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More than three decades after the Formula One engines, the last time they roared the African aphter, South Africa installed an offer to organize a new Grand Prix and return the World Cup to the continent.
The competition for the host of the high-octane spectacle is between two runways: a Cape Town street chain and the less picturesque but historic Kyalami race outside Johannesburg.
Al Jazeera is considering the offer to return Motorsport's first event to Africa.
How is the proposed song solved?
A Committee, set up by South African Sport Minister Gitton McKenzi, will choose a winning offer in the third quarter of the year, MLIMANDLA NDAMASE member told the AFP news agency.
McKenzi is confident in the chances of South Africa. “The Grand Prix definitely comes in 2027, without a doubt,” he said in early February.
“Whether it's a Cape Town or Jobrg, we don't care while the Grand Prix comes to South Africa.”
The challenging chain of Kyalami-who zigzagi about 30 kilometers (20 miles) outside Johannesburg and where the track is painted with a huge, colorful South African flag-ever hosts nail bite racing and legendary drivers.
When did the F1 last race in Africa?
The last grand of the African soil took place in 1993, a year before the first democratic elections in South Africa, which ended the apartheid. He was won by the Frenchman Allen Prost in Williams.
What is the reaction to the South Africa F1 offer?
South Africa's offer to host the F1 can rely on the support of seven -time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has long been advocating for the African Grand Prix.
“We cannot add races elsewhere and continue to ignore Africa,” Hamilton said last August.
Under the leadership of the US conglomerate Liberty Media, which bought the Formula One group in 2017, the sport wants to “go to every continent,” said expert Samuel Ticcol of the University of Munster in Germany.
Returning to South Africa would be “something very important for Formula 1 that has not been competing there since the end of the Apartheid era,” he told AFP.
What is the South Africa F1 legacy?
Sport has lived some “historical moments” in the country, Tickell said, including a threatened strike led by Austrian driver Nicky Lauda in 1982 against a competitive “Super License” limiting the contractual freedom of drivers.
South Africa is also proud of the only world champion on the continent, Jody Shekter in 1979.
Is the South Africa race viable?
Creating a competition on the continent is not necessary to exclude other places, as the F1 calendar is always expanding. The upcoming season reports seven more Grands Prix than in 2009, for example.
The highly high organizational costs and hosting fees would also not be an obstacle, said Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris.
“Even if the competitions are not commercially viable, it will not matter to some of the countries and their supporters, because it is a strategic payment,” he said.
For example, China has long been building a sports infrastructure for African countries in exchange for access to their natural resources, “he said.
Johannesburg's race track Kyalami is certified as 2nd grade, only the level below, required for the F1 race and will require some work to host an event.
An alternative chain that was struggling to hold the prestigious race would be snakes on the streets of Cape Town, a recently ranked “best city in the world” by Time Out magazine.
Walking its way around the stadium built for the 2010 World Cup in 2010. In the shadow of the iconic lion's head mountain overlooking the ocean, the route is already hosting a Formula competition in 2023.
Is there a continental rival?
The F1 street chain in the city will “go beyond Monaco,” said Cape Town Igshan AMLY.
Still, the real battle may be less between the two rival cities than against Rwanda, whose Pen Paul Kagame is present at the Singapore Grand Prix in September to meet with the management body of sports, FIA and F1 Liberty Media owners, Chadwick said.
The Central African country is already sponsoring the football giants of Arsenal and Paris Saint -Germain and is a partner of the NBA.
“Rwanda is at the pole,” Chadwick said.
Morocco has also long held ambition to host the F1 competition.
Yet, nothing prevents two GPS from being kept on the continent, such as the South African sports minister asks: “Why, when it comes to Africa, do we treat the way we can get one?”
Rwanda's F1 offer can be prevented from his participation in the conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Calls to withdraw the World Cycling Championships planned for Kigali in September are already raising.
