Verstappen praises Madrid's new Madring circuit but admits street tracks will never win him over

Max Verstappen gave a characteristically blunt assessment of Formula 1’s new Madrid circuit on Friday, acknowledging the organisers had done “a really good job” building the Madring around the IFEMA complex — but making clear his long-standing dislike of street circuits remains firmly intact.

The four-time world champion’s initial reaction when asked for his first impression was a single, drawn-out “Yeah…” before elaborating: “I don’t know. I’m not a fan of street circuits so that will never change. I will always prefer to drive on a track like Spa. What they have done here, the way they have built everything up, I think they’ve done a really good job, but I’m not a fan of street circuits.”

F1’s debut weekend at the Madring has been less chaotic than some in the paddock anticipated. While the F3 and F2 support sessions produced multiple crashes — including a car catching fire — the only Formula 1 incident through Friday was a crash involving Arvid Lindblad, leaving the circuit’s feared reputation as a potential “car killer” largely unconfirmed at the top level.

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache offered a more detailed engineering perspective, describing the layout as genuinely demanding due to its variety of corner types. He also warned that overtaking opportunities will be scarce. “It has quite a lot of types of corners and that is interesting from an engineering point of view,” Wache said. “But apart from that, it will be very difficult to overtake, it looks like that.”

The engineering challenge extends beyond corner variety. Teams must balance ride height and car stiffness to cope with both the high-speed sections and banking while remaining supple enough to handle the kerbs — a compromise Wache described as complex, particularly around tyre management and power deployment.

On pure pace, Verstappen ended Friday’s second practice session sixth, four tenths adrift of pace-setter Kimi Antonelli. That result aligned with his own pre-weekend expectations; he had already indicated the new venue was unlikely to hand Red Bull a straightforward win. “From our side, this is more or less where we are,” he said. “We just need to work a little bit on the balance, trying to get a bit more out of it over one lap and then see how the tyres hold up in the long run. But I guess everyone is a bit in the same boat.”

Verstappen also encountered a power steering issue during the second session, though he does not expect the problem to persist through the remainder of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.