Madrid's Madring: F1's Toughest Street Track Yet — SkimNews
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- The Madring circuit in Madrid replaces Barcelona as host of the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, with a 3.365-mile layout featuring 22 official corners and almost constant steering input due to the scarcity of straights
- Turn 12, dubbed La Monumental, is a 180-degree banked corner at a 24% gradient (13.5 degrees), where drivers will try to stay hard on the throttle while experiencing massive G-forces
- Williams driver Carlos Sainz, a Madring ambassador, provided input on the Turn 12 banking to help designers balance safety with the corner's unique character
- Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc conducted a filming day at the dusty, low-grip track in July, with Hamilton calling it "a qualifying lap sort of circuit" with limited overtaking opportunities
- An F3 test at Madring produced 19 red flags over two days, though not all were for crashes, fueling Sainz's prediction of safety cars, yellow flags and red flags across practice, qualifying and the race
- McLaren and Ferrari enter the weekend looking to reclaim momentum from Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli, who won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, with Sainz comparing the challenge to Jeddah, Baku and even Macau
- All five F1 sessions run from Friday practice through Sunday's race, broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 starting with Practice One on September 11
Why it matters: With only Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc having sampled the track before race weekend, the rest of the grid races blind at a circuit the drivers themselves compare to the most punishing venues on the calendar. An F3 test already triggered 19 red flags in two days, so the title contenders — Norris, Antonelli, Leclerc and Hamilton — face genuine risk of a qualifying or race-ending shunt that could reshape the championship picture before the circuit is fully understood.
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