Kimi Antonelli won at the Madring on Sunday, but the story of Formula 1’s Madrid debut was the layout that produced the race. Almost every driver in the paddock queued up to say the circuit, laid out through the IFEMA exhibition complex, offers barely any real overtaking.

Verstappen set the tone before the race had even started. Asked whether space constraints inside the venue could justify some of the design choices, he flatly rejected the argument.

“I know they will always come back to you and say, ‘Yeah, but the space’. But that’s BS,” Verstappen said in Saturday’s post-qualifying press conference.

The Red Bull driver went further, offering to redraw the map himself.

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“Almost all the braking zones! If you give me the track map, I’ll sort it out,” Verstappen said, telling Autosport that drivers should be consulted before new circuits are built.

Sunday’s race did nothing to soften the mood. Antonelli edged Verstappen by 4.351 seconds with Lando Norris third, Formula 1 confirmed, but the podium papered over a race even the winner criticised.

Antonelli backs the chorus from the top step

“It definitely doesn’t create overtaking opportunities and it doesn’t push you to try and make a move, because 80% of the time you might have contact,” Antonelli said of the Turn 5-6 chicane.

Norris was blunter.

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“I don’t know how someone looks at this design and goes, mint!” the McLaren driver told The Race, calling for Turns 18 and 19 to be scrapped in favour of a straight run into a hairpin, on the model of Turns 1 and 10 at the Circuit of the Americas.

Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto produced the line that framed the whole weekend.

“Yeah, I almost fell asleep as well,” the Audi driver said of the spectacle from behind the wheel.

Alex Albon zeroed in on the same section as Antonelli.

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“A lot of it is around Turn 3 to Turn 5. I think that whole area needs to be redone. We need to remove that chicane,” the Williams driver said.

Albon hopes designers will be open to changes

Behind the criticism sits a hope that changes will come. Albon said he wanted the circuit reworked before F1 returns in 2027.

“I hope there’s open-mindedness to make some track changes for next year,” the Williams driver told Autosport.

The Turn 5-6 chicane, the Turn 3 to Turn 5 sequence and the Turn 18-19 stretch have been flagged by drivers as the priority zones, alongside Turn 13 and the length of the pitlane.

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F1 heads to Baku next for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday 26 September, and the second Madring race is scheduled for 2027.

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