Formula 1 returned to Madrid this past weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix, at the all-new street circuit known as the Madring.

And now, the drivers are offering their verdicts on the sport’s newest track.

Earlier in the week veteran driver Nico Hülkenberg, always ready with keen insight everytime he steps to a microphone, offered this assessment of the Madring. “Tough, very challenging. I mean, crazy fast: it’s like Monaco, but just ultra fast. There’s some serious high-speed combinations, a lot of change of directions with virtually no room for error, no run-off on the exit.

“So it was an intense day. Heart rate’s definitely up in this circuit and the adrenaline is kicking in, but we managed to scrape through today.”

Given how both Saturday and Sunday played out in Madrid, that bit of insight seemed to hit the mark.

While Saturday’s qualifying session offered quite the thrill ride, with drivers pushing the limits both inside the car and on the track, Sunday’s race was something of a dull affair. Overtaking came at a premium, drawing another parallel to the Monaco Grand Prix, F1’s crown jewel.

Speaking after the race, podium finishers Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris offered their thoughts. Starting with Norris, who was running at the front before an untimely Virtual Safety Car hampered his chances of winning, and the McLaren driver settled for third:

Yeah, I think there are some obvious changes they should make.

They should get rid of 18, 19. Useless. Just have more of a straight into a hairpin. Like, I don’t know how someone looks at this design and goes, “Mint.” Yeah, I think there’s a lot of opportunity. Like I said yesterday, I think they can make it into a track that’s good for racing, and I’m excited to come back here next year if they can make these changes because I think it’s a track that is good fun to drive and it can be a great racetrack.

To me, it’s not a great racetrack. It’s great in qualifying, but, you know, straight line from 17 straight to 20, have a much wider entry like Austin Turn 1 or Turn 10 in Austin, big hairpin. You know, you’ll create much better opportunities for everyone and you’ll be able to enjoy the race.

So yeah, there are some simple changes and maybe some trickier ones, like Turn 5, 6, 7. It’s hard to know exactly what’s the best thing. The fact you have to turn and brake basically defeats the whole object of racing. So, they can do some simple changes, I think, easy changes and maybe some more tricky, but I hope they do it because then it should be more exciting for everyone.

Antonelli, who capitalized on Norris’ misfortune to secure yet another win, shared in that assessment:

It definitely doesn’t create overtaking opportunities and it doesn’t push you to try and make a move because, just, you know, 80% of the time you might have a contact. So, I think especially in the second chicane, if I would have turned in, me and Lando would have touched and probably gone in the wall and blocked the road or, you know, definitely wouldn’t have been nice.

So, I think there are some corners that need to be changed to create more overtaking opportunities because right now, yes, it’s nice over one lap, but for sure in the race, you know, you’re just stuck behind.

Here is the layout of the Madring, courtesy of the official F1 website, for reference:

Norris and Antonelli were not the only drivers to offer some thoughts on the circuit. Alexander Albon described the race as “pretty boring,” while Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto relayed that he “almost fell asleep” inside the car during the 57-lap event.

Carlos Sainz, who served as one of the ambassadors of the Spanish Grand Prix, wrote on social media that the track is “great,” but “[t]here needs to be some work done to create better passing:”

Speaking after the race Luis Garcia Abad, the managing director of the Madring, told Motorsport that changes will be coming to improve the track layout for next year.

The FIA defined clearly which is the way to improve the track layout, and we will be open because we will have to reinstall the track for the next year. I really believe that the drivers enjoyed qualifying a lot. But for sure we will try to make an improvement for next year.

We have the space, we have a venue, we have the facilities, we have the capacity to do it. I’m sure that FOM [Formula One Management], FIA and ourselves, we will try. If we can improve something, we will do it.

If Madring organizers are looking for some inspiration, they could find it from the minds behind the Miami Grand Prix, another street circuit added to the F1 calendar in recent years. After the inaugural Miami Grand Prix in 2022 — which winds around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens — the drivers offered some ideas for improving both the layout and the surface.

And race promoters listened.

Ahead of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix myself and other media members met with Tom Garfinkel, the managing partner of the Miami Grand Prix. He talked about the improvements to the track, and listening to the drivers themselves for feedback.

“Yeah, we haven’t got any complaints,” said Garfinkel back in 2024. “I’ve talked to all the team principals and I haven’t talked to too many drivers this year, the last two years I talked to them directly more. But the biggest complaint year one was the corner out at [Turns] 15 and 16, and really that chicane is put in to slow the cars down before they get to the straightaway.

“So it was a safety thing that the FIA had put that chicane in the way it was put in.

“And so between year one and two, we worked with Formula One and the FIA to kind of smooth that corner out a little bit. And so, and we did that last year and this year we left it the same because the feedback we got was that it was actually much improved. And in fact, I was talking to one team principal yesterday said it’s actually they enjoy it because what did he call it?

“He said it has a lot of personality.”

Garfinkel also noted how the resurfacing work done since year one has satisfied the drivers.

“They’re all very positive about the racetrack, the surface and the circuit itself just, the challenging nature of the circuit and the quality of the surface,” added Garfinkel. “So, we’ve really got no more complaints.”

While the drivers might have been frustrated on Sunday in Madrid, there is a roadmap to better days at the Madring in the future.