New Delhi: Madring, the venue of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, threw up quite a spectacle.
A hybrid street circuit mixing public roads with a purpose-built permanent section including ‘La Monumental’, a fantastic 550m banked section with a gradient reaching up to 24%. High speeds exceeding 340 kph, navigating tight, narrow Madrid streets. The longest pit lane on the calendar. The 5.4km Madring threw up quite a spectacle.
But, significantly, it yielded a dismal four overtakes throughout the entire 57-lap race. This startling statistic has ignited a debate about the sport’s trajectory, drawing immediate and unflattering comparisons to the notoriously narrow streets of Monaco, a track famous for its procession-like Sundays where qualifying dictates the race.
To understand this, one must look at Formula 1’s expansion strategy over the past few seasons. The series has aggressively added venues to its calendar, and almost all of them share a distinct common denominator: they are street circuits.
The trend is evident in venues like the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, a blindingly fast, wall-lined track on the Red Sea coast. It continued with the Miami International Autodrome, a temporary hybrid circuit constructed around the Hard Rock Stadium. It reached its zenith with the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, a high-speed, glitzy blast straight down the city’s famous neon-lit boulevard.
The overarching trend is undeniable. F1’s ownership group, Liberty Media, heavily favours city-centre racing. The business rationale behind this is that street tracks bring the spectacle directly to the masses, integrating the event into the host city’s infrastructure and attracting a premium, high-spending crowd that might not trek out to a rural racetrack. Furthermore, temporary circuits avoid the “white elephant” syndrome, where purpose-built tracks sit empty and unused for most of the year.
However, Sunday proved yet again that commercial success does not guarantee on-track excitement. Despite aerodynamic regulations explicitly designed to allow cars to follow closely, the tight and twisty layout of the Madring essentially nullified those gains, creating a high-speed procession where track position was paramount and passing was virtually impossible.
While we marvelled at the dazzling aerial shots on TV, the drivers tasked with threading these cars through concrete barriers are growing increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction. The backlash following Madrid was swift and uncompromising.
Max Verstappen, never one to mince words, was heavily critical. The reigning world champion dismissed the notion that space constraints should excuse the distinct lack of overtaking opportunities. Reaffirming his unwavering preference for historic circuits like Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka, Verstappen argued that these modern layouts fundamentally stifle racing and reduce the drivers’ ability to battle wheel-to-wheel.
McLaren’s Norris, who lost crucial track position due to an ill-timed pit stop and found himself unable to recover, stated that Madring is simply not a great racetrack. His teammate Oscar Piastri echoed the frustration, noting the extreme difficulty of following other cars through the tight complexes, claiming that only Monaco is harder to overtake on.
Even locals Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, racing in front of their home crowd, found little to praise about the layout. Both Spaniards urged for immediate track modifications to prevent the highly anticipated race from becoming a procession.
The Formula E irony
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of F1’s infatuation with street circuits is the juxtaposition it creates with Formula E. The all-electric championship was explicitly founded on the ethos of city-centre street racing, designed to bring the message of sustainable electric mobility directly to urban populations. Yet, as Formula E has evolved, it is moving in the exact opposite direction.
With the introduction of the significantly faster and more aerodynamically dependent Gen4 cars, Formula E has fundamentally outgrown the tight, 90-degree chicanes that defined its early years.
The series has actively shifted toward permanent facilities, dropping makeshift street tracks to race at traditional, wide-open circuits. The 2026-27 season will see races being held at old school circuits like Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and the Shanghai International Circuit.
Organisers have recognised that to truly showcase the capability of modern racing machinery, they require the wider tracks, multiple racing lines, and proper runoff areas that only permanent racetracks can provide.
Crossroads for motorsport
F1 now finds itself at a critical juncture. The shift toward street circuits like Miami, Las Vegas and Madrid has undeniably been a commercial triumph, bringing unprecedented visibility and revenue to the sport.
However, the core of F1 remains the thrill of wheel-to-wheel competition. When a highly anticipated race like the Spanish Grand Prix produces just four overtakes, it sends a warning.
As Formula E actively pivots to purpose-built racetracks to improve its product, F1 must ask itself if the relentless pursuit of the ultimate urban spectacle comes at the cost of the racing itself.
