Charles Leclerc’s early verdict on Madrid’s brand-new Madring suggests the rest of the F1 grid may need to more courage than luggage for next month’s inaugural event.
The Ferrari driver sampled the 5.416km Spanish Grand Prix venue during a July filming day alongside team-mate Lewis Hamilton, completing laps while bulldozers, dust and unfinished grandstands still dominated the scene.
“I did some laps behind a Stelvio, or whatever that car was,” he told the media recently in Hungary.
“Obviously, it was in the middle of the works. There was still so much work, and there was so much dirt on the track.”
Yet beneath the construction-site chaos, Leclerc saw something far more enticing.
“But it looks like a cool track, and I love city tracks. It felt like a very challenging city track, which has all the characteristics that I like. So I cannot wait to try it properly once we go there for the race weekend,” he said.
La Monumental - the corner everyone is talking about
Madring’s headline act is La Monumental, a 547-metre banked right-hander with a daunting 24% gradient – the steepest the FIA allows.
Drivers are expected to endure around 4G for roughly six seconds through the turn, making it the longest banked corner on the current calendar.
©Ferrari
Leclerc believes it has all the ingredients to become Formula 1’s next “iconic” challenge.
“It’s a very, very special corner,” he said. “It’s a corner where I feel, in qualifying, we’ll have to, I’ll say it in a polite way, but we’ll have to be very brave because it’s going to be on the limit. So that’s going to be really cool.”
“I think it’s going to be a really cool corner. And, yes, I do believe it can become one of the most iconic corners of the season, especially once the grandstand is built.
“I think that will also add to the experience of that corner.”
In other words: Raidillon with a Spanish accent and perhaps a larger bill for fresh underwear.
Full commitment required
In a more direct comparison, Leclerc dismissed suggestions that La Monumental is simply Madrid’s version of Zandvoort’s now famous Arie Luyendyk Bocht banking.
“The final corner at Zandvoort is actually flat out,” he explained. “Maybe Turn 3 at Zandvoort, which is really cool as well. It’s slower, though.”
“But at Madring, it doesn’t look flat as of now, at least. I was very, very far from being flat during testing, mostly because of the dust that was on the track.”
©Ferrari
And if anyone wondered whether the circuit suits him, Leclerc’s answer was pure racer.
“I like city tracks in general, so I have little doubt that I’ll love Madring,” he added. “Whether it will fit me or not, I don’t really know.”
“But one thing for sure is that you will have to go full commitment, and this I always enjoy on city tracks.”
Madrid wanted a spectacular F1 debut. Leclerc’s early reconnaissance suggests it may have built one – and a corner capable of separating the brave from the merely employed.
Read also:
Sainz samples new Madring: ‘You’ve created quite a cocktail’
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook
Leclerc says Madrid’s La Monumental will ‘reward the brave’ F1i.com.
Hence then, the article about leclerc says madrid s la monumental will reward the brave was published today ( ) and is available on F1 News ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Leclerc says Madrid’s La Monumental will ‘reward the brave’ )
Also on site :