Max Verstappen won at Imola on Sunday and immediately mourned it, because the Italian classic just ran out its contract and won't be on the 2026 calendar. Madrid's new street circuit takes the slot.
Verstappen has now won four of the five Imola races since F1 returned in 2020, and he didn't dress up his feelings about losing it. He gets the business case — new markets, bigger audiences, more money — but said the old-school tracks are the ones that made him fall in love with racing as a kid in karts.
"Losing these kind of tracks is a shame," he said, pointing to the speeds, the difficulty, the history that "demands respect." Then the shrug: "What can I do about it?"
Nothing. F1's trading heritage for street-circuit spectacle, and American fans know the playbook — Miami and Vegas were built on the same logic. Madrid is next.
Read the full story at ESPN F1