Madrid Grand Prix

Spain's first Grand Prix was a hillclimb on dusty mountain roads. Rather a long way from Monaco.

The first Spanish Grand Prix took place at the Guadarrama circuit near Madrid in 1913, a hillclimb race on dusty mountain roads. It was a world away from modern Formula 1, but it planted the seed. By the 1920s, the race had moved to the Lasarte circuit near San Sebastián in the Basque Country, attracting the leading European manufacturers of the era.

Fangio sealed his maiden world title on a Barcelona boulevard lined with plane trees.

The Spanish Grand Prix entered the Formula 1 World Championship calendar for the first time in 1951, held on the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona. Juan Manuel Fangio won the race and, with it, his first World Championship title. The circuit ran along the wide Avenida de Pedralbes, lined with plane trees. It hosted just two championship races, in 1951 and 1954, before disappearing from the calendar for over a decade.

The man who gave the world Suzuka and Zandvoort also handed Madrid its first taste of championship racing.

Opened in 1967 just north of Madrid near San Sebastián de los Reyes, the Circuito del Jarama hosted its first Spanish Grand Prix in 1968. The tight, technical 3.4-kilometre track was designed by John Hugenholtz, the Dutch architect behind Suzuka and Zandvoort. Jarama alternated with the Montjuïc street circuit in Barcelona through the early 1970s, giving Madrid its first proper taste of world championship racing.

Four quicker cars behind him for the entire race, and Villeneuve still won Jarama's last Grand Prix by a fifth of a second.

The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama produced one of the most celebrated defensive drives in Formula 1 history. Gilles Villeneuve held off a train of four faster cars for the entire race in his turbocharged Ferrari 126CK, winning by just 0.2 seconds from Jacques Laffite. It was Jarama's final F1 race. The circuit's narrow confines and limited run-off areas meant it could no longer meet the sport's evolving safety standards, and Madrid lost its Grand Prix.

Senna beat Mansell to that 1986 Jerez victory by just fourteen thousandths of a second; margins do not come finer.

After a five-year absence, the Spanish Grand Prix returned in 1986 at the newly built Circuito de Jerez in Andalusia. Ayrton Senna won the inaugural race by just 0.014 seconds from Nigel Mansell, the closest finish in F1 history at the time. Jerez hosted the race until 1990 and later staged the European Grand Prix in 1994 and 1997, the latter producing Michael Schumacher's infamous collision with Jacques Villeneuve.

Thirty-three Spanish Grands Prix; one circuit that both Schumacher and Hamilton each made their own six times over.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya opened in 1991 in Montmeló, north of Barcelona, and immediately became the Spanish Grand Prix's permanent home. Its mix of high-speed sweeps and slow chicanes made it a favourite for pre-season testing, meaning every team knew every kerb intimately. The circuit hosted 33 consecutive Spanish Grands Prix, with Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton each winning six times, a record shared between two of the sport's greatest.

At 18, Verstappen seized his first Red Bull win after Mercedes handed him the race by colliding with each other.

The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona-Catalunya became a landmark moment in Formula 1 history. Max Verstappen, just 18 years old and racing his first Grand Prix for Red Bull after a mid-season promotion from Toro Rosso, won the race. He became the youngest ever Grand Prix winner, a record that still stands. The race also saw Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide on the opening lap, handing Verstappen his opportunity.

Madrid takes over the Spanish Grand Prix from 2026 on a ten-year deal, closing Barcelona's 33-year chapter with the 2025 race.

In January 2024, Formula 1 announced that the Spanish Grand Prix would relocate from Barcelona to Madrid from 2026 onwards, under a ten-year deal running until 2035. The race will be held on a new purpose-built circuit adjacent to the IFEMA convention centre in the northeast of the city. The Madrid regional government and IFEMA backed the project, positioning it as a catalyst for the city's international profile. Barcelona's 33-year tenure as host came to an end with the 2025 race.

Forty-five years after Jarama's curtain call, Madrid finally reclaims its place on the Grand Prix calendar.

The 2026 season marks the dawn of a new era for Grand Prix racing in Spain. The Madrid Grand Prix circuit, designed by Tilke Engineers around the IFEMA fairground complex, features a mix of permanent and semi-permanent sections with a projected capacity of over 100,000 spectators. It coincides with F1's sweeping new technical regulations, including a shift to fully sustainable fuels and revised aerodynamic rules. For Madrid, it is the fulfilment of a 45-year wait since Jarama's farewell in 1981.