Lewis Hamilton has a dream to race on the African continent and has received a major impetus of late. However, the Mercedes star will not have the opportunity to race in the next season as Joe Saward revealed a delay to 2025.
Hamilton has always been one of the front runners to push for the African race. With ample support from the grid members, the seven-time world champion has talked about his dream of racing on the African continent multiple times.
As per reports, the F1 along with Liberty Media are in pursuit of global outreach and inclusion of the sport across the world. And as things stand, the African continent is the only place where no race takes place in a calendar year.
Conversations continue with the South African Grand Prix authority, Saward reckons that the race will not be possible as early as the 2024 F1 season. This means that the Silver Arrows ace will not be having a go at one of his most anticipated venues even in the next year.
Saward predicts Hamilton’s dream come true moment
The South African GP authority missed the deadline to host the race in 2024, and the race is believed to have shifted a year later in 2025. With plenty of work going on behind the scenes, the Kyalami circuit, which hosted the last race back in 1993, is being readied for the upcoming years.
According to veteran F1 journalist Saward wrote in his famous Green Notebook on this, “I hear a note saying that South Africa will not be ready for 2024 and that the goal now is to try to put a race together for 2025.”
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— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 14, 2023
Stefano Domenicali, the CEO of F1 recently opened up on the GP delay. Speaking to Sky Sports, the CEO said as per Daily Sabah, “I want to avoid that we go there one year and then forget it.”
“So we are working to find a solution for the best of the sport and the country’s best. As I always said, we must find the right partners and middle-term plan,” concluded Domenicali.
Why is Lewis Hamilton pushing for an African GP?
Hamilton’s push for the upcoming South African Grand Prix is known to all. However, there’s a specific reason why the seven-time world champion wants to race on the African continent desperately.
The British driver, who finds his ancestry in the African continent, believes, “There is a great following out there [in Africa] and I think it would be great to highlight how beautiful the motherland is.”
Africa, especially, holds a special place in the Mercedes star’s heart and it’s of utmost importance for him to have and push for a race on the continent, Lewis Hamilton once said as per The Mirror.
