Circuito de Jerez

The Circuito de Jerez lies close to Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain, about 90 kilometres south of Seville and in the heart of the sherry-producing region. It opened on 8 December 1985. The Spanish engineer Manuel Medina Lara led the project, building on an initial idea from Alessandro Rocci. The circuit runs clockwise, measures 4.428 kilometres today and has 15 corners. Since 2018 it has carried the name of the motorcyclist Ángel Nieto, who died in 2017.

In Formula One, Jerez first staged the Spanish Grand Prix. The opening race took place in April 1986 and was won by Ayrton Senna for Lotus. Five Spanish Grands Prix were held there up to 1990, on a track then measuring 4.218 kilometres. Alain Prost and Senna each won twice. The remote location held back crowd numbers, even though the venue can accommodate up to 125,000 spectators. For that reason Formula One moved to Barcelona after the 1990 race.

In 1992 four corners were removed and replaced by the long right-hander Curva Sito Pons. For the 1994 European Grand Prix a new chicane, the Senna curve, was added at the corner where Martin Donnelly had crashed in qualifying in 1990. Michael Schumacher won that 1994 race for Benetton. In 1997 the drivers' championship was decided at Jerez between Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, who collided during the race. Mika Häkkinen won for McLaren. Formula One has not raced there since, although the circuit remained a winter testing venue until 2015. It was resurfaced in 2005.