Lewis Hamilton’s dream of witnessing the South African Grand Prix before the end of his F1 career could be realised after Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei confirmed that there is still interest regarding a return to the Kyalami Circuit.
F1 last raced at the track in 1993 and over 30 years later, the series has not returned to the African continent. This has been a key frustration for Hamilton, who told Sky Sports F1 last year: “There’s one more race we need and that’s going to be Africa. We have all the other continents and why not there? So that’s the one I’m working on pushing right now.”
For a while, talks looked to be heading in the right direction, but the government’s decision to lean closer and closer towards Russia and Vladimir Putin has provoked difficult ethical concerns about racing in South Africa at the current time, as per a RacingNews365 report.
Adding to the difficulties is the already crowded state of the F1 calendar. At 24 races, the paddock has already expressed concerns about the strain of the current schedule, and with the likes of South Korea, Thailand and Rwanda all keen on getting their own events, South Africa faces some stiff competition.
Hamilton shouldn’t give up hope just yet though. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Maffei explained: “You can see, if we continue to drive viewership, we’re going to continue to drive increases in what we get paid in media rights.
“We continue to see increased interest in from promoters who want it; South Korea, Thailand, Rwanda, South Africa all want to race. The opportunity to bring races to those places at attractive prices for us is real.
“And the pressure we’ve created, the success of Vegas in terms of creating a high-end experience, the success of Miami, all of that, has raised the bar for all of our promoters, and they’re all expanding.”
Hamilton at least has the support of the F1 CEO in his bid to get an African race back on the calendar. Stefano Domenicali has already stated his desire to turn the series into a true ‘World Championship’, covering all of the inhabited continents.
“There are areas of the world that wants to have Formula One, and I think that one area that we want to develop is the African area,” Domenicali explained. “We are a World Championship, and that’s an area where we are not there.”
