Denmark F1 dream revived by Padborg circuit plan

Henrik Lyngbye Pedersen and Mathias Lyngbye Villadsen have unveiled plans for a new Circuit of Denmark at Padborg Park, a 3.8 billion Danish kroner project designed by Alexander Wurz’s firm with the long-term aim of securing FIA Grade 1 status and bringing Formula 1 to Denmark.

The proposed track would be built around new infrastructure on the site of the existing Padborg Park near the German border. Plans presented for the venue show a 6.006-kilometer layout with 18 corners and capacity for about 100,000 spectators, making it a far bigger project than the current facility.

Its significance goes beyond the scale of the build. The Padborg proposal has emerged after Denmark’s previous attempt to land Formula 1 collapsed. In 2020, a Copenhagen city-race plan reached advanced talks with Formula 1 and had FIA backing, but the project led by former minister Helge Sander fell away when political support disappeared.

Rebecca Palmberg Steele, project leader of Circuit of Denmark, framed Padborg as a location with wider international reach. “The circuit will be located at a site that serves as the gateway to Europe, and this project has the potential to give both sport, business and the local community a boost,” she told Børsen.

That ambition still comes with major obstacles. The project remains at an early planning stage, talks are continuing over the purchase of additional land, and the circuit would not initially meet Formula 1 homologation requirements. Reaching Grade 1, the FIA standard required to host a grand prix, remains part of the long-term plan rather than an immediate reality.

Sander, the former F1 project chief behind the failed Copenhagen bid, welcomed the new attempt but warned that turning it into a raceable grand prix venue will be difficult. “I applauded with both hands when I read it, and I hope it can become a reality,” he told Ekstra Bladet. He added that “the road is still long,” calling it a major project and cautioning that Padborg may not be an ideal fit with Formula 1’s modern destination-city strategy.

That leaves the new investors with a different route into Formula 1 than the one Denmark tried before: not a city race backed by politics, but a purpose-built circuit that first has to clear the technical, commercial and planning barriers needed to become a genuine grand prix option.