Can F1's Madrid street race avoid the fate of Valencia’s white elephant?

OPINION: Madrid's long-proposed vision to host a Formula 1 race in the coming years has finally come to fruition, after penning a 10-year deal to stage the Spanish Grand Prix from 2026. While the event has been talked up as being nothing but positive for city and country, F1 has a stark reminder in Spain of what could potentially go wrong if it's not careful

Published Jan 24, 2024, 9:57 AM

A street race around a vibrant Spanish city to boost F1’s image and bottom line. Optimism about a boom of spectator interest off the back of a Fernando Alonso hype train. Headline talk of there being a mammoth economic boost to the local area. And all the above without a single penny coming from the taxpayer. Everyone is a winner, aren’t they?

Formula 1’s announcement of a new home for the Spanish Grand Prix from 2026 was all glitz and glamour on Tuesday, as Madrid officials rolled out the red carpet and the musicians to announce that it had grabbed the race off Barcelona. All the soundbites coming out of the IFEMA venue near Madrid’s international airport, around which the F1 race will be held, were of a bright new era for F1 that will capture fan and commercial interest over its 10-year contract.

Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.