A completely new circuit, the Madring in Madrid, played host to Round 14 of the 2026 World Championship. Although this would be the first Formula One race at this venue, Madrid has been no stranger to the sport, as the Jarama circuit, close to the Spanish capital hosted nine races between 1968 and 1981. The return to Madrid transfers the title of Spanish Grand Prix from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to Madring. For Fernando Alonso it also meant another home race, with Aston Martin expecting plenty of green amongst the traditionally passionate and partisan Spanish fans.
The entirely new 5.414km circuit, for which there was no data, not even from another motor sport series, provided a challenge for the teams. It intertwines around Madrid's IFEMA exhibition centre and combines public roads with purpose-built sections, containing 22 corners in its varied layout. Drivers would encounter conventional 90-degree street-circuit turns, fast sweeping sections, changes in elevation and even passages beneath a highway. Its most spectacular feature is turn 12, appropriately named 'La Monumental' – a sweeping, semicircular corner extending for 550 meters and banked at approximately 24 degrees, which would prove punishing on the Pirelli tyres. Cars would remain in this section for around six seconds, flanked by 45,000 spectators in the surrounding arena. Elsewhere, the straights were predicted to produce speeds approaching 340km/h, making the circuit a particularly interesting compromise between downforce, drag, braking stability and traction. Sunday's inaugural race would cover 57 laps and a little over 308km. The greatest uncertainty was grip. With no historic Formula One data, no established racing line and new surfaces in several sections, teams could only rely on simulation work before the cars finally ventured onto the circuit. Pedro de la Rosa summed up the challenge for Aston Martin by describing a layout that appeared to contain "a bit of Jeddah and a bit of Monaco". That meant Friday's practice sessions would be particularly important as drivers learned the circuit and engineers attempted to correlate their simulations with reality.
For Aston Martin, Madrid also offered an immediate opportunity to recover from a deeply disappointing weekend at Monza, which had brutally exposed the continuing straight-line performance deficit and ended with both cars retiring. The far more varied Madring circuit promised a useful test of whether the recent improvements had simply been circuit-specific or whether the revised chassis and Honda Spec 2 power unit could begin delivering competitive performance across a broader range of conditions. With Alonso racing in front of his home supporters, Aston Martin could not have wished for a better venue at which to find out.
Free Practice
The inaugural race weekend at the Madring became a reality on Friday afternoon as all the cars ventured onto the new circuit for the first free practice session, which meant the circuit became extremely busy immediately. Every lap would be considered valuable as the teams attempted to correlate months of simulation work with the reality of the new track surface, its grip levels and characteristics. Both Aston Martins headed out as well, on medium compound tyres. At the quarter hour point Alonso was P12 and Stroll P13, although notably the Spaniard was 3.8 seconds slower than Hamilton's benchmark time. As other drivers started becoming familiar with the circuit their lap times improved and the Aston Martins began slipping down the order. Just before the halfway point Alonso and Stroll returned to their garages for adjustments and out they went again, settling into P15 and P18 respectively. Heading into the final quarter both drivers switched onto soft tyres for their qualifying simulations. The faster compound brought some improvement for Alonso and when the chequered flag ended Formula One's first official session around the Madring, Alonso was classified P15 with Stroll P19. Russell topped the timesheets. However, a glitch emerged immediately after the session for Alonso. While attempting practice starts a clutch issue was noticed with his AMR26 and the team scrambled to work on the car in the interlude until the next free practice session, with his participation uncertain.
When the second free practice session began only Stroll headed onto the circuit, while Alonso remained in the garage as his mechanics continued to attend to the clutch problem. After the first 15 minutes Stroll was P16, with Alonso and Norris the only drivers yet to venture onto the track. Good news arrived after 33 minutes – the mechanics had completed the repair and Alonso was sent out on medium tyres. His late start inevitably left him playing catch-up and at that point Stroll was P19 and Alonso P21. Two minutes later their efforts were thwarted when Lindblad stopped in the final sector, bringing out red flags. When running resumed with only 12 minutes remaining, both Aston Martins switched to soft tyres for their qualifying simulations. Alonso made the greater improvement, climbing to P17 – acknowledging the home support as he did so, while Stroll completed his afternoon in P20. Antonelli topped the timesheets this time. Despite Alonso's lengthy absence, Aston Martin had completed 89 laps across Friday's two sessions, providing the engineers with plenty of data to crunch about the AMR26 and the unfamiliar Madring circuit.
Saturday's final practice session presented the last opportunity to refine the cars before Qualifying, however, no team appeared eager to take advantage of it. The Aston Martins finally headed out seven minutes into the hour, both on soft tyres. Their first runs provided a fleeting moment of encouragement - Alonso initially taking P4 before Stroll bettered his time to take P3, pushing his teammate down to fifth. After 15 minutes Alonso was back in P4 and Stroll P5, although several of the leading contenders had yet to set representative times. As those drivers completed their laps the Aston Martins slipped backwards, but Alonso's P13 and Stroll's P16 seemed respectable. The session then had its first disruption when Hamilton had a major encounter with a wall which left his Ferrari limping back to the pits on three wheels before he was forced to stop. The session was red flagged while the damaged car was recovered and the wall repaired. Unusually, the FIA stopped the clock with 15 minutes and 38 seconds remaining, rather than allowing valuable practice time to disappear, which was prescient, as the lengthy recovery took another 15+ minutes. There was a frantic final quarter-hour as the remaining cars headed out simultaneously on soft tyres. With 10 minutes remaining Alonso had slipped to P17 and Stroll P18 as everybody attempted to complete their final qualifying simulations. But there was little opportunity for further improvement as with a few minutes remaining Bearman hit the barriers, bringing out the red flags for a second time and effectively ending the session. Alonso therefore finished P17 after completing 17 laps, while Stroll was P19 after managing only 12. At the front Antonelli headed Leclerc and Piastri. The final positions suggested that Aston Martin remained somewhere towards the rear of the midfield and Qualifying would provide the first real indication of where the AMR26 stood around the Madring circuit.
Qualifying
Stroll was the first Aston Martin driver to head onto the circuit when Q1 got underway, although his opening attempt proved untidy and he returned to the pits without setting a representative time. Alonso initially enjoyed rather better fortune, putting his AMR26 into P9 with his first flying lap, but as the remainder of the field completed their runs he rapidly slipped down the order. He went out again and this time he could only manage P17 and now there were only six minutes remaining and on the wrong side of the elimination zone, while Stroll was still stuck in the garage and yet to record a time. Alonso returned to the garage for final adjustments and a fresh set of soft tyres before heading out for one final attempt. He improved to P15 as he crossed the line and briefly appeared to have done enough to scrape into Q2, but the reprieve lasted only moments. Both Williams drivers subsequently improved and pushed him back into the drop zone, cutting short his afternoon. Their final positions were Alonso P18 and Stroll P21 (due to Bearman not being able to take part in Qualifying) — another discouraging Saturday for Aston Martin. At the front, Russell clocked the fastest time, ahead of Antonelli and Lawson. Stroll's bad luck continued to unravel after Q1 was over - it subsequently emerged that there were issues with his power unit.
With neither green machine competing, the battle for pole position resumed. Verstappen set the early pace in Q2 and the Red Bull driver ultimately headed Antonelli and Hamilton into the final round for pole-position. Hamilton laid down the early benchmark in Q3, taking provisional pole ahead of Antonelli and Russell and set up the prospect of an intriguing generational contest between the seven-time World Champion and Mercedes' young star. In the end, however, neither would claim the honours. Norris produced a superb final lap to snatch pole position, with Antonelli securing second place alongside him on the front row and Verstappen taking P3. Hamilton was pushed back to fourth.
After the session Aston Martin took the decision that a fresh Honda power unit would need to be installed in Stroll’s AMR26 and he would begin the Spanish Grand Prix from P21, after it was confirmed that Bearman would start from the pit lane with a new chassis and power unit elements installed following his crash.
Race
After a disappointing Qualifying session, Aston Martin faced another testing start to their Sunday afternoon at the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso lined up P17 following the application of grid penalties ahead of him, while Stroll started P21. Both drivers started the 57-lap race on hard compound tyres, giving Aston Martin the opportunity to extend the opening stint and potentially taking advantage of any disruption or alternative strategies. Norris made a clean getaway when the lights went out, retaining the lead into the opening corners. Behind him Hamilton and Verstappen battled away, with the Red Bull driver finding his way past Antonelli, although Verstappen was subsequently instructed to give back the position. In doing so he temporarily lost a place to Hamilton as well, before quickly repassing the Ferrari. At the back, Stroll made the better start of the Aston Martin pair, climbing to P19 while Alonso dropped to P20. That didn’t last long - Alonso repassed his teammate on lap three and immediately set about closing the gap to fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz ahead. Back at the front, Hamilton began complaining about his brakes, or lack of them, and, after being passed by Leclerc and tumbling down the order, he was called into the pits and Ferrari retired the car. That promoted the Aston Martin pair and, by lap seven, Alonso was P18 with Stroll P19. While Alonso continued to apply pressure on Sainz, Bearman passed Stroll on the following lap. On lap 13, Alonso got right up to the Williams and touched Sainz's rear tyre and damaged the front endplate of his AMR26. A piece of bodywork flew off the Aston Martin, but Alonso was able to continue. During that encounter Sainz overshot the corner and kept position, but the Stewards handed him a 5-second stop-go penalty which was served later during his pit stop. Moments later Stroll went off the circuit on lap 14 into a runoff area and out of the race, having encountered a brake issue similar to Hamilton’s. This prompted yellow flags initially and then a Virtual Safety Car (VSC).
The VSC period provided an opportunity for the team to attend to Alonso's damaged AMR26 – he was called into the pits, while the mechanics inspected the damage, replaced the front wing and switched tyres onto a new set of softs. Other drivers also took advantage of the VSC interlude to come in for fresh tyre changes. However, as Alonso’s stop took longer than normal, he came out in P20 - last of the remaining cars and some 10 seconds behind Bottas. While Alonso went about trying to recover whatever he could from the race, at the front there had been a lead change, as Leclerc hadn’t pitted at all – he was P1, Norris had pitted late – he was P5, while Antonelli pitted at precisely the right moment and was P2. On the softer compound Alonso gradually began closing the gap to Bottas and by lap 25, had recovered to P18 after reeling in and passing Bottas and benefiting from Sainz making a pit stop and serving his penalty. At the halfway stage Alonso was still working the soft tyres and came to within eight seconds of Perez, who then stopped on lap 31 for fresh tyres, promoting Alonso to P17, before Cadillac subsequently retired Perez’s car altogether. On lap 39 Alonso, with a decent gap behind him, returned to the pits where his Aston Martin pit crew fitted another set of hard tyres, which would take him through to the chequered flag. He rejoined still in P17. At the front, Leclerc was maintaining his lead, with Antonelli right behind him and Verstappen not far off, but with Norris getting ever closer. With 9 laps remaining Leclerc had to make his mandatory pit stop, allowing Antonelli to inherit the lead and for Verstappen and Norris to move into the podium positions. Norris continued to harass Verstappen during the closing laps but could not find a way through, leaving Antonelli clear to take victory in Formula One's first race around the Madring circuit. Verstappen finished second with Norris third, the McLaren driver having spent the final laps within touching distance of the Red Bull.
Alonso had a very solitary race and brought the surviving AMR26 home in P17, having been lapped twice by the leaders, much to the disappointment of the passionate Spanish supporters, as fellow countryman Sainz had an even worse finish – he had to retire his Williams on lap 43.
Reaction and Comment
Having briefly shown some encouraging signs during Free Practice, the weekend ultimately delivered another sobering indication of the team's current position. Alonso's race had at least demonstrated some competitive pace on the soft tyres as he recovered positions after the unscheduled front-wing change, but damage and the resulting additional pit stop had effectively ended any realistic prospect of progressing further up the order. After the race Alonso said, “We needed a chaotic race today to try and change our situation and in the end we didn't have much to fight for. But we tried different things and keep learning about the updated package. Unfortunately, Carlos hit me and it meant we had to pit to replace the front wing. It was incredible to see the support of the fans today and I really enjoyed the atmosphere." Stroll didn’t even have the benefit of the home crowd to cheer him up – he said, "I picked up quite a bit of damage in the opening laps. We tried to keep going, but then I started having some brake issues and the pedal was getting very long, so I locked up. I tried to spin the car around in the run-off, but I didn't have enough power, so unfortunately that was the end of the race. It's been a difficult weekend in Madrid."
The inaugural Madring weekend therefore ended much as it had begun – with Aston Martin still searching for the consistency and performance required to challenge the midfield regularly. Alonso had fought hard in front of his home supporters, but P17 and another retirement for Stroll represented scant reward from a weekend in which the team had never seriously threatened to achieve any points.