Delay in work, the organizers of the GP in Madrid preach calm: “We are on time”

How much effort for the Madrid GP Delays in starting work, protests from civic committees, doubts about the date of the first testing and English tabloids speaking openly about a construction site where it seems that “they are preparing more of an expanse of sand than a Formula 1 track” (the Sun journalists wrote this recently). Yet, Liberty Media is not alarmed about the construction work on the Madrid circuit, where the first Spanish GP of the post-Barcelona era will be held on September 13th, on a new track that half uses city streets in the vicinity of the IFEMA exhibition center and half relies on permanent structures. Among these there is also the characteristic “La Monumental” curve, a bank that at the very least promises to give personality to the Madring, a track that has so far struggled to win over fans, at least judging by the first reactions to the on-board videos (for now necessarily only virtual) published on social media. The organizers of the GP in Madrid, however, are calm and show no concern about the state of the works, despite the fact that there are only five months left until the debut of Formula 1 in the Spanish capital. The tranquility of the organizers “The first layer of asphalt – explains the head of the project and former historical manager of Fernando Alonso, Luis Garcia Abad, interviewed by the sports newspaper AS – has already been positioned in turn-19. While in the rest of the circuit there is already concrete at the base. We are perfectly in line with the programmes, but the timing has never been a great concern for us, because the companies working on the construction site are proceeding at full speed to honor their commitment to close the first phase of the project by May 30th”. Then the final asphalt and curbs will have to be positioned and the grandstands and pit building will have to be built, with the start of the second part of the works scheduled for the month of June. “Formula 1 doesn’t know Madrid, but we are now bringing racing to the city. You can’t even imagine what Madrid can offer to GPs,” concluded Garcia Abad. Madring has a contract with Liberty Media to host F1 until 2035, while it has recently become known that Barcelona will be on the calendar every other year in an unusual relay with the legendary Spa track.