Madrid’s spectacular Monumental corner has produced one of the more counter-intuitive technical features of the 2026 Formula 1 season: lifting off the throttle can make a driver faster over the lap than attempting to take the corner flat-out. At Madring, the decision is not simply about grip. Teams must balance tyre temperatures and, crucially, battery deployment, preserving electrical energy for the closing part of the lap and the straight that follows.
After qualifying, Charles Leclerc summed up the wider challenge of Formula 1’s first weekend at the new Madrid circuit. No driver could be completely satisfied with their lap because everyone knew they had left something on the table. That applied even to Lando Norris, who produced an outstanding pole lap despite losing three tenths with an error at the final corner, as well as to the two Ferrari drivers and Max Verstappen.
Why Madrid’s Monumental is so difficult to optimise
That uncertainty is understandable. This is Formula 1’s first season racing at Madring, and finding the ideal operating window has required teams to learn everything from kerb usage and tyre management to power-unit deployment. Understanding how to attack the new layout has therefore been just as important as finding outright performance.
Energy management has actually been less complicated than at several other race weekends, with the FIA making 7.5 MJ available. Even so, extracting the maximum from that energy has not been straightforward. The issue is not simply how much energy exists, but where around the lap it is most valuable and where using too much can compromise performance later.
That broader challenge has already prompted changes to the F1 hybrid rules for the Madrid Grand Prix, underlining how important energy deployment has become around the new Madring layout.
Why drivers lift instead of taking the Monumental flat-out
There are parts of the circuit where lifting from the throttle is more beneficial than remaining fully committed, and the Monumental is the clearest example. Before the weekend, teams submitted contrasting simulations to Pirelli. Some calculations suggested the corner could be taken flat-out, while others indicated that drivers would need to lift.
In the end, none of the leading teams consistently approached the section completely flat in qualifying trim, and there were specific reasons behind that decision. Ferrari had experimented with the question during practice, including encouraging Lewis Hamilton to increase his commitment through Turn 12 while the team studied how the Monumental affected the SF-26’s energy deployment.
The first consideration is tyre load. With 24% banking and a length of roughly 550 metres, the Monumental creates the highest sustained tyre loads of the entire Formula 1 season. Lifting on entry can reduce the stress placed on the tyres and help control rear overheating.
The peak load itself is not higher than the most demanding values experienced at circuits such as Zandvoort or Qatar. What makes Madrid different is how long the corner lasts. The tyres remain under significant load for a prolonged period, creating an unusual challenge even though the forces remain within Pirelli’s maximum limits and operating parameters.
Pirelli had already highlighted the unusual tyre demands generated by the new layout, including the combination of sustained loading and temperature build-up created by the Monumental’s extreme vertical load.
The bigger reason is Formula 1’s battery deployment
The second reason is even more interesting. As paradoxical as it sounds, lifting through the corner can ultimately allow the car to travel faster. Before running began, teams were concerned that the Monumental might be grip-limited, meaning that tyre adhesion would determine whether drivers could remain flat-out.
However, Pirelli explained on Saturday that the corner is actually power-limited. In other words, the decisive restriction comes from the power unit and the way energy is used around the lap rather than from the tyres simply running out of grip.
Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport, explained: “Turn 12 is complicated for the tyre structure and for overheating. Imagine pushing the tyres at high speed: this generates temperature. Turn 12 increases overheating, rather than wear, because it is a power-limited corner. Of course, there is a lot of lateral energy because it is a fast corner, but from the point of view of what we call friction energy, the impact is lower precisely because the corner is power-limited.”
Dario Marrafuschi added: “With the banking, from an engineering point of view, part of the required lateral force, which on a flat corner would come from friction, instead comes from the vertical force. That is why the issue is more about overheating than friction. If you add the fact that it is a power-limited rather than grip-limited corner, you are not limited by friction itself.”
Max Verstappen explains the battery trade-off
In practical terms, the tyres are being worked hard, but a driver could still attempt to negotiate the Monumental without lifting. The more important question is whether doing so actually makes sense over the complete lap.
Max Verstappen addressed exactly that point after qualifying. The Red Bull driver admitted he had wanted to remain flat through the section, but doing so would have depleted the battery and ultimately cost more lap time on the following straight.
“I wanted to take it flat, but then the battery would have run out and I would have lost more time on the following straight,” Max Verstappen explained. “So I had to lift to have better deployment.”
The Dutch driver continued: “It means you have to come off the throttle, wait for a moment to recharge the battery and then you have more top speed afterwards. All things like that. The same applies to Turns 18 and 19: you have to lift there as well, because if you stay completely flat then you have no battery left for the following section.”
The effect helps explain why straight-line speed and battery usage have become such important technical themes during the Madrid weekend. Ferrari’s own data has also highlighted the relationship between tyre behaviour and Mercedes’ energy advantage at Madring.
Mercedes and McLaren exaggerate the lift to save energy
The different approaches seen across the opening two days should therefore not be surprising. Teams have interpreted the lap in noticeably different ways as they search for the most efficient compromise between immediate corner speed and overall energy availability.
Mercedes and McLaren, for example, chose to exaggerate the lift on entry to the Monumental. One reason is that drivers are already accelerating and using battery energy after Turn 11 on the approach to the banked section. Continuing to demand maximum deployment throughout Turn 12 would leave less electrical energy available later in the lap.
Practice running had already shown drivers reaching the braking zone for Turn 13 with relatively little battery remaining. Part of that charge also needs to be protected for the section around Turn 15 leading towards the Turn 16-17 chicane.
The same concept applies at Turns 18 and 19, as Max Verstappen explained. Spending too much energy there leaves less available after the slower sections, where strong electrical deployment can produce a greater lap-time benefit.
Why the fastest line through one corner may hurt the full lap
This is what makes the Monumental such an unusual strategic corner. The quickest possible way through Turn 12 in isolation is not necessarily the quickest way to complete the lap. A driver could remain at full throttle and gain time locally, only to lose a larger amount later because the battery has been depleted before the next acceleration zones.
The 2026 Formula 1 energy-management challenge therefore requires drivers and engineers to judge the lap as one connected system. Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull are not simply looking for the highest possible speed through each individual corner. They are trying to determine where electrical energy delivers the greatest overall return.
That is especially relevant for Ferrari because the SF-26 has already shown that Madring can suit the car better than the extreme low-downforce demands of Monza. The circuit’s combination of faster corners, technical sections and energy-management zones forms part of the reason Ferrari expected the SF-26 to be stronger in Madrid.
Lifting also helps prevent the cars from bottoming out
There is another factor beyond tyres and battery deployment. Friday running showed cars bottoming out through the Monumental, with the floor making contact with the asphalt under the enormous loads generated in the banked corner.
Lifting the throttle slightly reduces the speed through the section and therefore also helps reduce the amount of scraping against the track surface. That adds another reason why chasing maximum corner speed does not necessarily produce the best overall result.
It is one of the more distinctive features of Formula 1’s 2026 cars and the new Madring circuit. At Zandvoort, for example, demanding corners tend to be relatively short. The Monumental combines banking with a much longer duration, creating a challenge that is both technically unique and, from an engineering perspective, slightly unusual.
From the outside, Madrid’s signature corner is spectacular because of its speed, banking and sustained load. Inside the cockpit and on the engineers’ screens, however, the calculation is more complicated. Going flat-out may look faster, but protecting tyre temperatures, reducing floor contact and preserving battery energy for the sections where deployment matters more can make lifting the quicker choice over the lap as a whole.
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