The announcement that the Spanish Grand Prix is headed to a street circuit in the nation’s capital Madrid in 2026 was met with fanfare from the circuit organisers and Formula 1 itself, but the series’ growing obsession with street layouts is a counterproductive issue.
In 2024, the 24-race calendar will feature seven street circuits (eight if you count Canada, but the jury is still out on that one): Jeddah, Albert Park, Miami International Autodrome, Monaco, Baku City Circuit, Marina Bay Circuit and the Las Vegas Strip circuit.
The addition of Madrid will see that number rise to eight in 2026, a third of the calendar, providing F1 does not expand beyond 24 grand prix a year in the near future.
But in an age where F1 cars have grown larger and larger and look at their best at high speeds through fast, sweeping curves, restricting the sport to an increasing number of street venues appears counterproductive, especially when you consider the sport’s vision for the next set of regulations in 2026 is to improve racing.
The rising popularity of street circuits in F1 is a recent phenomenon.
The addition of Las Vegas in 2023 saw the number rise to seven, two more than in 2019 thanks to the recent additions of the Saudi Arabia (2021) and Miami Grand Prix (2022) Grand Prix.
Go back to 2008 and the introduction of Singapore made it F1’s third street venue on the calendar.
World Champion Max Verstappen told the Telegraph ahead of last year’s Abu Dhabi GP that the current generation of F1 cars don’t belong on street venues and argued against their increased presence on the F1 calendar.
“In terms of circuits, for me real tracks are always more fun to drive,” said Verstappen. “People can say what they want about street circuits. But at the end of the day, that’s not where a Formula One car belongs.”
Sadly for Verstappen, the majority of F1’s long-term future does belong at street venues with traditional venues constantly under threat.
Madrid has secured a ten-year deal, Vegas has an official three-year deal with the local area keen to allow a decade-long stay, Miami is contracted through 2031, Saudi Arabia through 2030, Azerbaijan through 2026, Singapore through 2028, Australia through 2037 and Monaco through 2025.
Bar Azerbaijan and Moncao, the current and future crop of street circuits are here to stay, with their tight, twisty layouts and limited overtaking opportunities.
Meanwhile, Spa is constantly threatened with dropping off of the calendar, Monza is undergoing an infrastructure overhaul to secure its place, and the likes of Suzuka and Silverstone have their futures up in the air beyond this year.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali told F1.com: “For the avoidance of doubt and to clarify here, the fact we are in Madrid is not excluding the fact we could stay in Barcelona for the future.”
But the prospect of two Spanish Grands Prix in a single year with the calendar already at 24 races with new venues looking to join appears slim at this stage.
The positives to F1 of holding city events are clear – gaining the series a better transport network for travelling/visiting fans, closer access to local trade and the ability to put on a show around the event, but F1’s current crop of street circuits lack character, the layouts are uninspiring, convoluted even, dressed in ugly concrete walls and metal catch fencing.
Now the Barcelona circuit has never been one to produce GP classics, but Madrid’s complex street layout will fare no better.
With street circuit’s tight layouts come inevitable processions or red flag-infused chaos with critics suggesting the latter is the cause for F1’s infatuation with city racing (see Baku 2018).
Now there are some exceptions, Vegas delivered an exciting spectacle thanks to its long straights and well-thought-out DRS zones and Saudi Arabia showcases the frightening high-speed cornering ability of modern F1 machinery but exceptions shouldn’t be considered the norm.
If F1 truly wants to improve the racing spectacle, it shouldn’t be shackling itself to more street layouts with short straights and complex sections of low-speed corners with no margin for error.
That’s the best article I’ve read on this site in many months. A third of the events being street circuits is the absolute maximum which should ever be allocated, preferable would be no more than half that. Venues should be chosen on the basis of their suitability for racing, not for having a couple of bands on after it’s over.