Circuito del Jarama

Circuito del Jarama
Circuit Details
Name	Circuito de Madrid Jarama - RACE
Location	San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain
Length	3.915 km (2.433 mi)
Corners	13
First Race
Last Race
Only Race	2024 Jarama Test
Circuit Records
Fastest Lap	Qualifying	Race

The Circuito de Madrid Jarama - RACE, otherwise known as the Circuito del Jarama, is a permanent racing circuit in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid, Spain, that was used by the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to host the pre-season test for the 2024/25. Jarama's debut as an FE test venue was a last-minute one, after flooding in Valencia and near the Circuit Ricardo Tormo meant that FE had to stage its 2024 Pre-Season Test at the Madrid based circuit at short notice.

Background

Jarama would open in July 1967, having been designed by John Hugenholtz and built across two years by Alessandro Rocci in a bid to restore the Spanish Grand Prix, which it duly did with a Formula One non-Championship race held at the circuit at the end of the 1967 season. 1968 saw Jarama host its first World Championship Grand Prix, although its tight layout and twisting nature was not thought of as being condusive to good racing, and so the venue would share the Spanish Grand Prix with the Montjuïc Street Circuit in Barcelona as a result. After a huge and fatal accident at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuïc the race would instead only run at Jarama until the 1981, after which the race was cancelled due to a lack of interest from spectators.

Elsewhere, Jarama would share the Spanish Motorcycle Grand Prix with the Circuit Ricardo Tormo until 1998, while also hosting other series such as the World Sportscar Championship and w:c:motorsport:World Touring Car Championship. The circuit was reprofiled in 1991 and extended, a new loop added to extend the north-west section of the circuit, yet despite that would soon lose the majority of its major international series of note, its last major event being a 2006 race of the European Le Mans Series and TCR Europe Touring Car Series in 2020.

Formula E History

The Circuito del Jarama was a late addition to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship's list of official venues, when the circuit was called upon to host the 2024 Pre-Season Test ahead of the 2024/25 season. The circuit replaced well established venue the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as the series' collective test venue for season eleven, after severe flooding in the area around Valencia and the Valencian circuit in the fortnight prior to the originally planned 2024 Valencia Test meant the series felt it was not feasible to use the circuit. Formula E would quickly agree a deal to use the Jarama circuit instead for its pre-season test, pushing the start date of the test back by almost a week, although the schedule was otherwise unaffected.

The test would also feature a women's only test session and a final race simulation to test Pit Boost ahead of season eleven, when that system was finally added to the FE repertoire.

Circuit History

FE would modify the standard Grand Prix layout of the Jarama circuit to better suit its needs, with a hastily added chicane established a few hundred yards along the start/finish straight at the normal pit-entry point, which would better reflect a circuit the series would use.

Circuit Layouts

The lap of Jarama in 2024 would open with a run down the short start/finish straight, before a gentle left carried the field into the open hairpin turn one, a long right hander. A short straight followed before another right hander of turn two, with a quick blast following before the dual apex left hander of turn three turned the cars through 180° , which was then almost mirrored by a hairpin right at turn four to conclude the first sector. A short burst would again follow before a low angle left hander of turn five, before a long straight that ended with a sweeping right-left hander of turn six that then fed the drivers into turn seven, another long apex right-hand curve.

The Attack Mode activation zone was located around the outside of turn seven, with a gentle right hand curve following the corner that then ended with a sharper, but by no means tight, turn eight to complete the second sector. A wavy straight then followed before the drivers would plunge on the brakes for a hairpin-esque left-hander of turn nine, before another sweeping curve formed the exit to carry the drivers into turn ten, a wide-radius right hander that tightened on its exit. A short burst carried the drivers to turn eleven, a right hand curve, before the FE adaptation to the circuit was found, a kink right before a left-right chicane that then saw the field rejoin the start/finish straight to complete the lap.

That additional chicane meant that the circuit measured 3.915 km in length, with pit-in located on the first element of the chicane, and pit-out just before the shallow kink at the end of the start/finish straight.

Records

A full list of records for the Circuito del Jarama are outlined below.

Testing Records

The testing records for the Circuito del Jarama are outlined below:

Circuito del Jarama Testing Records
Event	Driver	Team	Fastest Lap	Ave. Speed
2024 Jarama Test	Mitch Evans	Jaguar TCS Racing	1:27.461	161.146 km/h

References

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