflected on how proud he was of bringing the sport back to Madrid.
In September, between the 11th and the 13th, F1 returns to the city for the 2026 Gran Premio de España. The race will cover 5.416km and host 57 laps. Around 40 years ago, Madrid previously hosted Formula 1 at Jarama, 30 km north of the city. This time around, the Madring welcomes the sport into the heart of the city.
“It’s something that I always dreamed about,” says Sainz about a Madrid F1 GP
The born and raised Madrilenian, Carlos Sainz, spoke on his feelings about having a home race.
“You cannot imagine. I think it’s something very difficult to describe for me, because it’s something that I always dreamed about, just having the opportunity to race at my hometown.
“Madrid is a great city, a city that I’ve always talked well about, a city that now is getting to be known quite a bit more, and that now having this Formula 1 track will be amazing.
“The atmosphere will be incredible. I think Madrid is a city that welcomes a lot of these big events. And I’m sure this event will be the biggest one yet. And I think you guys are going to enjoy it.”
Sainz took the project to heart and has been heavily involved in the track’s development.
“I think earlier this year, last year, I got an ambassadorial role here, and I wanted to make sure I could help as much as possible the circuit to do a good job in Formula 1.
“As I said before, I love this place. I love Madrid, the atmosphere here. I love coming back to Madrid every time I can. And yeah, I wanted to make sure the story was a success.”
On his excitement for the track, Sainz concluded: “I think we’re going to try and make things a bit differently here. Like the first modern European truck that has all these kinds of new ways to approach Formula 1.”
Potentially iconic corners and challenging straights
Throughout the hot lap, the Spanish driver highlighted different bits and details about the circuit layout. Sainz compared the track to miscellaneous aspects of other GPs.
Before arriving at turn 2, Sainz said: “This one’s going to be tight when racing. My car’s going side by side here, approaching this braking. It reminds me a bit of Jeddah, that long ride before the tight left in Jeddah.”
On the stint from turn 2 to turn 4, he mentioned: “This is going to be properly quick. I mean, it’s going to be one kilometre flat out from turn two to all the way down to turn four. It’s all going to be turning, turning, turning, like a very long parabolica. But it’s all easy flat out before you arrive to this big braking zone here under the bridge.”
Sainz also discussed the first “proper” elevation change after the bridge on turns 6 and 7, Subida de las Carcavas. “It has this big hill that is going to, for sure, when you arrive to this braking zone, you cannot see where the apex is. Yeah. And you’re almost looking at the sky.
“We’re going to be very low in the car and you’re going to be braking without seeing the apex. So here there’s going to be a good decision making point when to turn in and hit the apex.”
Afterwards, he described the iconic corner called La Monumental that has 24 degrees of banking. sustained for almost half a kilometre, so 500 meters, making it the longest corner in F1.
“This will allow for side-by-side racing, especially get out of the dirtier, go high, go low, a bit with the idea of Zandvoort.
“And right at the end, as you see, it goes up and then down. So it’s not only a banking, it’s also like up and down banking, you know. And I think this is going to be epic.”
It will also be surrounded by grandstands on the left and on the right, creating a “tube of grandstands all the way around that corner.” “It’s going to be the signature corner of the circuit,” Sainz added.
Later, through turns 14 – 16, Enlazadas de Valdebebas, he noted: “It doesn’t slow down. It’s so very open, wide S’s, you know, that reminds me a bit of more of an old school, like a Spa, like a Silverstone, you know, more flowing”.
“Before we go back into the IFEMA area, which is the expo area, where it becomes again a city track, you know.
“I think the IFEMA area is more like Baku. Long straights, 90 degree corners. Here are a bit more, you see, like a bit wider, like more, less of an angle than in Baku. But it is straight 90 degree, straight 90 degree and before you get into the wider area.”
Sainz: “I love that the track has two completely separated different parts”
The Williams’ driver highlighted the Madring’s mix of street style and traditional open track design.“So what I like about this track is that they went both ways. They went to the very open, very flowing track and then back into a tight area again.
“Yeah, because you go from a very tight, more like a street style area, to suddenly a blind corner that you see absolutely nothing. And then suddenly the whole track opens up. And you’re like, it’s like you go through a screen and you go into a different world, you know, like to a different track.
“So it’s like, I love that the track has two completely separated, different parts. And you go from a street part to a fully open wide part.”
Sainz pointed out this section as his favourite around the track. “That one, yeah. I think that from the moment you do the uphill and the downhill, it opens up to the wider part. All that, all around until that really tight ride that goes under the bridge. Yeah. That is my favourite part.”
Overtaking at the Madring
When asked about overtaking, Sainz said: “It is wide. It is. It is wide and I think it’s going to create the ability to overtake because I think at least the width is something we sometimes miss in street tracks.”
The Madrilenian reinforced this while driving through a small straight, after a few high speed corners. “You arrive into a wide braking zone, you know, which always, as a driver, gives you the impression that you can maybe throw a move.
“I think you have two main straights, which is going to be, I think, plenty of overtaking, especially with this generation of cars, where the battery is going to be on the tight side going into here and then onto such another long straight.
“And then you’re going to have, even all that infield part, you’re going to have, I think, spots to overtake.
“I think the Monumental allows you to follow closely because you can choose different lines and put your car in cleaner because you have grip up, you have grip down, and you can play around with the driving line.
“And after Monumental, there’s a good breaking spot that you could potentially throw one in.”
Sainz’s final thoughts on the Madring ahead of upcoming F1 2026 Gran Premio de España
On his thoughts after completing the first-ever hot laps around the Madring, Sainz reflected: “Honestly, impressive. Impressive because I didn’t expect to have so much fun. I didn’t expect it to be so flowing, so wide.
“And I just realized how fast we were going. I was like, if we’re going faster than this, imagine in a Formula 1 car.”
Overall, Sainz praised the innovative design. “They’ve been quite bold,” he summed up.
“They’ve done a good job with the character because it would have been easy just to fall into a trap of designing more of a standard track, but they’ve been quite bold, pushing the FIA to approve that banking for 500 meters.
“I think that’s quite bold, and I think it’s going to create, I think, a good show on camera also.”
