Has F1 crossed the tipping point on street circuits with Madrid replacing Barcelona?

The ever-present Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona would soon make way for the street circuit in Madrid for the F1 Spanish GP in 2026. What this does is that it replaces another classic circuit on the calendar with a street track, which used to be a novelty in the past.

Monaco epitomized a conventional street track where you would wring the neck of the car to extract lap times. Over the years Singapore became a prominent presence with its physically demanding track that offered plenty of twists and turns with its humid surroundings and it being the first-ever night race on the F1 calendar.

However, over the last few years, there's been a shift in F1's approach. With new venues propping up the focus has been on street circuits built within the city. The number of such tracks seems to be increasing every season, leading to a certain level of fatigue being developed within the sport.

The news of Madrid being a part of the F1 calendar and replacing Barcelona had what could only be termed a lukewarm reception with many fans pushing against it.

One of the fans wrote on X:

"So another street circuit, why don't they make it a night race so we can't tell the difference between Vegas, Singapore, Saudi and Madrid while we are at it"

Karun Chandhok, former Indian F1 driver reacted to the news positively but if we go through the replies on his post, there aren't many that speak highly of the race.

In a recent interview, Max Verstappen touched on the topic of an increasing number of street races and said that F1 was at a tipping point with street races, especially with the heavy current generation cars.

With the sport looking to add another street race by replacing one of the classic circuits, has F1 crossed the tipping point in terms of the number of street tracks on the calendar? Let's take a look.

The increasing number of street circuits in the F1 calendar

As a benchmark, if we take a look at the 2014 F1 season, there were three street circuits at Monaco, Singapore, and Sochi. Almost a decade later in the 2024 season, we will have as many as six street circuits at Jeddah, Miami, Monaco, Singapore, Las Vegas, and Baku.

This is 25 percent of the calendar and if you compare it with how it used to be earlier where a street circuit was a bit of a novelty, it's become more and more of a regular feature now.

In 2026, if we don't have any more street circuits introduced, the addition of Madrid will make it seven street circuits in the calendar.

Why are street circuits being preferred?

As a fan, this might not be the most important question but as a business, one needs to understand why there is an increased emphasis on street tracks. One of the major reasons behind it is accessibility and profitability.

Having a street circuit ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to generating revenue for a particular location. It helps with tourism as well because the race is held in the city and not in an isolated field. To add to this, the revenue-generating possibility also aids the location in paying the exorbitant site fees for hosting an F1 race.

The important aspect of having an F1 race in the city is that the event is coming to the fans, unlike a dedicated track in the outskirts where the fans would have to commit to going to the race. It is factors like these that have helped prop up street circuits in places like Miami, Las Vegas, and Jeddah.

The criticism for the newly added street circuits

When we talk about the criticism of these tracks it stems from the fact that many of these new tracks are just too similar to each other. It's hard to distinguish between a track in Jeddah under lights or the one in Las Vegas. As a result, for purists and hardcore fans, it's hard to associate these tracks with anything other than the 'show' element of the sport.

One of the most recent street circuits that F1 raced on was in Las Vegas. Max Verstappen was one of the biggest critics of the event as he felt he could not relate to the entire extravaganza.

Arguably what has made things worse is the current generation of cars. The cars don't ride the curbs as well as the previous generation, they're bulky and they don't have the slow speed efficiency either. These cars truly struggle in the slow speed sections and it is quite visible on the onboards.

Finally, when it comes to these street tracks it does appear that the low downforce setups are the kings. Red Bull and Ferrari with their superiority in the top speeds tend to do well on these tracks more than anybody else.

Has the sport reached a tipping point?

It is an important question that needs to be answered here because the kind of response from the fans and Max Verstappen's open criticism is something that can't be ignored.

F1 has banked on the aspect that the hardcore fans will continue to be a part of the sport irrespective of the changes it makes. However, the last few years have seen wholesale changes that have made the fans a lot more vocal.

There has been a lot of focus on the bottom line in everything Stefano Domenicali has done recently and not all those things have gone down well with the fans. Has the sport passed the tipping point? Only fans could tell and at the end of the day, it will all come down to the viewership numbers. If the numbers decrease then we might see rectifications as well.

Finally, to answer the question of whether the sport has reached a tipping point on its number of street tracks. The answer to that question is up to the fans and we will find out soon whether these tracks are a positive or negative for the sport in general.