Carlos Sainz is the first Formula 1 driver to have already driven a few laps on the brand new Madring circuit. The hybrid circuit in the Spanish capital is still under construction, but ambassador Sainz was allowed to test drive in a Ford Mustang GT car. The Madrilenian was immediately impressed: ‘I didn’t expect it to be this fun’.
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This season, a race is scheduled for the first time on the newest F1 circuit, the Madring. In September, Formula 1 will travel to the Spanish capital for the first time, where work is still ongoing on the track near Barajas airport. Carlos Sainz – together with Fernando Alonso one of the two Spanish drivers on the grid – was appointed ambassador for the newest circuit last year. Therefore, the honor fell to the Williams driver to be the first driver to already drive a lap on the Madring.
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The first full lap of Madring! 🤩
Carlos Sainz takes the honour of driving the first laps of the new track in Spain! 🇪🇸#F1 #SpanishGP pic.twitter.com/fDnlKW2b8T
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 16, 2026
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La Monumental
The Spaniard got into a Ford Mustang GT car for his first racing laps. The Madring is a hybrid circuit, combining parts of public roads with specially constructed sections in the IFEMA complex. In a new video from Formula 1, Sainz was especially impressed by La Monumental: a 500-meter-long, banked right-hand corner that will become the longest corner on the F1 calendar. “That’s going to be truly epic,” the Spaniard already compared the section to turn 3, the Hugenholtz corner, at Circuit Zandvoort.
Sainz impressed
Sainz was also positively surprised by the circuit in general. “Honestly? It was impressive,” the driver said candidly after his laps. “Impressive because I didn’t expect it to be this fun. That it would drive so smoothly and be so wide. I suddenly realized how fast we were going and thought: ‘If we’re already this fast in this car, just imagine a Formula 1 car’.”
“You go from a very tight, street-like section to suddenly a blind corner where you see nothing at all and suddenly the whole circuit opens up,” Sainz continued his praise. “It’s like going through a screen and entering another world, as if it’s a different circuit!” Whether the rest of the grid will be as enthusiastic as the Spaniard, we will see on the weekend of September 13.
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(Photo/credit: F1)
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