THE BIG PICTURE: There really needs to be a better process in designing, and approving, new tracks.

EVENT: Granted, there were a lot of grandstand seats. There were also a fair number of empty seats on Sunday and a ton of empty swaths on Friday and Saturday. Plus, it was so far out from Madrid, it showed off the city as well as the Hard Rock Cafe Stadium circuit shows off Miami. Which is not at all.

TRACK: People were saying it's not so bad that F1 is leaving Barcelona, because that track never really produces any passing opportunities. And then we get this. Half the track is a permanment circuit where they could have done anything without the restrictions of current streets and buildings. And this is what Madring comes up with?

QUALIFYING: Lando Norris comes out of nowhere to grab pole. That surprise usurped the possibility of a Ferrari front row. That surprise was usurped by Verstappen taking third. Lawson was impressive. And the home drivers didn't even make it out of Q1.

RACE: We already have one race which shows off exemplary driving, making the qualifying session must see, but the race itself is a cure for insomnia. It's called Monaco. We did not need another such race on the calendar. The only passing was drivers giving positions back and the biggest move of the race was a VSC.

START: Antonelli passes for the lead not once but twice, but both times he did it by cutting the corner and both times he gave the position back. Verstappen did the same to Hamilton and then also pounced on Kimi when the latter was giving spots back. Meanwhile, Norris sails away.

NORRIS: When the first sentence out of every driver's mouth in the post race interviews is Lando should have won the race, something is wrong. Ironically, he was done in by being too good, because had he been slower, he might have been able to make the pit stop under the VSC. But, Lando was very magnanimous about it afterward.

MCLAREN: However, they never should have pitted Norris when the VSC ended. Keeping him out there would have opened a larger gap despite older tires thanks to Leclerc slowing down the field with his older tires (remember impossible to pass). At least it was worth giving it a shot instead of guaranteeing a loss with that pit stop right after the VSC. And it didn't help the pit stop got messed up.

PIASTRI: Oscar's race was immediately ruined when Russell hit him twice at the start.

ANTONELLI: Kimi is the example of when good luck comes to you exponentially. The second race in a row he won thanks to the timing of a VSC.

RUSSELL: Boned again by his own team's strategy.

VERSTAPPEN: Max figured out the way to defend on this track. Just drive in the middle.

LAWSON: Probably Liam's best weekend at Red Bull.

FERRARI: Fading away from the other top teams.

LECLERC: His only strategy, and not a bad one, was to hope for a late safety car. Which of course never came.

HAMILTON: You kind of need brakes.

COLAPINTO: Showed off Gasly for most of the weekend.

LINDBLAD: It doesn't matter who his teammate is. Arvid usually has the better of them.

HULKENBERG: Somehow got a point.

TSUNODA: Not that impressive.

BOTTAS: Perez is really making Valteri look bad in qualifying most of the time.

HAAS: Are they really thinking about changing a driver for 2027?

ALONSO: Lapped twice. At his home grand prix.

SAINZ: Never even got to finish his home grand prix, thanks to colliding with his fellow countryman. His home city grand prix, in fact.

WILLIAMS: Their first major upgrades coming to Baku. It's put up or shut up time for them.

F2: The only class which did have a lot of dicing and passing, was mysteriously Formula 2, and not F3. Except up front, where drivers led from start to finish. In the sprint race, Japanese driver Ritomo Miyata took the lead at lights out from second spot and never looked back. Swede Dino Beganovic won the feature race from pole, leading every lap.

F3: Without much passing, qualifying was going to decide the championship. And that went terribly for Brit Freddie Slater. This allowed Ugo Uchochukwu to gain three points in the sprint race and 12 in the first feature race, tying them in points, making the second feature race the mano a mano battle for the title. Neither driver changed from their starting spot. Thus, Ugo finished second and Slater eighth, making Ugo the first American to win the FIA Formula 3 championship.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Parade.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 1 -- On a new difficult track where everybody expected mayhem and multiple interventions, there ended up being just one VSC for just one lap. Yet, it made all the difference in the race.

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: Madrid plays a very dark role in early racing history. The 1903 Paris to Madrid auto race, now referred to as "The Race of Death," ended city to city events and nearly the entire sport. Approximately 220 cars left Paris, but only 38 completed the first leg at Bordeaux (342 of the scheduled 812 miles). At that point the race was stopped, never even making it to Spain, never mind Madrid. The toll was devastating -- five drivers/riding mechanics (including Marcel Renault) and three spectators were killed, numerous participants and spectators injured, some quite gruesomely, and countless crashes. Fernand Gabriel driving a Mors in the Heavy cars class was declared the overall winner. Marcel's brother, Louis, in a Renault, won the Light cars class.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @elmejordelresto

We need to throw the designer of this circuit in jail.

#F1 #Madring

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: In the cooldown room, Lando Norris is drinking a can of Coca-Cola. Off camera, a staffer is telling him he can't drink that because they are not a sponsor of the race. To which Norris responds, politely but sternly, "I just finished a race, I can drink whatever I want. Thank you very much."

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Max Verstappen on the Madring circuit, "I think they should let the drivers design the circuits because they really don't get it. There are no passing spots and in every turn you have to turn while braking. They didn't think it through."

SCHEDULE: Azerbaijan, where the 2025 championship battle started to completely reverse itself. Just saying...

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