Madring design raises major red-flag risk

Formula 1 drivers are expecting Madrid’s new Madring circuit to produce crashes, red flags and safety cars this weekend - while Carlos Sainz says the enormous venue leaves plenty of scope to alter the layout in future.

The semi-urban circuit has already produced warnings following its Formula 3 test, where repeated stoppages and damaged cars highlighted the lack of margin for error.

George Russell admitted his simulator experience made the F3 disruption look almost unsurprising. "When I heard about the 20 red flags in Formula 3, I was a little surprised," he said.

"When I drove the track in the simulator, I was surprised that there were only 20. It’s a crazy track."

"It’s probably one of the riskiest circuits on the entire calendar."

Pierre Gasly was even more direct.

"I bet there will be a red flag," said the Frenchman. "That’s pretty certain."

"I’ve hit pretty much every barrier in every corner. So I know what to do and what not to do."

Oscar Piastri joked that his own simulator preparation was similarly destructive.

"If I did everything like in the simulator, we would have had to write off a few cars."

Sergio Perez described the circuit as "even a bit scary", while Alex Albon said qualifying could reward drivers willing to push close to the walls.

"If you take risks in qualifying, it can quickly gain you two tenths," said the Williams driver.

The likelihood of interruptions is heightened by the circuit’s infrastructure, according to Madring medical chief Isabel Ornaque.

"There are no service roads here," she revealed.

"Every time we need to intervene, as we did during testing, we’ll have to deploy the virtual safety car, deploy the safety car, or red-flag the session."

"The race will essentially have to be neutralised or stopped, as there are practically no runoff zones here, and those that exist are very small."

Some teams are understood to have brought complete spare chassis in anticipation of potential damage.

But the man who originally designed the circuit, Jarno Zaffelli of Dromo, will not be there to see its debut.

He told De Telegraaf that he is "unfortunately not welcome" after becoming involved in a legal dispute with promoter IFEMA following the termination of Dromo’s contract and the later involvement of Hermann Tilke.

Zaffelli nevertheless believes the circuit itself will be spectacular.

"Bend 5-6 is the trickiest," he said.

"A little further on you have a quick section. There the drivers like Max can show their balls, with the walls close by."

Sainz, meanwhile, believes Madring’s vast footprint means organisers have unusual freedom to respond if the first race exposes problems.

"I think the good thing about this track has so much space, as you guys have seen, that I think the track is going to be flexible for feedback," he said on Thursday.

"I wouldn’t discard that in the future they can change the setup or the arranging around just to fit whatever you guys or whatever the teams prefer."

The scale of the new paddock has already become a particular talking point.

Gabriel Bortoleto joked: "For me the only difference is that I need to change my arrival time 15 minutes earlier because it took quite a while to arrive in the hospitality today."