Madrid’s new street circuit to debut in 2026, replacing Imola on F1 schedule

LONDON AP A new street circuit in Madrid will make its debut on the Formula schedule in September of next year replacing the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola F stated its calendar on Tuesday setting the first grand prix at the new Madring track in the Spanish capital for Sept Spain gets two races in as Barcelona stays on the calendar for the final year of its contract It faces an uncertain future after that F has previously revealed Madrid s race will be known as the Spanish Grand Prix The new schedule doesn t specify a new name for Barcelona s race which has been known as the Spanish Grand Prix since Spain s second race means Italy drops back to having one grand prix as Imola leaves the schedule The historic track a favorite with drivers returned to the schedule in as a late addition amid the COVID- pandemic and has hosted five races since Its contract was up this year The Australian Grand Prix on March starts the season for the second year running because the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia again move to April to avoid clashing with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan The season stays at races and concludes with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from Dec - As part of a push to limit intercontinental journey the Canadian Grand Prix moves forward from June to May so that it follows the Miami Grand Prix That sets up a foreseen clash with the Indianapolis Last month s Monaco Grand Prix was also run on the same day as the Indy but the difference in time zones meant it was easier to avoid a clash The Monaco race started nearly four hours earlier and finished well before the Indy began This week s race in Canada is sandwiched between events in Spain and Austria Moving Canada in will mean that all of F s European races are scheduled together from June through September With grands prix across five continents the season truly reflects the global nature of our neighborhood while the improved geographical flow of the calendar shows our joint commitment to making the championship more efficient and sustainable FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem noted in a declaration AP auto racing https apnews com hub auto-racing Source