Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton will find out whether his F1 wish has been granted before the finish of this current season when the sport’s bosses announce the Grand Prix schedule for the 2023 season. The Mercedes driver has recently made sense that he trusts F1 will get back to South Africa, with the nation last facilitating a race almost 30 years back. Follow Formula 1 updates on InsideSport.IN
Hamilton wants to race in South Africa and his stance has been clear on it for some time now. “I think it’s important for the sport to go there. If they’re in every other continent, why not?,” Hamilton said.
“The one I really, really want to see is South Africa. That’s the one I want to hear next that gets announced. Ultimately, my ancestors are from there – so that’s why it’s important for me personally,” Hamilton added.
“The place I really feel, to my heart, is most important to me is to get a race back in South Africa. I think there is a great following out there and I think it would be great to highlight how beautiful the motherland is,” Hamilton concluded.
Hamilton has endured a tough season to date and is at present 6th in the Drivers’ Championship standings. However, the Brit driver has improved in recent weeks and has finished on the podium at the last five Grands Prix.
F1 boss Stefano Domenicali is in the middle of anticipating next season and told Liberty Media financial backers on Friday that the schedule for 2023 will be affirmed ‘around early October’. What’s more, the Italian indicated that an African race could be on the cards.
“We would like to keep the right flow in terms of efficiency around the world, to consider the needs of a calendar to be spread out from March to November all around the world,” Domenicali said.
“The demand is very, very high. We cannot [say] anything more than what we are saying because we are, of course, finalising all the details. But we for sure expect to have a couple of races more than this year, but less than 25, that’s for sure,” Domenicali added.
This season there are 22 Grands Prix yet, following Domenicali’s remarks, F1 fans will lick their lips at the possibility of observing considerably more races in the near future. The last Grand Prix in South Africa occurred in 1993 at the Kyalami circuit, which is right now being utilized for GT racing. What’s more, last month, Domenicali supposedly ventured out to the country to work out an arrangement to return.
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