The Formula 1 Thread 🏎

Best bet for an F1 race in South Africa is a Cape Town Street race incorporating some of the waterfront and stadium. It’s significantly cheaper than upgrading any existing track to meet the standards.

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Plus the blady new residents at Killarney is just so full of crap about noise like Kayalami. They also tried to shut down Killarney a while back. Move in next to a race track and then complain about noise.

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People will always find something to complain about.

They do the same at Killarney, the racers are all tested for noise levels,l. And on race day so many people phone to moan about the noise level

We had the A1 GP’s in the Durban street circuit and it worked really well! Top Gear then used it for their festival as well. We also have a stadium and a waterfront! Plus, we can actually swim in our tepid water… :wink:

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Could also argue that Port Elizabeth has some/all of the above.

However, Cape Town has the better infrastructure and tourist experiences

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I’d be happy if it comes anywhere in South Africa. First race and I’ll be there.

I do hope F1 comes to SA. It will be awesome as I live close to where it will be held, Kyalami.

I see there are a lot of nay-sayers about Kyalami. But let’s be real, there is no way that a new track will be built in Cape Town to host the event. Kyalami has already undergone an upgrade and a resurface, and at the moment it holds the second highest racing license. That means that it is already up to code to host almost any race except F1. To get it up to code from here would be a fraction of the cost of a new track.

Also Kyalami has the history of F1 races past. It has a certain pedigree that simply cannot be replaced by any new circuit. Plus, with the new Vietman circuit being a street circuit, Liberty will want to balance out the calendar with a proper race track.

Also, Jean Todt already visited the track at the beginning of the month:

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Yup, the way I see it is that they’ll either figure a way to upgrade Kyalami to get it to a Grade 1 track (it’s currently Grade 2), but in order to get there they’d need to upgrade the guard rails , all the fencing and all the gravel traps. These costs are close to what it would cost to doing a street race in Cape Town.

As far as I can tell these are the only two options being considered for a F1 race in South Africa. Now if we can only fix MSA (Motorsport South Africa) to actually host and support open wheel racing disciplines in lieu of this “let’s get more VW Cup and VW rally drivers” vibe they seem to have going. We might actually see a South African on the F1 grid again. However, don’t hold your breath.

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I concur

We can only hope that it will happen, but I don’t see it happening soon, but if it does, maybe we loose one of the kak “new” tracks

I’m with Hammer on this one - if F1 ever returns to South Africa, the only place for it is Kyalami (and not only because now that I know where he lives, I’m going to be hitting him up for a place to park when it does :slight_smile: )

A Cape Town street circuit does appeal to me, a lot. As does a repeat of the A1GP circuit in Durban. But honestly there’s enough street circuits on the F1 calendar already, there’s another coming next year, and talk of more in the future - Miami, New York.

I’ve said before (probably in this thread as well) that Cape Town (and I guess Durban too) is suited to a temporary street circuit for something like a Formula E Grand Prix. The green, carbon free, low noise, healthy lifestyles thing is perfect for the electric racing environment. Do that there.

We need more classic race circuits on the F1 calendar, more Zandvoorts, less sanitised Scalextric circuits. And I agree, the Kyalami of the 80s has evolved somewhat. But it’s still Kyalami, and it’s still the true home of the South African F1 Grand Prix.

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Perfect summary of what I was thinking.

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:open_mouth:

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It seems Maccas has made another flop indy car

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No. :cry:

Niki Lauda, Austrian Formula 1 legend, dies at 70.

Niki Lauda obituary: ‘A remarkable life lived in technicolour’

RIP

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RIP NIKI i was hoping trump would go first :expressionless:

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Sad news indeed. A true legend of the sport, not to mention a real personality in the paddock. Auf wiedersehen, Niki, you will be missed.

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