The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has accepted a legal challenge from the Madrid Ecological Platform against the special plan approved by Madrid's City Council to expand Ifema and construct a new Formula 1 circuit for the years 2026 to 2035. This decision, detailed in a decree from the First Section of the Administrative Litigation Chamber, brings complaints about noise, tree removal, and environmental impact to the court. The project, supported by Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida and regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, both from the PP, faces substantial opposition.

As previously reported, technical experts from both the regional and municipal levels agree that hosting the Formula 1 event will exceed the capital's noise regulations during training and race days, impacting nearby residents with sound levels surpassing 80 decibels. These conditions will affect local homes, exposing them to significant noise pollution.

The Formula 1 event, promoted by Ifema with involvement from the government, Madrid's City Council, and the Chamber of Commerce, promises not to use public funds. However, it requires cutting down approximately 700 trees, altering the route of the Vereda de los Leñeros cattle track, and causing significant traffic disruptions with an estimated 18,000 vehicles involved. Furthermore, pollution from competing cars, particularly from tire degradation, adds to these concerns according to official reports from the City Council.

These contentious issues, along with arguments that the circuit's location is unjustified and will destroy numerous wetlands, are central to the ecologists' legal challenge. The Association for the Recovery of the Native Forest (ARBA), The Jarama El Soto Ecologist Association, The Group for Environmental Action (GRAMA), Jarama Vivo, and Liberum Natura, all part of the Madrid Ecological Platform, assert that such projects overlook ecological priorities critical to urban planning, especially amidst a climate emergency. They emphasize that a legal procedure could lead to the nullification of the special plan.

When approached for comment, Madrid's City Council deflected to Ifema, the project's promoter. A spokesperson for the exhibition center stated, "This challenge concerns the urban instrument approved by the City Council. As such, Ifema is unaware of the filing of the challenge or its contents."

The urban development project, initiated in the second half of 2022 due to Ifema's growth needs, increases the land's buildability by 4%, adding 13,600 square meters to the current maximum of 340,000 square meters. This expansion allows for reorganizing parking and landscaped areas. As explained by Ifema in February, the Special Plan facilitates the use of the exhibition center for Formula 1, enhancing the capacity of the smallest pavilions, 1 and 2, to accommodate F1 teams' garages, technical offices, and the Paddock Club's VIP area.

The project, moving forward despite neighborhood opposition, has involved the Ombudsman after receiving a hundred complaints, and now faces its first significant legal hurdle.