Why Madrid F1 critics have it wrong - 'It's a real test of driver & machine'

On Zandvoort’s return to the world championship, Alonso pulled-off an audacious outside move to overtake two cars on the banked Turn 3 – then produced more fireworks two years later by slipping underneath George Russell as the rain came down on the opening lap. It’s these kind of moments that Zaffelli can see happening again at what would be a new home race for the Spaniard in Madrid.

“If you can make a driver experience high loads, they will have to find new ways of training [to handle the force], the cars will bottom out for the whole of the corner due to the g-force.

“None of the other modern circuits, including Zandvoort, do this. Some circuits will put the car at the limit, but not the driver.

“We look to design tracks which put human and machine on the limit, like in the original days of motor sport.”

Zaffelli picks out the parts of the circuit he thinks will be the highlights, particularly the section which could stir memories of Sitges, known as the ‘Spanish Brooklands’.

“The first part is the ‘bunker’ – going through the tunnel, then up 10 metres and it’s blind [into Turn 7],” he says.

“The second is the banking – it could be developed to be a place to see the cars, approaching 300km/h, sparking for 5-6 sec.

“The other one is when you’re coming through the second tunnel [Turns 13-17] because this is a very fast sequence in a constrained environment.

“Overtaking points will be Turn 5, 11 – the 90-degree turn after the banking – then 17 and the first corner too of course.”

Zaffelli says that mastering the Madrid circuit will require bravery and a finely-tuned set-up in equal measure.

“There are two points where the driver can make the difference,” he says. “The first is going up to the banking, because it’s a sharp uphill followed by a gentle downhill. The second is the banking – if that’s developed in a certain way, it would be nothing comparable to this in F1.”

With discussions going on between the Dromo, F1 and the FIA, the final decision on whether there will be banking – and how steep it will be – is yet to be taken.

However, making an exciting proposition of a track first conceived two years ago and taken on by Dromo 12 months ago isn’t easy. The design guru explains the trickiest bit of taking on a circuit build commission – including a wildlife by-way.

“Definitely [the most difficult part is] to face the reality of the environment” he says. “On paper you are just drawing a line.

“But when you come to realise it, you find street furniture, you find trees, local regulations, a lot of constraints.

“For example in Madrid, we had to create a corridor between Turns 3 and 5 for the passing of the animals – an ‘environmental corridor’.

“[In Madrid] to treat places like there was nothing [there], was impossible.”

Able to put in design inspiration from Dromo’s projects both real and conceptual, the company’s increasing presence in both the world of F1 and motor sport means it can ever-more past learnings into new and improved tracks.

“We’ve used experience from [the repaving and reprofiling of] Silverstone, we were involved in the redesign of Singapore. We’ve done analysis on Monaco, analysis on the proposed Qatar street circuit and came up with ten different designs in locations for proposed street races in India 15 years ago.”

However the variation in the environment given to Dromo – from concrete business parks and public roads to arid brownfield sites – for the design has meant some new opportunities have sprung up.

“The northern part of the circuit is currently on undeveloped land, so there we were able to do something different from normal [the banked turn etc].”

Though the event has just been announced, it will see its debut in 2026 – when a raft of new F1 car rule changes come in. Zaffelli explains how Dromo has had to react to ongoing to reg tweaks with changes to the Madrid design.

“Other circuits are not developed to specific regulations because they host different categories – this one is custom built for Formula 1,” he says.

“We had to make 16 different ‘main releases’ because any time the regulation was changing, we were working towards something a bit different.”

Zaffelli confirms more alterations will be likely once the 2026 regs are set in stone.

A final flourish in the Madrid announcement was that this event claims to be the first ‘zero-kilometre GP’, i.e. everything needed to build it will remain on site in storage units between each race, within walking distance of where it will be erected.

“Usually if we need to dismantle the track in a city, with all the barriers and equipment, you cannot store it there. You have to store it away in some other place – Singapore does so 30-40 kilometres away, with other circuits built in the heart of the cities facing similar logistical issues.

“The fact is that [in Madrid] we are just dismantling the starting point and storing it within walking distance. How good is this?! It greatly reduces both the carbon footprint and cost.”

Despite the F1 and Dromo trumpeting the new circuit, only time will tell whether Madrid can live up to the self-generated hype and press releases.