F1 News: The track that is still a building site just three months before first race

Diggers, sand and dirt on display as the Madring undergoes construction — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 track is still a building site just three months before first race

The race is on to get the F1 track ready

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 17 June 2026 08:59 Updated: 09:30

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F1's latest track - the Madring - is still under construction, despite the Spanish Grand Prix around the Madrid street circuit being three months away.

The brand new 5.47 km Madrid street track has been built around the IFEMA exhibition centre in the capital's northeast area, with two long straights and a banked 'Monumental' curve where cars could hit 340kph.

Madrid's street race will replace the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the official Spanish Grand Prix, with the race in Barcelona instead featuring on a rotational basis every other year with Spa.

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On Tuesday, there was a public unveiling at the track which featured home hero and circuit ambassador Carlos Sainz, alongside Madring's Chief Operations Officer Carlos Jimenez and Madring General Manager Luis Garcia Abad.

However, with three months to go until the grand prix weekend kicks off on Friday, September 11, the track is still under construction. The pitlane garages are still being built with the grandstands and paddock area incomplete.

Event organisers are confident that the Madring will be completed by the deadline for the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix.

Madring will be completed on time

The Spanish Grand Prix will take place in September

Carlos Sainz visited the track on Tuesday

Jimenez isn't worried, however, and told Reuters that: "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...in the north, the plot of land is going to be finished in three weeks.

"What we are going to start, probably in two weeks, is the erection ‌of the ⁠temporary structures, the grandstands and hospitalities."

The heat in July and August may also cause problems, but the Madring are well prepared for this circumstance. Jimenez continued: "We might need to work during the nights. So we have reserved buffer time and we can do night shifts because the licence for construction allows us to work 24 hours."

The Madring's final deadline is August 30, when the city council will inspect the facility, and they expect their electronic systems to be installed by July. Formula 3 cars will then come to test the track in late August.