South African Grand Prix: Is there still hope?

Ultimately, F1 decided that the 2023 GP calendar will only have 23 races, and to possibly hold the Italian race later in the year. This has, of course, left the only option for a South African Grand Prix to be held in 2024 - which, at this time, is unlikely to happen.

According to sources cited by Motorsport.com, the South African Grand Prix will not go ahead until at least 2025. As you might expect, the reasons for this are political: rumor has it that the plans to hold a Formula One GP at the Kyalami race course were suspended because of South Africa’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Formula One terminated the Russian Grand Prix contract last year, and won’t be going forward with the South African race for the same reason.

Several high-profile F1 drivers are among the proponents of a South African - or African, in general - Grand Prix. One of them is Lewis Hamilton, 7-time F1 champion and activist for diversity. “We’re on all the other continents, so I'm hoping we get to go to Africa soon and that will be an amazing experience for the whole circus to experience the culture there,” he told the press earlier this year when speaking at the Miami Grand Prix.

Another proponent of an African race is Formula One Group CEO Stefano Domenicali. “There are areas of the world that wants to have Formula 1, and I think that one area that we want to develop is the African area,” he said. “We are a world championship, and that's an area where we are not there.”

South African fans and the top South African sports betting sites need not despair, though, because there is still hope for things to turn around.

Motorsport South Africa head Anton Roux insists that the talks for a possible 2024 race at Kyalami are “paused, not terminated”. “I'm not going to give up on it”, said Roux. “But for now, we'd have to wait and see how the matter with Mr. Putin and Russia actually pans out."

South Africa has a long history of holding Grand Prix events, even if none of them are very recent. The first South African GP was held at the Prince George Circuit in East London, in the Eastern Cape Province, in 1934. In 1967, it was moved to the Kyalami circuit in Midrand, Gauteng, where it was held until the mid-1980s. In total, South Africa hosted 33 GP events over the years.

This is not the first time South Africa is excluded from the Grand Prix calendar for being on the wrong side of history, though. Between 1985 and 1992, no races were held there because of the apartheid. Formula One returned briefly, with two events held at the Kyalami circuit in 1992 and 1993. But no other F1 races were held in the country for the last 30 years.