{"id":516616,"date":"2026-03-05T20:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516616\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T20:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:05:14","slug":"lewis-hamilton-sets-sights-on-racing-in-an-african-grand-prix-before-retiring-lewis-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516616\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton sets sights on racing in an African grand prix before retiring | Lewis Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton has called for a movement to \u201ctake Africa back\u201d, claiming the continent is being \u201ccontrolled\u201d by European powers. On the eve of the new Formula One season<\/a> in Melbourne, the seven-time champion outlined his ambition to compete in a grand prix on African soil.<\/p>\n

But the 41-year-old, F1\u2019s first black race driver, did not stop there. He suggested former colonial rulers still exerted undue power in the region and called for action to reverse that influence. \u201cI\u2019ve got roots from a few different places there, like Togo and Benin,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of that part of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the most beautiful part of the world and I don\u2019t like that the rest of the world owns so much of it and takes so much from it and no one speaks about it. I\u2019m really hoping the people running those different countries all unite and come together and take Africa<\/a> back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I want to see. Take it back from the French, take it back from the Spanish, take it back from the Portuguese and the British. It\u2019s so important for the future of that continent. They have all the resources to be the greatest and most powerful place in the world and that\u2019s probably why they are being controlled the way they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the specific matter of an African grand prix, he reiterated his longstanding support for the idea. \u201cFor the past six years, maybe seven, I\u2019ve been fighting in the background to get a grand prix \u2026 sitting with stakeholders and asking the question: \u2018Why are we not in Africa?\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there, without getting to race there, so I\u2019m chasing them. They\u2019re setting certain dates, I\u2019m like: \u2018Damn, I could be running out of time\u2019, so I\u2019m going to be here for a while until that happens. That would be amazing, given that I\u2019m half African. There\u2019s one on every other continent, why not Africa? I know they\u2019re really trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having travelled extensively on the continent, Hamilton put forward his own ideas for potential hosts. \u201cI think they\u2019ve been to quite a few different countries. I loved Kenya \u2013 I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have a grand prix in Kenya \u2013 but Rwanda particularly was spectacular. South Africa is stunning. Those are the ones I think would be good places for us to potentially go to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton has called for a movement to \u201ctake Africa back\u201d, claiming the continent is being \u201ccontrolled\u201d by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-516616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}