F1Weekly Podcast # 1056
Play Podcast: 08-12-24f1weekly1056.mp3
Nasir continues his march through Formula1 history with First Grand Prix winners in Motorsports Mondial. The Host is taken aback with the Rwanda Grand Prix announcement, This week’s interviews: Lawrence Barretto, Scott Mitchell and Chase Carey. Part two of the Rafa report. Gracias!
Domenicali’s thinking…
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali has revealed that Rwanda is a “serious” option to host a future Grand Prix.
Africa is the one continent in which the global motorsport series does not compete. Previous efforts to stage a race at Kyalami Circuit in South Africa proved unsuccessful, but it is clear the sport remains intent on adding an event in the region.
“[Rwanda] are serious,” Domenicali told Motorsport.com. “They have presented a good plan and actually we have a meeting with them at the end of September. It will be on a permanent track.”
Representatives from the Rwanda Development Board attended the Monaco Grand Prix to meet with the International Automobile Federation (FIA), while the country will also host the FIA’s annual general assembly and prize giving ceremony in its capital, Kigali, in December.
“We want to go to Africa, but we need to have the right investment, and the right strategic plan,” Domenicali continued.
“We need to have the right moment, and we need to make sure that also in that country, in that region, in that continent, there is the right welcoming, because, of course, they have other priorities. We need to be always very careful in making the right choices.”
Following rapid expansion in the US, which saw the addition of races in Miami and Las Vegas, Formula One is now taking a more global approach to any potential events.
The German Grand Prix was once a staple of the F1 calendar – boasting the most famous drivers, teams and circuits – but since 2019 it has failed to return. Forget Rwanda because it’s unrealistic and absurd! Please, let’s try to bring back the German Grand Prix and, on that note perhaps bringing back common sense as well.