Barcelona hands the Spanish Grand Prix over on 13 September, and its replacement is a 5.4km, 22-corner circuit threaded around the IFEMA exhibition centre in north-east Madrid. Ferrari has a head start on it. The team ran an SF-26 at the Madring on 9 July under a promotional filming day, so Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton became the first drivers to take current machinery around the layout. They did not come back with the same impression.
Hamilton, asked about it at Spa the following week, was cool on both the running and the circuit.
"We only had a few laps, so it was very dusty for new circuit. As you would expect, there was no grip. So, your tyres were basically just covered in dust, and that's the whole time," he said.
His conclusion will not reassure anyone already unhappy with the racing this season. "It looks like it will be a qualifying lap sort of circuit, and there's not really any straights. So, it looks like a difficult place to overtake."
He did allow that being first onto a brand-new F1 venue was a "cool experience".
Leclerc's read was warmer, and it centred on La Monumental - the banked corner built as a nod to Madrid's bullring, and the one element that makes this more than another exhibition-centre street track.
"It's a very, very special corner. It's a corner where I feel in qualifying, we'll have to - I will say it in a polite way - but we'll have to be very brave because it's going to be on the limit," he said.
He thinks it will end up defining the weekend: "And yes, I do believe it can become one of the most iconic corners of the season, especially once the grandstand will be built. And I think that will add also to the experience of that corner."
On the question Hamilton answered with a shrug, Leclerc was warmer but non-committal. "Can it fit my driving style? I mean, I like city tracks in general. So I have little doubts I will love MadRing. Whether it will fit me or not, I don't really know. But one thing for sure is that you'll have to go full commitment."
Why Ferrari and nobody else is the part rivals will chew on. The Race's Jon Noble explained the route: filming days count as Promotional Events, teams get two per season, the mileage is capped at 200km and only filming-spec tyres are allowed. Ferrari had already spent one at Monza in April. The usual alternative - an older car under Testing of Previous Cars rules - is expressly barred at venues that did not host a race the previous year, so this was the only legal door in. Those testing rules get stricter again for 2027, extending the exclusion to circuits absent for two years.
Noble's point was that a dusty 200km still counts for more than it would have in a previous era, since cornering grip levels feed straight into energy management under the 2026 power unit rules, and nobody knows yet what La Monumental's banking does to ride height and load. Hamilton's suggestion that there wasn't much to learn does not quite square with that. Worth noting too: the promoter invited Ferrari, organised the day and paid for it.
The last unknown is completion. Around three quarters of the 5.4km is purpose-built, the rest runs on public roads, and the bill sits near 70 million pounds. Officials have stayed publicly bullish. Madring chief operations officer Carlos Jimenez put numbers to it.
"We are in our 11th month of construction and the permits took 12. Now the most complicated part, even apart from the track, has been done. In the south, the track is done," Jimenez said.
Organisers were blunter still in comments to Soy Motor: "The work is completely on schedule. There is no concern whatsoever regarding the deadlines, and the Grand Prix will be held on the planned dates."
The asphalt is down and FIA-approved; garages, paddock, grandstands and hospitality are the outstanding items. Residents have kept up protests over noise, environmental impact and public spending, and the venue had not been homologated when Ferrari ran there. Tickets, meanwhile, have gone regardless - the inaugural race sold out with the site still under construction. Whether it delivers a race or a train is the doubt Hamilton has already put on record.
