Spanish GP organisers say new Madrid track will be ready despite hurdles

MADRID, June 16 : Formula One's new Spanish Grand Prix circuit held a showy public unveiling on Tuesday with organisers confident all would be ready for the September race in Madrid despite construction being far from finished.

The largest Spanish flag in the country was raised at the first corner before government and circuit officials gave speeches and Williams' F1 driver Carlos Sainz spoke of his hometown excitement.

The 5.47 km Madring, around the IFEMA exhibition centre in the capital's northeast with easy access to public transport and Barajas airport, stretches over two distinct areas and features two long straights and a hallmark 24 per cent banked "Monumental" curve, where cars could hit 340 kph.

"It's a circuit that has a bit of everything: fast, slow, an urban part, a much more open part," said Sainz, a circuit ambassador who has already driven around in a Ford Mustang GT road car. "It's different."

ASPHALT ALREADY DOWN BUT PITLANE A WORK IN PROGRESS

While the black ribbon of smooth asphalt has been laid, the surroundings are busy with earth-moving equipment in a desert landscape with hundreds of workers preparing an area that will also host the championship's biggest fan zone.

The permanent pitlane garages are still a work in progress and temporary grandstands have yet to be erected while the paddock area remains conceptual.

But Madring's Chief Operations Officer Carlos Jimenez said he was sleeping soundly, despite time constraints and challenging bureaucratic hurdles.

"We are in our 11th month of construction and the permits took 12," he told Reuters. "Now the most complicated part, even apart from the track, has been done. In the south, the track is done ... in the north, the plot of land is going to be finished in three weeks.

"What we are going to start, probably in two weeks, is the erection of the temporary structures, the grandstands and hospitalities."

Jimenez said those elements would take around a month and a half to be built, but July and August heat could force workers to down tools when temperatures reached a limit.

"We might need to work during the nights," he said. "So we have reserved buffer time and we can do night shifts because the licence for construction allows us to work 24 hours."

The governing FIA has carried out two inspection visits with a third and last scheduled for mid-August, when the track will be water blasted to improve grip. The fan zone will be ready by late August and Formula Three cars will test the track.

Electronic systems, including lighting panels and tunnel illumination for where the track goes underneath a highway bisecting the area, will be done in July.

The final deadline is August 30, when the city council will inspect the facility.

The race, the second in Spain after this month's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix and first hosted by Madrid since the Jarama circuit hosted Formula One from 1968 to 1981, is scheduled for September 11-13.

Madring General Manager Luis Garcia Abad, who used to be double world champion Fernando Alonso's manager, said sustainability and ease of access had been a key factor.

"The new generation are looking for these things. They don't want to drive and spend two hours to get to the circuit and the parking lot. This is totally different," he said.

"You can be here and nine minutes later you can be in the city centre without any special problem and have a drink or dinner in a nice city."