MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has renewed calls for a Formula 1 grand prix to be held in Africa.
The Ferrari driver said on Thursday he doesn’t want to retire from F1 without having raced there.
F1 last raced in Africa in 1993 at the Kyalami circuit near Johannesburg, a race that Alain Prost won for Williams in his final — world championship-winning — season of F1. After that the track fell off the calendar and behind on its facilities.
It’s likely the series will return to the same venue in future after the FIA approved plans for Kyalami upgrades to return to the grade one status required for F1 races.
The track was given three years to complete the construction but Hamilton is pushing for an accelerated timeline.
“For the past six years, maybe seven, I’ve been fighting in the background to get a grand prix, sitting with stakeholders and asking the question, ‘Why are we not in Africa?’” he said. “There’s one on every other continent, why not Africa? I know they’re really trying. I think they’ve been to quite a few different countries.”
Kyalami remains the most viable option, after rival bids went quiet, including two others in South Africa and a third in Rwanda, which has said it wouldn’t be ready until 2029 at least, despite ongoing regional military tension.
“I think they’ve (F1) been to quite a few different countries,” Hamilton said. “The ones that I’ve enjoyed the most, I loved Kenya. I don’t think we’re going to have a grand prix in Kenya but Rwanda particularly was spectacular. Two places I felt like I could live. South Africa is stunning. Those are the ones I think would be good places for us.”
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