Mitch Evans of Jaguar TCS Racing during qualifying for the Cape Town ePrix on Saturday. Mitch Evans of Jaguar TCS Racing during qualifying for the Cape Town ePrix on Saturday. Photo: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
Cape Town — The much-anticipated Cape Town ePrix has come and gone, with months of planning, preparation and I’m sure a lot of accompanying sweat and tears to boot.
The Mother City put her best foot forward and welcomed the many international guests in teams and their drivers for Africa’s first Formula E race.
The event was the first FIA sanctioned race since the last Formula One race back in the 1990s.
Kayalami was the host of the race and that was 30 years ago in 1993!
The fact that Saturday’s Formula E race went off so well can only bode well for the future, not only for motorsport in South Africa but it could also see SA finally getting to host another F1 race all these years.
There have been plenty of whispers and rumours over the last few months about Msanzi being added to the F1 calendar, but that has fizzled out. It was announced that the Belgian Grand Prix would remain on the Formula One schedule for 2023 and that means SA will not host a F1 race this year.
But there is still hope ... ahead of the Cape Town ePrix South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde believed a successful Formula E race weekend would only bode for SA in finally getting a F1 race.
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Now it doesn’t mean that just because the Mother City played host to a Formula E race it will then host a F1 event should it come to SA. In all likelihood it will be held at Kayalami, but surely Cape Town’s hosting will put the seed in the mind of F1 bosses that it’s time a race was held in SA.
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Earlier this week, Jaguar TCS’ Sam Bird said it was hard to group Formula E and F1 in the same way, as the two motorsport disciplines are quite different.
“The F1 in South Africa will be held in Kayalami. Currently Kayalami is not able to hold a Formula 1 event due to infrastructure, run off areas, its pitlane and for many reasons it needs to have a big influx of money to be spent on that area to host a Formula one event,” Bird said.
“Us (Formula E) on the other hand we go to city centres to promote electric mobility in the heart of city centres, that’s why we are here on an amazing circuit in Cape Town. So they are two different venues for very different things.”
I understand the two events are different, but both are sanctioned by the FIA, and if they are serious about growing F1 surely SA must be one of the next destinations for the upcoming calendar.
IOL Sport