Well, I'm sitting in the very centre of Barcelona in Plata, Catalonia,

and the whole area has been shut down for hours because the Formula One roadshow has just rolled into town ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

The top drivers have been putting on an exhibition.

From the platter they've been racing up at Seragrathia,

one of the widest streets in the centre of the city.

And thousands of people have lined up on either side to get a glimpse of their heroes.

Hello, I'm Ashih Sharma and for this edition of Business Daily, I recently traveled up to Monmelo near Barcelona in northeastern Spain,

which has hosted the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix for over 33 years.

This year, for the first time, the the organizers put on an F1 road show featuring

several cars ahead of the race weekend. It attracted over 40,000 fans who blocked up the

centre of Barcelona confirming the popularity of Formula One. And the number of attendees for the

practice session qualifying and then the race itself,

was the highest ever recorded for Momello, with some 288,000 fans turning up to the Circuit Cat racetrack.

Yet despite the numbers, Monmelo is at a crossroads, and the future for Formula One in the region is up in the air. Liberty Media, which owns Formula One, has signed a 10-year deal with the Spanish capital

Madrid to run F1 races there from 2026 onwards.

So does this mean that Spain will now host two races in the calendar year?

And if not, then could it signal the end of racing in Montmelo?

For this program, I spoke to local businesses to find out how important a Formula One race is

to the local economy. Some industries related to mobility or to competition have been installed

all around the circuit. That's Pierre Rodriguez, the mayor of Montmelo,

emphasising the importance of Formula One-related companies

that are formed around the racetrack.

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