Greater than three a long time after System One engines final roared on African tarmac, South Africa is mounting a bid to organise a brand new Grand Prix and convey the world championship again to the continent.
Competitors to host the high-octane spectacle is between two tracks: a road circuit in Cape City and the much less picturesque however historic Kyalami race monitor outdoors of Johannesburg.
Al Jazeera seems on the bid to deliver motorsport’s premier occasion again to Africa.
How is the proposed monitor being determined?
A committee arrange by South African sports activities minister Gayton McKenzie will select the profitable bid within the third quarter of the yr, committee member Mlimandlela Ndamase has informed the AFP information company.
McKenzie is assured about South Africa’s probabilities. “The Grand Prix is unquestionably coming in 2027, little question about that,” he mentioned in early February.
“Whether or not it’s Cape City or Joburg, we don’t care so long as the Grand Prix is coming to South Africa.”
The difficult Kyalami circuit – which zigzags about 30 kilometres (20 miles) outdoors Johannesburg and the place the monitor is painted with an enormous, vibrant South African flag – as soon as hosted nail-biting races and legendary drivers.
When did F1 final race in Africa?
The final Grand Prix on African soil was held in 1993, a yr earlier than South Africa’s first democratic elections that ended apartheid. It was received by Frenchman Alain Prost in a Williams.
What has the response been to South Africa’s F1 bid?
South Africa’s bid to host F1 can rely on the help of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has lengthy advocated for an African Grand Prix.
“We will’t be including races in different areas and persevering with to disregard Africa,” Hamilton mentioned final August.
Underneath the management of US conglomerate Liberty Media, which purchased the System One Group in 2017, the game desires to “go to each continent”, mentioned knowledgeable Samuel Tickell, of the College of Munster in Germany.
Returning to South Africa could be “one thing crucial for System One, which has not raced there because the finish of the apartheid period,” he informed AFP.
What’s South Africa’s F1 legacy?
The game had lived some “historic moments” within the nation, Tickell mentioned, together with a threatened strike led by Austrian driver Niki Lauda in 1982 towards a racing “tremendous licence” proscribing drivers’ contractual freedom.
South Africa additionally boasts the continent’s solely world champion, Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter in 1979.
Is a South Africa F1 race viable?
Making a race on the continent wouldn’t require excluding different venues because the F1 calendar is at all times increasing. The upcoming season counts seven extra Grands Prix than in 2009, for instance.
Sky-high organisational prices and internet hosting charges wouldn’t be an impediment both, mentioned Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economics at Skema Enterprise Faculty in Paris.
“Even when races will not be commercially viable, to a number of the international locations and their backers, that received’t matter as a result of it’s a strategic payoff,” he mentioned.
China, as an example, has “lengthy been constructing sports activities infrastructure for African international locations in return for entry to their pure assets,” he mentioned.
Johannesburg’s Kyalami race monitor is licensed as Grade 2, only a degree under that wanted for an F1 race and it could require some work to host an occasion.
Another circuit vying to carry the celebrated race would snake via the streets of Cape City, lately ranked “finest metropolis on the planet” by Time Out journal.
Winding its means across the stadium constructed for the 2010 males’s soccer World Cup within the shadow of the emblematic Lion’s Head mountain overlooking the ocean, the route has already hosted a System E race in 2023.
Does South Africa have a continental rival?
An F1 road circuit within the metropolis would “outclass Monaco,” mentioned Cape City Grand Prix CEO Igshaan Amlay.
But the true battle could also be much less between the 2 rival cities than towards Rwanda, whose President Paul Kagame attended the Singapore Grand Prix in September to satisfy the game’s governing physique the FIA and F1 house owners Liberty Media, Chadwick mentioned.
The Central African nation already sponsors Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain soccer giants and is a companion of the NBA.
“Rwanda is in pole place,” Chadwick mentioned.
Morocco has additionally lengthy held ambitions of internet hosting an F1 race.
Nonetheless, nothing prevents two GPs from being held on the continent, with the South African sports activities minister asking: “Why is it that on the subject of Africa, we’re handled like we will solely get one?”
Rwanda’s F1 bid might although be hampered by its involvement within the battle in jap Democratic Republic of the Congo. Already calls are mounting to withdraw the biking Street World Championships, deliberate for Kigali in September.
