Insight / Circuit design / MADRING

Why La Monumental Exists

Constraints did not draw Madrid’s signature banked sequence. Dromo created it by testing alternatives and authoring the relationship between speed, topography, three-dimensional geometry and the braking event that follows.

The central idea

Constraints define the problem. Creativity defines the response.

Every street circuit begins with constraints: roads, buildings, tunnels, level changes, safety requirements, urban planning, event operations and the surrounding community. Those conditions establish the design envelope, but they do not prescribe one inevitable route.

La Monumental exists because Dromo treated those constraints as the starting point of design. Its final form emerged through repeated optioning, simulation and judgement about how this part of the lap should perform and be experienced.

The creative act was not the use of one familiar component. It was Dromo’s particular selection, proportioning and combination of known circuit-design elements into a coherent three-dimensional sequence.

The complete design process

A circuit is selected from alternatives—not traced from one predetermined line.

The Madrid project passed through numerous materially different configurations. The comparison distinguishes the early conceptual work from the later project development without suggesting that continuity of site or ambition made the final geometry automatic.

Overlay of the many MADRING circuit configurations developed by Dromo, with early conceptual iterations in red and later project development in black — **Design evidence.** The red centrelines record the many alternatives developed during the early conceptual phase. The black centrelines record later development on the new 2024 survey basis. The same site could support materially different circuit configurations.

Topography / Valdebebas

The land created an opportunity—not an answer.

From the upper roundabout near the fort, the circuit descends along the escarpment through a substantial level change of approximately 12–13 metres. The earliest approach followed the existing slope more directly and entered a very fast, highly banked curve as a virtual continuation of the preceding straight.

That concept was viable, but it was not fixed. The site also allowed the entry to move upstream, the rotation to begin earlier, the speed-reduction sequence to become more pronounced, or the line to move by different amounts within the available envelope.

Each alternative would have changed the rhythm of the lap, entry commitment, minimum speed, run-off demand, acoustic position, spectator reading and the relationship with the following braking zone.

Public view / @_dronearte

The aerial view reveals the scale. The track reveals the geometry.

This aerial reel by @_dronearte shows La Monumental within the wider Valdebebas site. From this height, the scale and relationship with the surrounding infrastructure are immediate. What is less visible is the section’s full three-dimensional behaviour: the changes in level, the descent and rise, the entry crossfall and the progression into positive banking.

That difference between an overview and the on-track experience is precisely why a circuit cannot be understood from its plan outline alone.

Video credit: @_dronearte / Instagram. View the original post ↗ · Read Dromo’s response ↗

La Monumental / Version 16.03

One deliberately selected design response.

The sequence was revised to control the approach condition without sacrificing the identity of the banked corner or the major braking opportunity immediately after it.

Plan comparison of the earlier La Monumental approach in grey and the Dromo version 16.03 sequence in red — **One site, more than one answer.** The earlier, faster and more direct concept is shown in grey. Version 16.03 is shown in red, combining a new approach sequence with the banked corner and the braking event that follows it.

Shape the approach

An earlier directional change and inward relocation altered how the car arrived at the banked section.

Use the terrain

The descent, later rise and strong compression at entry turned topography into part of the driving sequence.

Protect the next event

The chosen geometry preserved the high-value braking event into the corner following La Monumental.

Design feedback

Targets and safety envelopes still leave room for authorship.

Feedback can identify a performance target—such as reducing the speed at entry to a banked corner—without generating the geometry that achieves it. A tighter radius, an earlier turn-in, a different directional change or a more obvious slowing device may all address the same target while producing materially different circuits.

Dromo evaluated those consequences together. Some options were rejected because they weakened driving quality, the internal logic of the sequence or the relationship between La Monumental and the braking zone that follows.

The existence of technical and safety requirements does not remove creativity. It makes the quality of the designer’s interpretation decisive.

From centreline to authored surface

A circuit is not designed as a line on a plan.

Dromo developed the later project phases on a new high-precision survey basis acquired from March 2024 using LiDAR scanning, UAV photogrammetry and GNSS measurements.

Dromo Hypertrack concept dashboard showing the proposed MADRING circuit layout and headline technical parameters — Dromo technical development material: the circuit was assessed as a performance system, not as an isolated plan line.

Low track-level view of a banked MADRING corner with red and yellow Spanish-colour run-off — The built banking and transitions express the relationship between geometry, construction and circuit identity.

Plan geometry

Approach attitude, radii, transitions, apex position and the relationship between consecutive elements.

Vertical geometry

Descent, rise, compression and elevation are coordinated with speed and driver perception.

Crossfall and banking

The entry moves from adverse crossfall into positive banking through authored compound transitions.

The complete surface

Racing line, shoulders, run-off, drainage and surrounding ground must operate as one buildable system.

Construction translation

The idea had to remain coherent at full scale.

The cross-sections, profiles and setting-out information used during delivery are outputs of the authored surface. The governing design act came earlier: deciding how the car should approach, rotate and exit; how the banking should develop; where compression should be felt; and how the sequence should prepare the next part of the lap.

During the first six months of construction, Dromo followed the translation of this intent into earthworks, formation, levels, banking and paved geometry.

Dromo Principal 3D Civil Designer Federico Vennarucci reviewing the first earthworks for La Monumental at MADRING — Federico Vennarucci reviewing the first La Monumental formation works as the authored 3D geometry became legible at full scale.

Initial earth formation and banked geometry of La Monumental during construction at MADRING — Initial earth formation of La Monumental before pavement construction.

Authorship

Dromo creativity made the difference.

La Monumental was created through the coordinated design judgement of Jarno Zaffelli, Francesco Grana and Federico Vennarucci, working through Dromo’s circuit-design and three-dimensional engineering process.

Jarno Zaffelli

Co-author · design principal and overall project design judgement.

Francesco Grana

Co-author · circuit design development and interpretation of performance and safety constraints.

Federico Vennarucci

Co-author · high-precision survey basis, three-dimensional engineering design and construction translation.

Connected Dromo knowledge

Read the geometry as a complete performance system.

MADRING case study ↗ Racetrack design ↗ Banked corner design ↗ Circuit simulation ↗ Motorsport acoustic modelling ↗

Dromo Circuit Design

Engineered to be safe. Authored to be driven. Designed to be remembered.

Explore how Dromo connected circuit identity, three-dimensional geometry and construction delivery at MADRING.

Explore the MADRING project

Image credits

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