Elevation changes and an 'iconic' corner - Why Madrid's F1 track should be a hit
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Athletic.
The race is on, and with the renamed Barcelona-Catalina race in the rearview mirror, we're visiting F1's newest track, the Madring, which takes over the Spanish Grand Prix in September. But is the circuit any good? And is the Bankla Monumental corner going to be great, or just a gimmick? I'm Ed Straw, and joining me on location are John Noble and Diego Mejia. Diego, welcome back. We haven't had you on a podcast for too long, but you were loitering around the area and you seemed ideal because unlike us who didn't see this track for the first time until yesterday, you've seen it quite regularly. You've seen it evolve.
Yeah, thanks for the invite, Ed and Jan. It's great to be with you guys again. Yeah, as you will say, I live in Madrid. I've been based here for a few years, so I came for the first time to IFEMA, this expo place when they brought the F1X position that's going around the world.
What makes Madrid's Madring track unique in F1?
That's the first thing that they did here way before there was... serious talk about having a Grand Prix here. And it's been like 74 weeks, like less than 600 days since the first stone was placed until the Grand Prix day, basically. So it's a very short time frame. It has gone by very quickly. They've had many challenges, especially the weather. There's been a lot of rainfall recently. in the early part of the year, at the end of last year as well, and that has put back a lot of the work, especially on the racetrack. And as you could see, there's still plenty of work to be done around the track, but it looks now like a racetrack.
Yeah, lots to be done, John, but it's pretty impressive, isn't it? It's always good to come to a track like this, and the reason we've come straight after the Barcelona... Catalina-Barcelona Grand Prix? Barcelona-Catalina, terrible name. Anyway, it's all about the Spanish Grand Prix, but it makes sense for us to come because we're three months out, so it's a good chance to see F1's newest circuit and get a real taste of the place.
Yeah, I think it's very, very difficult to get a proper judgment of a circuit, just looking at the track map and watching some computer simulations.
The first one was awful.
Even the driver was awful. So you can't really understand... You know, the dynamics of the corners, what's it going to look like? And I think one of the core elements, I think, of a good racetrack has always been elevation. Some of the greatest circuits, some of the greatest corners have all got elevation. It just adds a dynamic to a race circuit you can't see from a track map. And I was surprised to hear, actually, how much elevation there is when you... The first section, when you climb to the top of the hill up to Turn 8 and Turn 9, it's going to be a spectacular corner for it. Drops down into the back section. It's very high. Beautiful way of looking into the distance. And it's the kind of view that somewhere like Spa, you go, wow, that's amazing, all this big elevation.
So, yeah, I mean, it's not... Not every corner is fantastic. There are some elements, especially around here, that are much more modern street circuit, 90 degree corners, concrete barriers and straight lines. But the bits they've been able to kind of do themselves and have some design ideas into it are pretty interesting.
Yeah, the part of the track we're in now, it's the south part. This is the IFEMA exhibition centre and everything. And perhaps, Diego, you can give us a bit of a sense of what this place is, because the north end's all the new part of the track, the bespoke part, the fan part. This is the existing infrastructure. So what is IFEMA?
Yeah, it's like the expo place where Formula E races in London, basically. It's the same kind of place. It has been having its expositions and all its usual events while the circuit has been constructed, and that has been one of the main challenges for them to... be building everything for the track and still having the normal activity because this is state-owned so it has to keep going and yeah it's been a challenge to get all the work to the exact deadlines having all these events around for the whole year so I think I first heard about IFEMA I've been living in Madrid for nine years and I first heard of it
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Chapters
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