Eiffage Construcción, part of the French Eiffage Group, working together with Acciona, has started constructing the new Formula 1 street circuit in Madrid. The consortium formed by the two companies was awarded the contract, which Ifema Madrid put out to tender with a base budget of 111 million euros. The winning bid brought the price down to 83.2 million euros.

The street-type route, known as Madring, will be located on land owned by Ifema in the north-eastern part of the city. With a length of 5,400 metres, a total of 4,100 metres will run around the exhibition centre, and the remaining 1,300 metres will use public roads. The work, which started this April, will last until May next year, and will be ready to host the first race in September 2026.

Ten editions until 2035
In addition to constructing the circuit itself, the project includes assembling and disassembling all the temporary track structures and installations that will be needed for the championship. The Temporary Joint Venture awarded the contract will in addition take care of replacing and adapting the public roads so that they can return to their usual use at the end of each edition of the race, which is scheduled to be held for ten editions, until 2035.

Eiffage Construcción has had a presence in Spain for over five decades, and has experience across the entire value chain, from manufacturing and supplying materials to designing, supplying, executing, maintaining and operating infrastructure. It has also worked previously on other sports circuits, such as the one in Jerez (Cádiz), which it resurfaced for the 2009 MotoGP Grand Prix, and the one in Carmona (Seville), the third largest in Spain, where it was responsible for asphalting.

Acciona also has extensive experience in complex sports infrastructure work, such as the Motorland Aragón speed circuit, located in Alcañiz (Teruel), which has been kitted out to host motor racing and motorcycling events at the highest level. It also built the test centre for Finnish tyre manufacturer Nokian Tyres in Santa Cruz de la Zarza (Toledo).

Sustainable criteria
Constructing the circuit includes creating new roads. Sustainability will be one of the most important factors for the project. Approximately 700,000 cubic metres of earth from cuts and excavations will be reused. Furthermore, 60% of the materials that are moved will be reused in the work itself, and the remaining 40% will be stored for future use in other projects.

To reduce the environmental footprint of the project, a renewable biofuel will also be used to power the machinery and construction vehicles; a photocatalytic treatment will be applied to the bituminous pavements to reduce the emission of polluting gases produced by the combustion of the racing vehicles; a sustainable urban drainage system (SuDS) will be implemented, 351 trees will be transplanted, 5,803 new trees will be planted and 4,259 square metres of mobile sound-absorbing screens will be installed in sensitive areas.

^{Photo: Eiffage Construcción}