2026 Madrid GP: how the Madring debut unfolded

The Madring reached the Grand Prix weekend without a single Formula 1 car having raced it competitively. The only running on the full layout was Ferrari's July filming day — 200 kilometres on demonstration tyres — and Formula 3's mid-season test in late August. Everything else was simulator work.

That F3 test left the warning that echoed all week: 19 red flags across two days, according to the press covering it, most from barrier contact. None at La Monumental, the turn 12 banking; the repeat offenders were the turn 10-11 chicane and the braking zone into turn 5.

Carlos Sainz, who has had the circuit plans for months and has his own grandstand here, warned of safety cars and red flags and admitted the design flirts with the line between a track with character and one that is too aggressive. Fernando Alonso took the other view: nobody knows how it races, and that levels the field.

The common read in the paddock before the start: on a narrow, new circuit with no data, the weekend goes not to the fastest but to whoever makes the fewest mistakes.