Madrid’s Madring and La Monumental: A New Era for F1
Formula 1 has not turned a wheel in anger around Madrid’s new Madring yet, but one corner already has the paddock talking like it has been there for decades.
Turn 12. La Monumental.
The Spanish Grand Prix has packed its bags and left Barcelona after more than three decades, shifting to the capital on a long-term deal that runs until 2035. In its place: a hybrid circuit stitched together from public roads and purpose-built sections on private land, a layout that will at times feel like a street race and at others like a permanent facility.
It is a 22-corner puzzle. Yet everyone keeps coming back to the same piece.
La Monumental: a new kind of fear and thrill
La Monumental is not just another hairpin dropped into a cityscape. It is a 270-degree, long, sweeping, banked loop that threatens to redefine what a modern F1 corner can be.
The banking will rise to 13.5 degrees. On paper, that is less extreme than the 18-degree walls of Zandvoort. On track, it could be far wilder. The Madring’s Turn 12 is expected to be taken at far higher speeds, with drivers pinned to the throttle as the corner wraps around them.
Carlos Sainz has already had a taste. The Williams driver lapped the circuit earlier this year in a Ford Mustang GT, and his verdict was simple: F1 cars will be flying around La Monumental.
“My feeling is the corner is going to be flat out the whole way, and it’s going to create an overtaking opportunity into the next tight left,” he said.
That is the key. This is not just a party trick for the TV cameras. The banking and the length of the turn could open up lines, choices, and risks that current circuits rarely offer.
“The banking will allow you to maybe position the car higher up or lower down if you want to get clean air to follow,” Sainz added. Stay high, drop low, search for grip or clean air — the corner invites improvisation.
But there is a sting in the tail. “If it’s easy flat, then it will also be a corner where if you stay tight, you will produce quite a bit of slipstream, like you see in Zandvoort.”
So the picture forms: a flat-out, high-speed bowl, cars stacked in different lanes, the lead driver trying to hug the inside while those behind fan out, hunting for air and drag. Then the field barrels into a tight left-hander with overtaking on the line. If it works as designed, La Monumental will not just be spectacular; it will decide races.
A title fight rolls into a new arena
While Madrid unveils its new theatre, one man arrives holding centre stage.
Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ championship by a commanding 66 points over his Mercedes teammate George Russell. The Italian’s win in Italy last Sunday — from 19th on the grid — was the sort of performance that turns a promising season into a statement year. He did not just manage the race; he tore through it.
Behind him, the pack is tight and restless.
Lewis Hamilton sits third on 191 points in his first season back in Ferrari red, keeping himself in the hunt, if not yet in striking distance of Antonelli’s total of 267. Lando Norris has dragged McLaren into the conversation with 171 points, while Charles Leclerc’s 155 for Ferrari underline the Scuderia’s consistency, if not outright dominance.
Max Verstappen, on 127 for Red Bull, finds himself in an unfamiliar position: sixth in the standings, chasing rather than dictating. Oscar Piastri, the Australian whose calm speed has impressed all year, is seventh on 116, 151 points adrift of Antonelli after finishing fifth at Monza.
The rest of the top 10 paints a picture of a reshaped grid. Isack Hadjar has 71 points for Red Bull, Liam Lawson 51 for Racing Bulls/Red Bull, and Pierre Gasly 41 for Alpine, each carving out their own space in a season that has refused to settle into old patterns.
Madrid under lights, Spain on the clock
The Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring takes place on Sunday, September 13, with Australian viewers set for a late-night appointment.
Race start times across Australia:
- 11pm: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, ACT, Tasmania
- 10:30pm: South Australia, Northern Territory
- 9pm: Western Australia
ABC Sport will run a live blog from 9pm AEST, following every lap as the sport learns what this new circuit really is.
A championship balanced on a banking
The constructors’ picture mirrors the drivers’ table at the top, with Mercedes’ one-two of Antonelli and Russell putting the team in a position of strength as the season heads into its decisive stretch. Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull are locked in a three-way fight behind, their fortunes rising and falling with every upgrade and every strategy call.
Lower down, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Haas, Audi, Aston Martin and Cadillac scrap for every point. The margins are thin. A single result around a new track could swing momentum for months.
And so the sport arrives in Madrid with questions hanging over almost everything — tyre wear, track evolution, safety car risk, overtaking zones — except one.
La Monumental will not stay a curiosity for long. By Sunday night, it will either be another name on the map or the corner everyone circles when they talk about this season.
Given the stakes, the speed, and the man leading the championship, it feels far more likely to become the place where someone either seals a title charge… or watches it slide up the banking and disappear.
