Speculation last week suggested that a new race around the Spanish capital from 2026 is near a sign off, with talks at an advanced stage with F1’s commercial rights holder.
The plans are for a race to take place around the IFEMA convention centre in the northeast of the city, close to its Madrid-Barajas international airport.
The 5km parkland circuit would use the IFEMA pavilion complex and fairgrounds, which is often used for exhibitions and conferences, as its start-finish straight and the site of the paddock complex.
But despite details of the race being leaked to the media, the FIA has moved to play down any suggestion that things are close to being signed off.
This is especially true because the governing body has not yet been tasked with working on several key elements that need to be approved before any race project is sanctioned.
Speaking to selected media including Autosport, the FIA president of the Senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, who is also president of the Spanish automobile federation (Real Automóvil Club de España) said he would love to see F1 return to Madrid, but was clear that there were a lot of things to be sorted.
“There is a clear process to have a grand prix in a place, and I don’t think that the process is being followed based on what you read,” he said.
“The Spanish automobile federation is where the process starts, because whenever there is a new competition that wants to happen in a country, you have to go to them.
“So, have the Spanish Federation received as of today this project to be analysed, studied and focused? No, they have not seen it. This special step has not happened yet.
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing
“Then, when the Spanish federation consider that this project is a valid project and that they are interested, they channel it to where? To the FIA, because they have to homologate it. If they are talking about a semi-urban circuit, the first thing you have to do is to homologate it and certify, things like that.
“So, if the Spanish federation have not received anything, then therefore they have not sent anything to the FIA, so the FIA have not received anything. So, nobody [inside the FIA] has been working so far on this project that has been in the press in the last few days.”
It is only when the above steps with the FIA and its national sporting authority are complete then the door can be opened for the race to find its way onto…
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