2026 will be bringing many changes in the Formula One racing season and one of them will be a major venue shift as the Spanish Grand Prix will move from Barcelona to Madrid beginning in that year in a deal that runs to the 2035 season. It will be Madrid’s first time hosting a Formula 1 race since 1981 [held on a different circuit located outside of the city center].
The race will have 20 corners and be held on a new 5.47km (3.399-mile) circuit around the Ifema exhibition center between the Spanish capital and Barajas airport and will be capable of seating 110,000 race fans.
Formula 1 and FiA – F1’s governing body – are instituting new regulations in 2026 designed to reduce the sport’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero carbon by 2030. Towards that end, F1 is claiming that the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid will be “one of the calendar’s most accessible races” as 90% of fans would be able to travel to the race via public transport on metro and train lines.
The Spanish Grand Prix had been held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since 1991 and, prior to that, was held at Jerez in Andalucia from 1986-1990. The Spanish Grand Prix was first held in 1913, making it one of the oldest races on the F1 calendar.