Rev your engines, Ramaphosa to attend F1 race to boost SA’s chances to host a Grand Prix
· Citizen
As motorsport fans wait with bated breath for a Formula One (F1) Grand Prix to be hosted on South African soil, President Cyril Ramaphosa will be attending a round of the F1 Championship in a bid to put the country on a packed race calendar.
After much anticipation, South African F1 racing fans were left disappointed earlier this year after it was announced that the country would not host a Grand Prix in 2027 because it had underestimated the requirements for staging an F1 race.
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F1 fever
F1 fever in South Africa hit the headlines when Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie met with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali at the Azerbaijan Formula 1 event in September 2024.
At the time, McKenzie said South Africa was “one step closer to bringing F1 to the country, while at the same event, he also had an extremely good meeting with President Mohammed Ben Sulayem of the FIA”, where they discussed support for South Africa’s F1 bid.
2027 was always expected to be the date of the South African F1 Grand Prix, with McKenzie making several announcements about the sport coming to the country that year.
Ramaphosa behind the wheel
During a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday, McKenzie said Ramaphosa will be attending an F1 race with him.
“His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa has agreed to join me at a Formula One Grand Prix later this year. This is a working visit, not a social one. Its purpose is to support South Africa’s ambition to bring Formula One back to the African continent for the first time since our country became a democracy.
“Formula One has not raced on African soil in more than three decades. In that time, the sport has returned to the Middle East, to Asia, to the Americas, and to every continent except ours. That is not acceptable, and it is not sustainable. An entire generation of young African motorsport enthusiasts has never seen a Formula One race in their own backyard. We intend to change that,” McKenzie said.
SA ambition
McKenzie said the president’s participation sends a signal that this “ambition is held at the highest level of the South African state.”
“There are criteria that any country must meet to bring a Grand Prix home – commercial, logistical, infrastructural, and safety criteria – and we are working methodically to meet every one of them. The President’s visit will allow us to observe, to engage, and to strengthen the case.
“I will have more to say on timing and on the specific Grand Prix in due course, in coordination with the Presidency,” McKenzie said.
The Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit is the favourite to host an F1 race if and when it comes to South Africa.
F1 in SA
Several current F1 drivers, including seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, have called for the sport to return to South Africa.
“We can’t be adding races in other locations and continuing to ignore Africa,” Hamilton said.
While enthusiasm for Formula 1 has been confined to television screens for South African fans since 1993, the applause for the sport’s return to the country might just drown out the sound of 20 racing cars on the starting grid.