South Africa’s long road back to Formula 1 has hit another roadblock, with Stefano Domenicali hinting that Turkey’s Istanbul Park could rejoin the calendar in 2027, closing yet another door on Africa’s hopes.
The Formula 1 World Championship has not truly been a world championship since 1993, when the sport left the Kyalami circuit for the final time as the country grappled with apartheid, racism, and inequality.
Stefano Domenicali signals no South African Grand Prix before 2029
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However, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie made it his mission to see Formula 1 return to South African shores.
Declaring that his term in office would “be a failure” if he doesn’t bring the pinnacle of motorsport back to the country, McKenzie’s efforts to date have proved futile.
Although he launched a Formula 1 Bid Steering Committee in 2023 and indicated a preference for Kyalami, he never formally confirmed it. The circuit also received the FIA’s go-ahead to upgrade the Johannesburg venue to a Grade 1 venue, at the cost of millions.
But McKenzie still came back empty-handed when he visited FOM and the FIA last year.
“We have underestimated what is required to host an F1 event. But F1 has held our hand,” he declared at the time to ENCA.
“But now what we’re doing is, we’ve got the experts and are putting together a bid they can’t refuse.”
But it may be a case of too little, too late for McKenzie and South Africa’s F1 fans.
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This season’s calendar changes saw Spain’s new track, Madrid’s new ‘Madring’ circuit, replace the iconic Imola circuit while next season Barcelona and Spa will enter a rotating deal until 2032, with Portugal stepping into the breach in a two-year deal. Next in line, it’s understood, is Turkey.
Formula 1 chief Domenicali was asked about this during a pre-season interview.
“By the way, Turkey is not, let’s say, 100 percent confirmed,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in Bahrain. “Stay tuned on Turkey, let me put it this way.
“But also to answer to the people that were saying there were too many street races. I mean, the new one that are coming are tracks, not the street races. So once again, you know, we need to always remember prudency in comments.
“These are tracks with the heritage, with the great racing background, if I may say. And therefore this is, as I said, Turkey: stay tuned. But Portugal is definitely there. Madrid is a semi-permanent track that is working to be ready this year.
“And with regard to the numbers, I will stick with what we said is 24 and we will manage that number in order to keep eventual other alternation, if possible, in the future. But we want to stick with that number.”
Sticking to 24 races means existing circuits and pending ones would have to share deal so that all the countries that want to host a race can do so.
But there won’t be more sharing deals before 2029 given the sport’s existing contracts.
“I mean in terms, the big countries that have nominated before, for sure this will be the case. It will not be in the short time, because the need of building something from zero and in a certain situation was the right time,” said Domenicali.
“So I would say these things can happen after ’29 because we have other contracts.
“So there is a very evolving situation, very positive. We have a quality problem to say that we can take decision on where we want to go, of course, keeping the focus in making sure that we hopefully find the right decision. Because we don’t want to expand the number, as we said.
“So it’s a point on which we need to work on. But I don’t see this happening before 2029.”
Additional reporting by Mat Coch
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