Dreaming is free; Hosting a Grand Prix… is not impossible either.
“We want the Formula 1 GPs to return to Madrid.” “Madrid deserves F1”. “We are the capital of Spain”. “It would come in handy for the image of the capital.” “It would be an economic injection for the region.” “It would create a lot of jobs.” These days these types of phrases are heard again. But the fact that a Formula 1 GP returned to Madrid, is it a lie without more people interested?
Would it really be possible to have high-level races in the central zone of the country? Should we automatically dismiss it and label as ‘populist’ those who mention it? What would it take to put on the table -if indeed there has been some kind of intention- a proposal that was serious enough so that it would not be taken as just another pre-election campaign act?
At the moment, it is a dream… shared, by the way, by each and every one of us who feel passionate about the world of motoring and the world of competition, like those of us who make up the AUTOBILD editorial staff. IT IS. But precisely for that reason, it is also logical to show disbelief at the sentences of the first paragraph… because they could be from now or from decades ago.
In fact, he has been thinking about a possible return of an F1 test to Madrid, and specifically, to the Jarama Circuit, since the last Spanish GP was held on that track, in 1981, which had replaced the streets of Montjuïc , in Barcelona, as the official venue for this event… and which would later end up being replaced by the Jerez and Montmeló circuits.
Failed attempts
More recently, the focus has been placed on the surroundings of the Madrid town of Morata de Tajuña, a location a priori much more suitable than that of Jarama to comply with FIA homologations, close to the Adolfo Suárez Madrid airport. Barajas… But of course, until further details, comparisons with Pinto’s failed proposal are inevitable.
And it is that already in that distant 2006, with Fernando Alonso in all his heyday, some of us even attended a press conference in which those supposedly responsible for what was going to be the Pinto Circuit not only had “everything ready in the absence of that the Community of Madrid would sign a few formalities”, but that Formula 1 would come to the region almost automatically…
…and everything, in a very ambitious megalomaniac project in which the layout would be only a part of what they called ‘motor city’. And all in an act full of ‘nationalist’ allegations (“Madrid deserves…”), from which we left without even being able to know where the necessary financing was going to come from to start the works and to pay the canon that would allow the arrival from F1.
It was a time when the single-seaters of the premier category of motorsport were in the area, both the classic ones and those of that time, but only in historical tests such as exhibition, advertising and marketing events. Some limited themselves to going around the Paseo de la Castellana and others did delight the fans on the asphalt of Jarama.
Precisely, this permanent circuit in San Sebastián de los Reyes and owned by RACE began a profound and important renovation in 2014, in the so-called ‘Jarama 2021 Project’. And although different phases have already materialized (tower, control center, press room, boxes), the Covid-19 crisis -among other factors- have made it impossible to finish it within the planned deadlines.
Likewise, as you can read on that link and see in the exclusive video that we recorded at the time, the spirit of that initiative was never to host tests of the ‘great circus’ or Motorcycling (which had resisted there until 1998), but to modernize enough to celebrate other major sporting events such as the Spanish and European Truck Championships, GT races and other events.
And despite the economic uncertainty and the pandemic, the track is still very much alive with an increasingly attractive program of activities, so with the appropriate logistical reforms, it would not be unusual for talks to start so that the now called Circuit de Madrid-Jarama (since the president of the region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, officially changed the name this year).
But it is one thing to take a photo and another to achieve adequate safety standards currently required by the International Automobile Federation. Not to mention negotiating a test of such magnitude with the bosses of Formula One Management (FOM), justifying investments (and their return) of public money to pay the canon for such an event…
If not, let them tell the Barcelona City Council, with all the criticism it has received in recent years every time it was time to renew the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s contract as the venue for the Spanish F1 Grand Prix since 1991. Or the logistical and judicial problems of the city council of Valencia and the Valencian Community on the occasion of the European GP held there from 2008 to 2012.
Of course: what was demonstrated at that time by the then boss of F1, Bernie Ecclestone (making the agreement a condition that the test be held around the Valencian port instead of in the modern, prepared and nearby Cheste circuit -and in the middle of August-) is that commercial interests took precedence over issues such as the safety of a route between streets.
And from then until now, his successors at the head of the category, in addition to maintaining the inalienable, mythical and very narrow Monaco GP in Monte Carlo, have filled the calendar with similar tracks (and a priori less suitable for the integrity of cars and drivers) in Baku, Abu Dhabi, Las Vegas, Marina Bay…
An urban Formula 1 circuit in Madrid?
Today, although some experts have said that F1 at Jarama would technically be possible with the proper investment and remodeling of the facilities, it would seem much more realistic to hold a ‘remove’ urban test of Formula 1 in the streets of Madrid or outside a fairground such as Ifema, to the northeast, to build and/or enable a permanent layout.
So, again, almost everything would go through a cost issue, both for the municipality to which the exact place of the desired race belonged and for the Autonomous Community. And doing it in an urban area is expensive, but more affordable than the other option. Although logistically it would entail an extra effort, as the CEO of Formula E, the Spanish Alejandro Agag, told us years ago.
In the interview we did with him in the first season of the event, in 2014, just before the Berlin race, Agag acknowledged that it was possible to hold such a race in Madrid, but that it was premature due to other issues, such as the initial monitoring of that competition in Spain and the fact that her mother-in-law, Ana Botella, was the mayor of the capital at the time.
But going back to F1, history shows that if there is enough political will and funding, the other hurdles don’t seem so insurmountable. And not even the fact that the name of the Spanish GP is right now in the hands of the Barcelona track (which, by the way, by contract, ends in 2026), given that there have been other ways to solve things.
For example, the aforementioned case of the European GP was something that Ecclestone pulled out of his hat to make room for more thriving candidates on the calendar, even if the country was repeated, which is why it has been held in Valencia, Nürburgring, Brands Hatch, Donington , Jerez… and even outside the continent, like in Azerbaijan!).
In addition, during the pandemic, we have had races for two consecutive weekends at the same circuit but with a different official Grand Prix name; in 2022 Italy has two events (the Italian GP itself, in Monza, and the Emilia Romagna GP at the historic Ímola circuit, which for years was the San Marino GP despite never being in that state). .
…Not to mention the Motorcycle World Championship, which has four events in our country and only one of them is officially listed as the Spanish GP: this one in Jerez, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya de Montmeló (GP of Catalonia), Motorland in Alcañiz (Aragón GP) and the Cheste Circuit (Valencian Community GP).
Thus, without fantasizing that the downtown area could host such a test tomorrow, or falling into the foolishness of ruling it out entirely in permanent or provisional venues in addition to Jarama (which continues to be praised by pilots and fans for technical and historical reasons), we rescued that phrase with which we titled Pinto’s project in 2006: Formula 1 in Madrid. Why not?