Double F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi has joined the calls for there to be an African Grand Prix re-introduced to the calendar.
The sport’s latest season has begun with Bahrain hosting the first race last weekend, and we have 22 more to go in what is a record-breaking schedule in terms of number of Grands Prix.
Indeed, in the coming months we’ll travel to Japan, Miami, Las Vegas, Australia, Brazil and around Europe, with every continent getting a taste of racing action from the very top tier of motorsport.
That is, every continent bar Africa, with it once again off of the schedule.
Indeed, it’s been 30 years now since the last F1 race was held on the continent with South Africa’s Kyalami circuit playing host in 1993, and there’s been growing noise that the sport should head back to Africa in the near future to really prove a ‘world’ championship.
The likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have both said they’d like to race in Africa and that the sport should endeavour to do so, and Fittipaldi is another champion that also wants to see such an event return, citing the recent success of the Formula E race that was held in Cape Town as proof that F1 needs to get back into Africa as soon as possible.
Speaking to Bettors, the Brazilian said:
“They raced the Formula E series in Cape Town and it was very successful. There is also going to be a Formula E race in Sao Paulo and I think it’s great for Brazil to have that for the first time. The sport (F1) is expanding and going back to Africa, yes I would love to see Kyalami back again.
“There’s so much history there. Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart raced there. All the monsters of F1, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, you name it. Jack Brabham, Graham Hill. This history has to come back.”
“I was lucky to race in the South African Grand Prix for more than 10 years. It was a fantastic Grand Prix.They love motor racing there at Kyalami.”
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has expressed his openness to getting the sport on the African continent once more but, of course, the financials and the figures need to make sense and, if it is to be Kyalami, the track needs to be right up to date with modern F1 race track regulations in terms of safety and public access.
