Williams driver Carlos Sainz has completed his first lap of the new Spanish Grand Prix circuit in Madrid ahead of its inaugural race in F1 2026.

The Madring circuit is the only new addition to the calendar for the F1 2026 season with the venue set to host its first Spanish Grand Prix on September 13.

Carlos Sainz drives Madrid Grand Prix circuit for first time

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The track, which is located close to Madrid’s Barajas airport, remains under construction with an FIA inspection set to take place at the end of this month.

Madrid-born Sainz is one of two Spanish drivers on the F1 2026 grid, along with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, the two-time world champion, with the Williams man appointed an ambassador of the Madring last year.

The 31-year-old recently carried out his first lap of the Madring behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang GT car (below).

In a clip released by Formula 1, Sainz highlighted La Monumental – a 500-metre-long banked right hander set to become the longest corner on the F1 calendar – as the circuit’s signature turn.

La Monumental has attracted comparisons to the banked Turn 3 at Zandvoort, the Dutch Grand Prix venue which will lose its place on the calendar at the end of this year.

Sainz said of La Monumental: “Twenty-four degrees of banking, sustained for almost half a kilometre, so 500 metres.

“This will allow for side-by-side racing, especially for getting out of the dirty air – go high [or] go low – with the idea of [Turn 3 at] Zandvoort.

“Right at the end, it [the circuit] goes up and then down, so it’s not only banking, it’s up-and-down banking.

“I think this is going to be epic.”

Put to him that 45,000 people will be situated at La Monumental on race day, he added: “It’s going to be a tube of grandstands all the way around that corner.

“It’s going to be the signature corner of the circuit, I think, so it’s going to be grandstands to the left and to the right.

“I don’t think you get that in many places.”

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After the run, he said of the circuit overall: “Honestly? Impressive.

“Impressive because I didn’t expect to have so much fun. I didn’t expect it to be so flowing, so wide, where you can actually lean on the car for so long.

“I just realised how fast we were going and I was like: ‘If we’re going fast in this [car], imagine a Formula 1 car.’

“You go from a very tight, street-style area to suddenly a blind corner that you see absolutely nothing and suddenly the whole track opens up.

“It’s like you go through a screen and you go into a different world, like a different track!

“I love that the track has two completely separate, different parts and you go from a street part to a fully open, wide part.”

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