More than three decades after Formula One engines last roared on African tarmac, South Africa is mounting a bid to organise a new Grand Prix and bring the world championship back to the continent.
Competition to host the high-octane spectacle is between two tracks: a street circuit in Cape Town and the less picturesque but historic Kyalami race track outside of Johannesburg.
Al Jazeera looks at the bid to bring motorsport’s premier event back to Africa.
How is the proposed track being decided?
A committee set up by South African sports minister Gayton McKenzie will choose the winning bid in the third quarter of the year, committee member Mlimandlela Ndamase has told the AFP news agency.
McKenzie is confident about South Africa’s chances. “The Grand Prix is definitely coming in 2027, no doubt about that,” he said in early February.
“Whether it is Cape Town or Joburg, we do not care as long as the Grand Prix is coming to South Africa.”
The challenging Kyalami circuit – which zigzags about 30 kilometres (20 miles) outside Johannesburg and where the track is painted with a huge, colourful South African flag – once hosted nail-biting races and legendary drivers.
When did F1 last race in Africa?
The last Grand Prix on African soil was held in 1993, a year before South Africa’s first democratic elections that ended apartheid. It was won by Frenchman Alain Prost in a Williams.
What has the reaction been to South Africa’s F1 bid?
South Africa’s bid to host F1 can count on the support of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has long advocated for an African Grand Prix.
“We can’t be adding races in other locations and continuing to ignore Africa,” Hamilton said last August.
Under the leadership of US conglomerate Liberty Media, which bought the Formula One Group in 2017, the sport wants to “go to every continent”, said expert Samuel Tickell, of the University of Munster in Germany.
Returning to South Africa would be “something very important for Formula One, which has not raced there since the end of the apartheid era,” he told AFP.
What is South Africa’s F1 legacy?
The sport had lived some “historic moments” in the country, Tickell said, including a threatened strike led by Austrian driver Niki Lauda in 1982 against a racing “super licence” restricting drivers’ contractual freedom.
South Africa also boasts the continent’s only world champion, Ferrari’s Jody Scheckter in 1979.
Is a South Africa F1 race viable?
Creating a race on the continent would not require excluding other venues as the F1 calendar is always expanding. The upcoming season counts seven more Grands Prix than in 2009, for example.
Sky-high organisational costs and hosting fees would not be an obstacle either, said Simo