Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, has expressed his desire for the South African Grand Prix to return to the Formula One calendar in the future.
Off 1962 to 1993, South Africa staged 23 Formula One races, the last of which took place at the Kyalami circuit before it was removed from the calendar.
On several instances throughout the years, the country has been linked to a return to the program, but no agreement was made.
Last year, a Formula 1 fan festival was set to take place in Johannesburg, but it was cancelled owing to the pandemic.
This year, the sport will make its first visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and in 2022, Miami will join a record-breaking 23-race calendar.
Africa, on the other hand, hasn’t held a Formula One race in almost three decades.
“The location that I really feel is dear to my heart and most important for me is to have a race back in South Africa,” Hamilton said when asked which country he would want to see added to the F1 calendar.
“I think there is a great following out there and I think it would be great to be able to highlight just how beautiful the motherland is.”
Hamilton, on the other hand, backed the American expansion, claiming that one event would not enough.
“The US GP is fantastic and is such a huge country, having just one race here isn’t enough to really to be able to tap into the sporting culture here and encapsulate the fans and get them on a journey with us,” he added.
“I think definitely we need at least to have two but there are so many great cities to have a grand prix and if they are going to have one Miami is going to be incredible, as is Austin, I don’t know where they will have the next one but I am not opposed to that.
“I think it is quite cool having these kind of continent or mini championships in these continents, I think that is not a bad thing for the sport.”
A third race in the United States, as well as one in Africa, would be welcome, according to Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.
“Formula 1 is getting bigger and bigger in the last years thanks to the Netflix series and here I can definitely feel it and see it and I love also this country, it is great to be here and I would be very happy to have a third race here,” he said.
“I agree with Lewis, on Africa in general, it would be great to have a race there.”
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