The good, the bad and the ugly of F1's Madring debut

We're standing on the edge of the Spanish Grand Prix's steamy starting grid, shuffling past a stack of tyres and desperately trying to stay out of people's way. Mechanics are keeping the cars cooled while VIPs keep streaming past us, all desperately attempting to make their way to the front of the grid.

Quite often the starting grid is a nice opportunity to chat with people who are otherwise hiding away in the paddock. But even by F1's standards the grid is heaving. Beyond the Zidanes, Vinicius Jrs and Bellinghams, it feels like every footballer who has ever logged playing time for Real Madrid is here, as well as every pop star they've slid into the DMs of.

It's at that moment another horde of guests is unleashed onto the grid through the open gate, further saturating the grid. We take cover by the wall behind Arvid Lindblad's Racing Bulls machine, catch a flyover of a trio of Eurofighter Typhoons and then trek back to the media centre to be on time for the start of the race. As it turned out, the flyover was the highlight of the day, if you're into that sort of thing.

If there's one lasting impression of the inaugural Madring race, it's that it was... a lot. A lot of VIPs, a lot of space, a lot of steps. Our trusted Garmin reckons the Spanish Grand Prix is second on the calendar in terms of distance covered, pipped only by the Las Vegas Grand Prix where the media centre is almost in a different postcode to the paddock area.

Zak Brown and Stefano Domenicali are joined by King Felipe of Spain, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and other dignitaries.

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

When we penned our first thoughts on F1's new European destination last Thursday, we closed with the following thoughts.

"The Madring should get a fair chance to show its potential and prove it can put on a smooth off-track experience, and a reasonably safe and exciting on-track product. And with 2026 being the start of a 10-year contract, there will be plenty of scope to make any necessary improvements. But you know what they say about first impressions. You only get one chance to make one."

As far as those first impressions go... it's complicated.

Thankfully, the weekend ran without major incidents thanks to a mixture of talent, heads-up driving and probably a portion of luck. But the circuit that everyone felt was designed without overtaking opportunities in mind duly delivered on that front. Because of its lack of straights and awkward corner design, passing was impossible.

At the same time, after the race team principals tripped over each other to heap praise on F1 and the local organisers for the event they had put on. If you've only watched the race on TV, all 57 laps of its dull parade, it's the type of comment that may confuse or anger you.

Building a race track around the vast IFEMA fairgrounds opened up plenty of commercial opportunities. But in year one, the on-track product was lacking.

Photo by: Formula 1

That's not just a form of politeness. It's true that what Madrid has achieved in year one is remarkable given the timelines and layers of bureaucracy involved. While rough around the edges, the event ran smoothly and it offered teams tons of space to work in and commercial opportunities to exploit. While lacking the glamour of Monaco, it feels like the Madring could become a second commercial epicentre for F1 in Europe because of its connectivity and sheer space. A blank canvas for marketeers, business leaders and partnership managers. It is an impressive facility.

"F1 loves big destination cities, but its cars and drivers don't."

That's great. But, as we also noted last week, we're probably not alone in the belief that F1 is a sport first and foremost. There's this thing called racing, too, and all those commercial opportunities won't matter as much when the core audience is starting to get bored of the show it's actually watching.

It's this disconnect between the on-track product and off-track ecosystem that is leaving us in two minds about the Madring's dull debut. F1 loves big destination cities, but its cars and drivers don't.

It is not entirely fair to suggest F1 is slowly becoming a street course series. While the likes of Las Vegas and Madrid have been added in recent years, the series is also set to return to Turkey's sprawling Istanbul Park and the outstanding Algarve circuit in Portimao next year.

But if F1 wants to maintain a delicate balance of pairing historic road courses with urban layouts - the likes of Thailand and South Korea will likely feature street courses too, if and when they join - it should at least come up with circuits that think about the racing product first. Even Las Vegas, hardly a drivers' favourite, at least has a layout that promotes decent racing.

The powers that be are not blind to Madrid's shortcomings. It was important to just get year one out of the way in a respectable manner, while much-needed track changes are being drawn up for 2027 as we speak.

But we still stand by what we said last week. You really do only get one chance to make a first impression. In that respect, last weekend was a wasted opportunity to create some goodwill with the series' fanbase.