Inside the 'Madring': F2 and F3's drivers speak on the "car-breaker" circuit
“It’s going to be a bit of a surprise for everyone.”
It wasn't a surprise when championship leader Nikola Tsolov summed up the challenge of Formula 2’s upcoming weekend of racing at the ‘Madring’. The second Spanish venue on the calendar is a massively unknown and untested commodity for F2’s grid of 22 young drivers.
The sheer monstrosity the Madring brings to any driver isn’t unknown. After only a handful of tests, the fearsome 5.416 km (3.365 mi) circuit has already earned the tag of a “car breaker”, according to Williams F1 team principal James Vowles.
This claim only amplified after the recently concluded Formula 3 test at the venue, with 19 red flags across the two days of testing. 11 interventions were caused by drivers finding the barriers at various points of the circuit.
Normally, one can easily mistake this for young drivers pushing the limits in a bid to find the best lap time. But in the narrow confines of the Mading, this statistic looked more representative. It definitely spells a concerning fact for the entire F2 grid, who are yet to take on the challenge the Madrid streets have to offer.
It seems very challenging, and a lot of fun to drive,” expressed Trident’s John Bennett, ahead of the race weekend. “But at the same time, it’s very easy to crash here. The F3 guys had quite a few difficulties (during the test).”
Among the biggest challenges for the F3 drivers during the Madring test in August remained the tricky complex of corners making up Turns 5, 6 and 7. This sequence forms from a tight left-hander at the end of a long straight, leading into a quick right-hander and another tricky left that heads into the first of two tunnels on the circuit.
ART’s Maciej Gładysz triggered the first of four red flags in this area of the circuit, with Hitech’s Michael Shin, MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi and ART’s Kanato Le all finding the barrier through this section.
The narrow nature of this complex of corners often allows only one line for racing, and the challenge comes from how drivers approach the preceding right-hand kink of Turn 4 to line their cars up in this section.
“I expect Turn 4-5, with how you take the kerbs this weekend, can be tricky,” Bennett mentioned, on the most challenging of Madring’s corners for the upcoming weekend.
Another distinctive trait intensifying the Madring is its flowing nature, with one corner effectively leading into the next. This is evident through the tricky Turns 5, 6 and 7, which immediately leave drivers setting themselves up for the subsequent tight right-left section of Turns 8 and 9.
“You don't have any straights,” Tsolov implied, speaking to DIVEBOMB about the circuit's intense challenge. “You're just really going from one corner to another.”
While they are allowed a slight moment to calm their nerves, the high-speed Turns 10 and 11 chicane then sets drivers up to carry massive speeds into the La Monumentale banking, before a heavy braking zone immediately greets the drivers not long after surviving the intensity of the banked corner.
“And then also just the high-speed sections like Turn 12, 13, 14 and 15. Yeah, that's quite tricky with not much margin for error with the walls.”
This section of the circuit might just emerge as its most fascinating detail. Turn 12 makes up the famous banked corner of La Monumentale, a purpose-built sweeping right-hander taking the drivers back onto the street section of the circuit.
While the slow left-hander of Turn 13 and the sweeping section of Turns 14 and 15 are challenging sections in their own right, they are amplified by the speed drivers are already carrying in from the preceding banked section.
At 24°, the angle of Madrid’s banking dwarfs Zandvoort’s Hugenholtz corner, but while the Dutch circuit features a slower section, expect drivers to aim to go flat out through the banking this weekend.
The challenge of La Monumentale is amplified, not just by the speeds and the 4.5-second duration for which the drivers are flat out, but by the mental and physical challenge it brings for drivers in the support series this weekend.
F2 and F3 cars don’t get the benefit of power steering, in contrast to their F1 counterparts, with the corner becoming all the more of a physical workout for the drivers.
“I think the steering will get super heavy there,” Bennett mentioned, drawing on earlier experiences from racing at Zandvoort during his GB3 days. “When you add in the banking, I think it'll be very physical.”
However, he was quick to caution that drivers are more likely to lift off the throttle heading into this section during the races, given the higher fuel loads in their cars, with championship leader Tsolov even optimistic that the tyres would hold enough grip to take the corner at high speeds.
“I'm sure quite a lot of teams will probably be setting up the car around that corner as well,” Tsolov replied, speaking to DIVEBOMB about the challenges the corner poses to the teams.
“It’s a tricky corner that probably looks easier than what it is,” he reiterated. “We expect there to be a lot of bottoming (of the car) as well.”
But as daunting as the challenge is, the nature of the corner poses an irresistible sight for the fans to behold, with settings resembling an amphitheatre and providing the opportunity for rapturous cheers from a packed-out crowd on race day.
“With the grandstands surrounding it, I think it will look really cool on the first couple of laps of the race,” Bennett implied, relishing the audience perspective.
The rest of the track follows a similar pattern all the way down to Turn 19, with little respite until then. A pair of straights rounding out the lap may be a minute to breathe before the drivers take it all in once again. But the underlying conclusion is clear: This is a circuit like none other, set to test the drivers physically and mentally.
“You really need to keep your focus a lot. The important part is to have a clear head and attack it,” Tsolov reiterated.
For several drivers at the ‘Madring’ this weekend, this may be their first appearance at the venue. But the track’s speedy and tight characteristics have sparked comparisons with several venues on racing calendars.
“I'd say it's quite a bit similar to Jeddah in some ways; it’s very high speed and with the walls (close by),” Bennett said, speaking ahead of the weekend. “I think it’s like Hungary (the Hungaroring) with walls,” he continued.
The comparisons with Macau’s tight and twisty confines too remained high for several drivers, including F3 and F2 championship leaders Freddie Slater and Tsolov.
“The walls remind me so much of Macau,” Tsolov said. “They're not really rounded. They're in edges. So that creates an illusion where you can go close to the wall, but you actually end up being too close and touching it,” Tsolov recalled, looking back on his Macau appearance in 2023.
Slater, on the other hand, likened the Madrid configuration’s traits as vividly similar to living right on the edge, like in Macau, in order to extract the ultimate lap time. “You need to be on the limit to be fast here. It’s a driver’s track, you can’t really mess about it.”
The joint-best qualifier on the F3 grid in 2026, Slater eagerly relishes the challenge of qualifying around the ‘Madring’, where qualifying is expected to be of the utmost importance around the narrow configuration.
F3 will take on its qualifying sessions right at the end of a packed day of action, with two sessions split into 20 minutes each, commencing at 18:25 local time (17:25 BST).
“I can't wait to drive it, especially on low fuel, in a late-sunset evening qualifying. I think it's going to feel amazing,” Slater responded, eager to take on the iconic scenery of Madrid during qualifying.
With F3 running two back-to-back qualifying sessions this weekend, Campos driver Ernesto Rivera flagged the mental challenge of nailing both sessions. “It’s going to be intense,” he highlighted. “Maybe we don’t risk it too much in Qualifying 1, but don’t push too much in Qualifying 2.”
What’s different at the Madring to other street circuits, though, is the asphalt used for the racetrack. While most street tracks on the calendar use the same tarmac as local city streets, the Madring utilises specialised tarmac produced at the nearby Vicálvaro plant.
The layout offers more grip and fewer bumps than its street circuit counterparts on the calendar, allowing drivers to carry greater speeds through the sweeping corners and into braking zones
This received particular praise from Rivera’s teammate Ugo Ugochukwu, who had topped the two-day test at the venue in August with the fastest time of 1:49.034. Campos can also draw enthusiasm from their smooth testing sessions, with none of their three F3 cars experiencing any incidents with the barriers throughout the two days.
However, one thing is certain: The challenge posed by this layout has rarely featured on the calendar before.
While F2 marks its 11th round of 14 in 2026, this weekend brings about F3’s season finale, leaving drivers with little room to take in the sights of the ‘Madring’ and focus on the bigger picture.
Rivera's caution about margin for error, Ugochukwu's growing confidence after two clean test days, and Slater's outright enthusiasm for the risk-reward nature of the place all point to a weekend where even the smallest mistake could be decisive — fitting, given it's the venue where the 2026 F3 title itself will be settled.
Written by Vyas Ponnuri and Trisha Lynnette
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