» F1 set for a return to Mexico?

It’s a rumour that’s been bubbling under the surface for some time, but officials are hard at work to get Mexico back on the Formula 1 calendar.

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Domit – the son of the world’s richest man Carlos Slim Helú – has been working with the CIE entertainment group on a project to bring Formula 1 back to Latin America, which has been off the calendar since the sport last raced at Mexico City in 1992.

Slim argues that the country’s increased interest in motorsport, sparked by the rise of Sauber driver Sergio Pérez and reserve driver Esteban Gutiérrez, makes it a “no-brainer” that a race in Mexico should be at the forefront of the sport’s expansion into more flyaway races.

Mexico’s last return to the F1 calendar was between 1986-92

“I embrace the idea and believe that a new race for Mexico is what, in colloquial English, is referred to as a ‘no-brainer’,” he wrote in a column for the FIA in Motion magazine.

“Mexico has long been close to Formula 1, closer to it indeed than it has been to many other racing series that have visited the country.

“The rise of a new generation of Mexican racers has only served to boost the interest in Formula 1. We not only have Sergio Pérez impressing at Sauber, but waiting in the wings is another star, Esteban Gutiérrez. He is a Formula 1 star in the making.

“The potential of these young drivers has reawakened interest in F1 beyond hardcore fans and the huge crowds who flocked to see Pérez’s F1 demonstration in his home town earlier this year attest to a new-found popularity for the sport that should be capitalised upon.”

A Mexican race would add a fifth race in the North / South American timezones, further boosting the sport’s interest in the crucial market of the United States, which will (assuming the Austin dispute is resolved) have two races on the calendar in 2013.

And the sport wouldn’t have to return to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, which has played host to all of the Mexican Grands Prix in the sport’s history.

A street circuit race in the country’s second-largest city of Guadalajara has been touted as one of the possibilities being investigated, Slim Domit has admitted.

[Images via LAT and STATSF1]