Mateo Villagomez is 20 years of age, from Ecuador and is currently doing his first full year of car racing. Mateo races in the French Formula 4 championship and the ADAC Prototype Cup Germany LMP3 championship. He is currently 16th in French Formula 4 and 5th in the Prototype Cup in Germany.
I asked Villagomez a range of questions about his racing background and his admirations in racing.
At age 10, Mateo started karting until he had a "small pause for 2 years" after 2 years of karting. When he went back to racing he started doing car racing and karting at 17 years old. His first car race was an endurance race and was a 6 hour race in Peru but in South America there isn't a "full national championship, and the biggest races are endurance, usually 6 hours." 2022 was Villagomez's first full championship season entry with French Formula 4.
I then asked Villagomez what the transition was like between racing in South America to racing in Europe. Mateo described the level in Europe as "very high" and "gets very competitive". In contrast, he explained "in South America the level is high as well, but we are usually just a few competitors". Furthermore, he says, "the transition from endurance into sprint racing and learning how to run a race is a big transition."
Some of Mateo's best results of the season so far in French F4 came at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and I asked him if it was his favourite track this season. He described Spa as "absolutely lovely" and how he "really enjoyed racing there". Villagomez explained, "I understood why it's everyone's favourite, it's amazing and the feeling you get just through Eau Rouge and Raidillon it's absolutely crazy." He closed by describing Spa as "really special in the way of the feeling it creates". However he described "unfair steward decisions which cost us a podium" and "some mechanical problems" brought a bit of bad luck to "one of the best tracks of the season".
Villagomez has also raced in ADAC Prototype Cup Germany LMP3 championship and I asked him the contrast between F4 and the LMP3 cars and if there was a championship he preferred. Mateo began to explain the championship telling me it was more "endurance" whereas F4 is more "all or nothing". He then went on to say he preferred the LMP3 car because it was more of a GT car than Formula 4. In addition, I asked Mateo which type of racing he thinks he will do in 2023 and said "we don't have a decision fully for next year, but we think it will be good option to do F4 again."
Many young drivers have F1 drivers who they watched when they were younger and a driver who they were inspired by. Villagomez had an interesting story behind the reason why he is inspired by this driver. "We used to wake up at 5 am because of the different time zones to watch Formula 1 and I used to do that with my dad around 2005 and 2006, the years Alonso was beating Schumacher, I didn't quite understand what was happening but I just knew that the famous red car was being beaten by the blue with yellow car so I grew up being inspired by Alonso since then."
My final question to Mateo was, "what is your ultimate goal in racing/motorsport?" He replied with, "The ultimate goal for me is to race in the 24 hours of Le Mans and be involved with all of the factory teams... Formula 1 is quite difficult at my age and don't really think it is the best option."
Thank you again to Mateo Villagomez for letting me ask you those questions!