Little by little, the future Madrid Formula 1 circuit – called Madring – is taking shape in the Valdebebas district. While progress is being made – “at a good pace”, according to the organizers – with the resurfacing of the 5.4 kilometer track along which … Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso or Carlos Sainz will travel on September 11, 12 and 13, the workers are already getting to work with the construction of the ‘Pit Building’. What will be the nerve center of the competition will house the pit area as well as the exclusive grandstand for VIP participants of this highly anticipated race.
This infrastructure, considered the key to any grand prix, contains the team garages, technical areas used by the FIA and the VIP Paddock Club. The complex, nearly 20 meters high, will have three floors. The lowest level will house the space called “pits”, the area where the teams work, where strategic decisions are made in real time, where the competition cars spend the night and from where they jump onto the track. This building, designed to operate at the highest level during the race weekend, will have 14 modular garages, 11 for the teams and 3 others at the disposal of the FIA.
At the upper levels, the VIP Paddock Club will be developed, one of the most exclusive spaces in the competition. It will have indoor lounges, luxury reserved areas and panoramic terraces through which the public can enjoy privileged views of the pit lane and the track. This environment is intended for companies, guests and personalities, “where sport, technology and experience go hand in hand”, underlines the event organizer.
The building, whose construction is being carried out by the company Eiffage Construction, will be directly integrated into the existing Ifema pavilions, creating direct connections between the buildings, accessible staircases and elevators and will have a life beyond the celebration of the Grand Prix which will take place in the capital at least until next 2035. Thus, during the months when there will be no F1, this infrastructure will be part of the daily activity and usual needs of this consortium, re-evaluating the Convention South area of the site. fair, as well as its pavilions 1 and 2.
Progress “according to the planned schedule”
Alongside the start of the construction of these key infrastructures for the competition, work on the Valdebebas field continues to develop “according to the planned schedule”, they emphasize. At the beginning of December, the coating of the first base layer of the route began, a fundamental step in the configuration of the track. In the coming months, the remaining layers – the intermediate layer and the rolling layer – will be executed.
However, it was last summer – taking advantage of the fact that the site’s activity was paralyzed and traffic was at a minimum – that most of the changes were made at Ifema, thus accelerating everything that was possible during these months. Concretely, the necessary earthworks were carried out and work was carried out on the adaptation of the terrain such as the layout of the track in the different sections of the circuit which run on public roads.
Asphalt works at the Madring circuit
In addition, last summer the mega truck parking lot, built with the aim of increasing the logistical capacity of the exhibition center, was also ready, particularly necessary for the celebration of international events of this magnitude. This work made it possible to increase truck parking capacity by 20%, from 83 to 100 spaces, and 32% of the surface area.
A test
With the aim of testing the operation of Madring, as announced by the president of the Executive Committee of Ifema Madrid, José Vicente de los Mozos, a race will take place without an audience and at a “level below Formula 1” to carry out tests on asphalt. The manager insisted last November that he did not want “to repeat the experience of Las Vegas, where a sewer was erected, and at the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, all we were talking about was the sewer.”
However, this specific situation cannot occur in Madrid since there will not be a single sewer along the entire route. All sewers were diverted, including rainwater, in the streets of Ribera del Sena and Francisco Umbral as well as on the Dublin road last June. As progress is made on other sections of the circuit, these elements which could hinder the movement of cars will be removed.
Every day, explained De los Mozos during this same intervention, he receives information on the status of the work on the circuit. He then announced that “the black layer is already in place” on the curve which will bear the name of the Monumental. De los Mozos stressed that it is “important to have accelerated” in summer, because “winters, we never know how they arrive and if we arrive with a lot of rain, it can delay us.”
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