Jarama Circuit

Motorsport venue in Madrid, Spain

Jarama, Tight Corners North of Madrid

North of Madrid, the tight and twisting Jarama shared the Spanish Grand Prix through the 1970s and bowed out with one of the closest finishes of its era.

Jarama was built on arid scrubland at San Sebastián de los Reyes, about 32 km north of Madrid, and opened on the 1st of July 1967. Its designer, John Hugenholtz, also drew Suzuka. The Royal Automobile Club of Spain has owned the circuit since 1981, and since 2022 its name has been Circuito de Madrid Jarama.

The place took its character from its compact shape: a short main straight and then a lap made mostly of tight, twisting corners, 3.404 km in its original Grand Prix form. Overtaking was extremely difficult, which suited the driver in front and tried the patience of everyone behind.

Formula 1 arrived in 1968, when Graham Hill won the Spanish Grand Prix for Lotus, and Jarama went on to hold nine championship rounds through 1981, at first alternating the race with Montjuïc and then hosting it every year from 1976 to 1979. Lotus cars won four times, and Mario Andretti won twice, in 1977 and 1978, more than anyone else. Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda and James Hunt also won here.

Its last Grand Prix is the one Jarama is best remembered for. In 1981 Gilles Villeneuve led in his turbocharged Ferrari with a queue of quicker cornering cars behind him, and he kept every one of them there, Jacques Laffite, John Watson, Carlos Reutemann and Elio de Angelis following like carriages behind a locomotive. At the flag the first five were covered by just over a second. It was the last victory of Villeneuve's career.

After that race Jarama was judged too narrow for modern Formula 1. It was lengthened in 1991 and upgraded in 2015, and trucks, touring cars and motorcycles keep it busy, with Formula E arriving in 2026.

Every Grand Prix here

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