Ferrari to give Madring its first F1 running

Ferrari is set to become the first Formula 1 team to run at Madrid’s new Madring circuit, with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc sharing a 200km filming day ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix’s September debut at the venue.

The session will put Ferrari’s SF-26 on track for the first time at the 5.416km, 22-corner layout at IFEMA-Valdebebas, giving the team an early read on a circuit Formula 1 will not race on until 11-13 September. Although officially limited by filming day rules, the running is expected to give Ferrari useful initial data and a first direct feel for a track that will replace Barcelona as the home of the Spanish Grand Prix this year.

What stands out is how quickly the run has come together. Motorsport.com reported that only days ago Madring was still effectively an active construction site, with work continuing on grandstands and paddock facilities even as the track itself was described as complete and undergoing final asphalt refinishing. Ferrari’s arrival therefore serves as a visible marker of how far the project has progressed in a short space of time.

The track is described as a semi-permanent circuit with 22 corners, including a long banked section, and Ferrari’s limited mileage will amount to the first real Formula 1 reference point for the new venue. That matters not only for the Scuderia, but also for organisers, who can use the day to verify that the circuit and its operations function correctly with an F1 car and to identify any issues with a little more than two months to go before race weekend.

Luis García Abad, Madring’s general director, said in comments reported by MARCA: “We have tried from the very beginning not to talk about things that were going to happen. We have tried to talk about the things that had already happened. I think the first time we spoke about there being a Formula 1 race in Madrid I saw a lot of eyebrows raised. That is not just a way of speaking. We have got this far by delivering things that were already done and not by building castles in the air.”

For Ferrari, the day offers a small but potentially useful head start on Formula 1’s newest circuit. For Madring, it is a far more important test: the first proof under real F1 conditions that the venue is ready to move from construction project to grand prix track.