Last weekend, with the premiere of the European Regional Formula 2022, Colombian motorsport returned to activity on international circuits.
The young drivers Sebastián Montoya, from the Prema team, and Nicolás Baptiste, from FA Racing, participated in the first scoring circuit of that ‘third step’ of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in its ‘ladder’ to Formula 1.
In Monza, one of the most iconic cities in global motorsport, Montoya was the better of the two Colombian riders. Juan Pablo’s son finished eighth in the two races of the first GP and climbed on both podiums as the best rookie.
Baptiste, although he could not appear at the top of the grid, complied with his presentation and finished 18th in the first race and 29th in the second.
In the midst of the general excitement for his debut, a detail of the car in which Baptiste runs went unnoticed: the striking logo of the joint campaign of the Mayor’s Office of Barranquilla and the Government of the Atlantic ‘Come Live Barranquilla, Live Atlantic’. A sign that seems to be explained by a single project: Formula 1 in Barranquilla.
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The ‘firm step’ of F1 in Barranquilla
In the memory of motorsport fans, there is no recollection of the logo of a campaign of any Colombian department/city in the FIA categories. The explanation, it seems, beyond the support for the athlete, has to do with the Formula 1 project in Barranquilla announced at the end of January of this year by President Iván Duque and Mayor Jaime Pumarejo.
“Dreams, as a team, we are capable of making them come true. Mayor Pumarejo says that there is an option to present a project to have a circuit in Formula One. That seems far away, but the mayor has already been in talks with the Formula One team “President Duque said on that occasion.
“There are twenty-two cities in the world that can say they have a Formula 1 circuit. These circuits are attended by 320,000 spectators in three days; they spend an average of 600 dollars a day and travel from more than 100 countries. 60 thousand international tourists enter in an (average) period of 10 days. That is almost double the number of international visitors who come to the Atlantic in three days and in a single event.”, Pumarejo said then.
Precisely, without mentioning it, Pumarejo seemed to give what is the answer to the logo on Baptiste’s car: square promotion.
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We accompany the dream that he has @alcaldiabquilla, @jaimepumarejo, that Barranquilla be linked in the Formula 1 circuit calendar with a Grand Prix in Colombia, which would bring enormous economic and tourist benefits to the city. Count on our support. pic.twitter.com/J6Cc7C5ZDg
– Ivan Duke 🇨🇴 (@IvanDuque) January 22, 2022
Although many things are missing for the tourist income from the supposed Grand Prix to be as Pumarejo said in his initial statement, things seem to be taking more and more shape. Above all because the slogan ‘Come Live Barranquilla, Live Atlantic’, which has recently been seen on stages such as the Bogotá International Book Fair, It will have nine more ‘starts’ this 2022 in the European Regional Formula.
To date, without any confirmation, it has been known that the project contemplates a semi-urban circuit and that, according to a video that circulated on networks, it could be called the ‘Caribbean Grand Prix’.
It only remains to wait for what the idea ends up and what role the local administration has. The project, for now, seems to be going, literally, on wheels.
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