On June 19, a few Formula 1 cars will race along Passeig de Gràcia. People don’t usually have many opportunities to see these spectacular vehicles in motion so close. The boxes for this Road Show will be installed in Plaza Universitat. And throughout the week, from June 15 to 22, Plaza Catalunya will host the Formula 1 Barcelona Fan Village, a ton of attractions, entertainment and citizen amusements related to this sport. It is a great party orchestrated by the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Formula 1 Aramco Grand Prix of Spain will take place from the 21st to the 23rd. The City Council enthusiastically supports this initiative and hopes that the people of Barcelona will dedicate themselves to this great party.
Because the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni is determined to make major events an engine of international promotion and economic development of Barcelona. The Olympic Games are always in the memory on the horizon. This is a lifelong premise of the socialists, now revitalized and in recent years highly questioned by the City Council itself and also by many citizen entities.
And in this sense, in the eyes of Mayor Collboni’s executive, preserving the celebration of the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix seems essential. The commitment to those responsible for this planetary gathering ends in 2026. Barcelona cannot afford to lose such an asset. And Madrid is already emerging as a serious contender willing to take this competition from the capital of Catalonia without any type of complex. There, at least in matters like this, institutional consensus is simpler.
Hence, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Montmeló) wants to show this year a great example of the dedication of the administrations and also of the citizens to this motor festival. Hence, the City Council and the Generalitat tried to ensure that the presentation held this Tuesday at Casa Amatller was spectacular, at the very least, eye-catching. Lately, so-called immersive experiences are very fashionable. And a representative of these races said that the decision is still up in the air, that they are still studying all the possibilities. This race has just started.
Until now, in recent years, what is usually known as the village, a shed mainly intended to popularize the competition and bring it closer to the general public, has been held in a rather discreet, if perhaps modest, way in Port Vell. The then mayor Ada Colau and her people never really agreed with this great award. It always seemed to them that Formula 1 represents values ??that are truly opposite to their own and not very respectful of the environment, which feeds an industry that does not fit into their future plans, that of the private vehicle.
And for months now, since at the end of the year the president of the RACC Josep Mateu openly defended at the Barcelona Oberta merchants’ summit that the most stately axis of Barcelona would become a kind of circuit for a few days, a long list of Citizen entities normally related to the commons have been criticizing the initiative, ensuring that in the climate context in which we find ourselves, it is most counterproductive in every sense.
On the other hand, however, many defend the efforts of the automobile industry to adapt to the new times, and emphasize that research in this regard in the world of F1 does nothing other than fuel these efforts. Furthermore, in these times of adjustment and review of tourism policies, these types of events are revealed as a pole of attraction for quality visitors. Most of the merchants on Passeig de Gràcia are delighted at the possibility of the image of these vehicles traveling around the world with La Pedrera and Casa Batlló in the background while the 200 years of history of the promenade are still commemorated.
