Spanish Grand Prix: F1 driver blamed as new Madring track blasted by Sky star - 'He was the ambassador'

Spanish Grand Prix

F1 driver blamed by Sky Sports star as new Madring track flops - 'He was the ambassador'

Sainz under fire after Madring flop

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Sunday 13 September 2026 20:58

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F1's new Madring track came in for heavy criticism after Sunday's inaugural Spanish Grand Prix and Sky Sports pundit Nico Rosberg placed the blame squarely on one man.

Overtaking was at a premium - virtually impossible - as the 22 best drivers in the world locked horns for an eagerly-awaited showdown on the 5.416km circuit in the suburbs of Madrid.

The end result was a spectacle which many hardened observers found dull and uninspiring as Kimi Antonelli claimed victory to take another big step towards becoming world champion.

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Afterwards 2016 world champion Rosberg discussed the nature of the track in his role on Sky Sports F1, when asked why the track produced so little wheel-to-wheel action.

Rosberg puts the blame squarely on Carlos Sainz

He believes some of the criticism must go to current Williams star Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard having acted as ambassador for the whole event.

He claimed: “Carlos Sainz was the ambassador, so we need to criticise Carlos Sainz and they need to revisit the track layout for next year and create one good overtaking opportunity. We need that on this track, because it’s just too hard to overtake.

Rosberg believes one battle illustrated his point perfectly as McLaren's Oscar Piastri tried in vain to overtake Alpine's Franco Colapinto for P7 in the closing stages.

“It was pretty shocking - Piastri on Colapinto for example. Piastri had fresh tyres and he could not get past and he was so much quicker. It’s just super hard to overtake here.”

Nico Rosberg - not impressed by Madring layout.

Collins hopeful improvements will be made

Another Sky Sports analyst, race strategy guru Bernie Collins, believes it should not have needed Sainz to point out the issues with the current track layout.

“I don’t necessarily think it needed a driver to say that, did it? We all got here and we all looked at the track and said ‘that’s gonna be very difficult for overtaking'. So I think that there should have been something done to do that."

Collins is hopeful that with Madring already signed up for nine more years on the F1 calendar, changes will be made to make racing more exciting.

“Now they have been very open to say they will make changes going forward, they’re happy to make changes going forward - it’s not a permanent track.

“So one of those changes, I would hope, is that they’re going to make some differences in overtaking if they can.”