Stefano Domenicali personally announced the signing of a ten-year agreement that the Spanish Grand Prix will be held in Madrid from 2026. He did this during a ceremonial presentation at the IFEMA exhibition center, around which the new city highway will be constructed.
In an interview on the championship’s official website, Formula 1’s president and CEO commented in more detail on this event.
Stefano Domenicali: “This is great news for Formula 1, which shows that there is very strong interest in our sport all over the world. With Europe seen as a region not ready to invest in Formula 1, Madrid and other cities are proving that this is not the case.
The organizers presented a very interesting project, which will be implemented over the next two years, and it will comprehensively take into account the interests of fans. We received a great offer from the promoter and discussed what this race could look like from day one.
I am very pleased that the agreement is long-term and runs until 2035. Formula 1 strives to conclude just such agreements with both new promoters and our traditional partners. This allows everyone to plan for the future and invest in it, it provides guarantees for promoters, our partners, teams and our entire sport.
If we remember previous practices, we usually extended contracts with race tracks for two to three years, with a maximum of five years. Now all new agreements have a long-term character, and if the contract is short, then there are reasons for that.
I would like to dispel all doubts and clarify our position: the fact that we will hold the race in Madrid does not rule out that we can stay in Barcelona in the future. The discussions on this topic are still ongoing, so let’s see if we can continue the collaboration with the Catalan circuit, with which we have excellent relations.
Just a few years ago the Spanish market was not the center of our attention, but now it has become very important. We have extended the contract with the Spanish TV channel DAZN, which will run at least until 2026. When several cities from the same country want to host the Grand Prix, it is nice to deal with such a problem. This shows how much they value their collaboration with us. But we must not forget what our success consists of and not allow ourselves to relax.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
