During the winter period, rumors of the return of the South African Grand Prix to the Formula 1 calendar appeared, and everything seemed to indicate that Kyalami would once again receive the fastest single-seaters in the world on its asphalt, even the heads of the Grand Circus flirted with the possibility of seeing the cars on the African continent.
However, after the FIA announced the official program that they will follow in 2023, South Africa will not be in motorsport’s top flight tours. In this way, if he returns a year after the expected date, more than three decades will have passed since his last test, when in 1993 Alain Prost won with the Williams.
Formula 1 will have a 24-race calendar, but Kyalami will not be together with Las Vegas as the new venue, and the reason why it will not be raced there was revealed. Complex negotiations between the FIA, Motorsport South Africa [MSA], service provider, local government and organizer, as well as the series itself, did not come to fruition, with MSA director Anton Roux explaining what happened.
The body’s manager indicated that the only culprit was the country’s Grand Prix Association, which is led by Warren Scheckter : “The reason why Formula 1 will not take place in South Africa in 2023 is because the designated local promoter did not comply with financial guarantees.
“The problem here is not the FIA, Formula 1, the MSA or the government,” he told News 24 . “It’s because of the breach of the word by the local organizer, so now we have to change the organizer.”
“Still, I am very confident that we will be on the calendar in 2024. We need to create more sports heroes for our children to follow, and I think that is the benefit of racing,” Roux defended. “Children should see a Lewis Hamilton or a Max Verstappen so they can take an example.”
One of the main advantages of hosting a grand prix of the highest category of motorsports is that almost 60% of the people who attend the event come from other countries, which would increase tourism to South Africa in the event of a race .
“Something good that we have here is that we are in the same time zone as the Europeans. That coincides with the period with the highest television audience,” concluded the head of the MSA.
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