Drivers almost unanimous in criticising new track that promised much but delivered little.
"I almost fell asleep," said Gabriel Borotleto post-race, and he wasn't the only one.
Though not expecting the fireworks witnessed in the various F2 and F3 sessions, we were all expecting some drama once the lights went out and the red mist descended.
Instead, arguably the most dramatic moment of the day came post-race when Lando Norris sipped a Coca-Cola in the cool down room and was chastised by an official for drinking an unofficial brand.
"I've just driven a race," snapped the McLaren driver, "I'll drink what I want!"
All that was missing was for the 2025 world champion to ask if he could use his ACER laptop to ship his trophy home by Fed-Ex, pay for it using his Diners Club card and then tuck into a Burger King.
Those who remember the days of the Bore-celona processions will have viewed the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix and wondered if the Madring should perhaps be renamed the Boring.
The race was only a couple of laps old when Max Verstappen shared his opinion of the track.
Told by Gianpiero Lambiase to hand position back to Lewis Hamilton after cutting the opening corner, the four-time world champion described the track as "******* Mickey Mouse!"
Of course, much like the 2026 regulations, the Dutchman had previously admitted his doubts about the track.
"There are no corners where you can pass, so you need to rely on people degging very aggressively, so it's going to be tough," he had warned. "The long runs here have been very tough, a lot of deg for everyone, so that will probably be the key point, but even with that, I still need to figure out a corner where to pass."
"It definitely doesn't create overtaking opportunities," said Antonelli, "and it doesn't push you to try and make a move, because 80% of the time you might have contact.
"So, I think there are some corners that need to be changed to create more overtaking opportunities, because right now, yes, it's nice over one lap, but for sure in the race you're just stuck behind."
"I think there are some obvious changes they should make," added Norris. "They should get rid of Turn 18, 19, it's useless.
"Honestly, I don't know how someone looks at this design and goes, 'Mint!'," he added. "Yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity."
"I hope there's open-mindedness to make some track changes for next year," said Alex Albon. "I mean, if the F3 cars can't overtake, then you know there's going to be no overtaking the whole weekend.
"I think there only needs to be a couple of changes to fix the problem," he added. "Otherwise, honestly, it's not a bad track. It's quite a fun track to drive, just like you saw in the races, it's pretty boring.
"Around Turn 3 to Turn 5... I think that whole area needs to be redone, maybe straighter braking zones," said the Williams driver. "We need to remove that chicane. It's good for spectacle, but it's not good for racing.
"And the banking, as great as it is, it's not really doing a good enough job in Turn 13. Turn 13 maybe needs to be a slower corner, a bigger braking zone."
"You only have to look at the layout, and it's quite clear that it's going to be a poor track for racing," said Oliver Bearman. "I mean, when you arrive and you see that layout, you're like, what do you expect us to do? It's a bit of a shame.
"Not only do you have a lot of long combined exits where it's really tough to put power down, you have a lot of combined entries as well. It's very easy to drive a bit dangerously defending your position and, therefore, very hard to send an overtake.
"We already said that to the FIA on Friday and we need to look into a way to make the track a bit more interesting for us, because it's interesting to drive for sure, but in the race it's very poor."
"Just the jump in T5, to do that for 50 laps, you get quite a lot of headache at the end of the race," said Bortoleto. "So, it's not the easiest one for our body."
"To me, it's not a great race track," said Norris. "It's great in qualifying, but, you know, a straight line from 17 straight to 20 would help, to have a much wider entry like Austin Turn 1 or Turn 10, a big hairpin. You'd create much better opportunities for everyone and you'd be able to enjoy the race.
"There are some simple changes and maybe some trickier ones, like Turn 5, 6, 7," he added. "It's hard to know exactly what is the best thing.
"The fact you have to turn and brake basically defeats the whole object of racing," he insisted, a point previously made by Verstappen. "So, they can do some simple changes, I think, easy changes and maybe some trickier changes, but I hope they do it because then it should be more exciting for everyone."
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Madring here.
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