Montoya: A Grand Prix in Africa would be great for Formula 1

With Formula 1 in grand demand globally, multiple races in South and North America, Asia and of course Europe, Africa is crying to return to the calendar for the first time since 1993 (pictured above) when the South African Grand Prix was last held at Kyalami. They want it back as Rwanda flung their hat in the ring too, at a time when the continent deserves to be on the calendar, believes Montoya.

The Colombian said: “I think it would be great for F1 to have a race in Africa. In the past people wondered when we went to Bahrain, and the Middle East. And now we do Abu Dhabi and Qatar. And they are all amazing. I am going to Abu Dhabi for New Year. It’s a special place."

Despite the marathon 24 race season that just ended, Montoya is adamant that more GP weekends can still be accommodated: “I think they could do a little more. Look at Nascar. It does 36 rounds. I think they should expand the sprint races. They are awesome. There are not enough. It should become like MotoGP, and make it a standard thing.

“They should also give them allowance for crashes so if they have an accident in a sprint race, it should not count against the team’s budget. A lot of times people are too careful in sprint races because they know the consequences of a crash.

“The other thing that would be cool would be to have an inverted grid, much like F2 and F3. Everybody loves it. If it works for them why not for F1. The traditionalists will balk at the idea. But in the past they said you couldn’t have sprint races, you couldn’t do more races, you couldn’t do night races. But everything F1 has done has made it better.”

“The drivers complain about having too many races but in my time we had eight less but were testing every week throughout summer and winter. We would race on a Sunday and would test on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, every week.

“I’d rather be on the track racing than be by myself doing laps in the middle of nowhere!” Declared Montoya, who spent who spent seven seasons in Formula 1, winning seven times.