Lewis Hamilton did something amazing to the African people which no other F1 drivers ever did in their career. Formula 1 is a famous motorsport happening across many continents every year with Europe having the most races in the calendar.
Out of the 24 races 10 races are happening in Europe, 7 in Asia, 6 in the Americas and 1 in Australia. This leaves the African continent out of the calendar and many new circuits like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Las Vegas, and Miami are newly added circuits.
The 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton wasn't happy about FIA avoiding the African Continent from the calendar and demanded a race in Africa. Two places in Africa can host an F1 race one is South Africa and the other one is Rwanda.
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F1 in African Continent
Recently Rwanda hosted the FIA Annual Awards event and many race winners came to the country and enjoyed the event. The world champion Max verstappen received his crown for the first time in Africa. Apart from Rwanda, South Africa is the one country that can easily host a Formula 1 race as they already have a circuit in hand. The Kyalami circuit is located near Johannesburg, South Africa. It has already been used for the South African Motorcycle Grand Prix, the World SBK championship, Kyalami 9-hour endurance race event.
It was recently upgraded to FIA Grade 2 status and the South African government plans to bring Formula 1 races into Africa through this track. The circuit length is 4.529 Km which is a good race distance considering other tracks in Formula 1 races. They also did some modifications over the years to meet the international standards of safety and facilities inside the circuit.
South African Minister of Sports recently spoke at an event and he thanked Lewis Hamilton for all his contributions to push for the African Grand prix on the F1 Calendar. He said “We thank Lewis Hamilton who stood alone for many years advocating for F1 to come to Africa. Today, many drivers and corporates are with him on that call.”
Lewis also expressed his desire to race in Africa at least once before he retires from the sport. The F1 Calendar is already very tight and the organizers are considering implementing a rotational policy for countries to host the race. This will result in many iconic circuits being removed from the calendar as many countries across the globe want to host Formula 1 races.
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