South African GP in 2013?

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Wiegert

Wiegert

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It looks like Cape Town is bidding to host an F1 round in the future, possibly as early 2013:

"Plans for an inner-city street circuit for a proposed Formula One Grand Prix in Cape Town have been unveiled. A local company will present the plans, one of three different bids for Cape Town to host a Grand Prix, to F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in the next few months". Link

With a host of different countries vying to be included on the F1 calendar over then next few years, would there be enough room in the F1 season to include yet another race?
 
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weigert
It looks like Cape Town is bidding to host an F1 round in the future, possibly as early 2013:

"Plans for an inner-city street circuit for a proposed Formula One Grand Prix in Cape Town have been unveiled. A local company will present the plans, one of three different bids for Cape Town to host a Grand Prix, to F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in the next few months". Link

With a host of different countries vying to be included on the F1 calendar over then next few years, would there be enough room in the F1 season to include yet another race?
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Well, F1 was historically in South Africa... at Kyalami, as I recall. More F1 is always better but I think there is some room... there are a couple three week gaps that could be reduced to two. I also read Melbourne seems likely not to renew its contract to host the Australian GP, which frees up a slot for South Africa if the Aussie GP isn't moved to another circuit.
 
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Personally I like the Australian GP and it would be a shame to lose it, but the F1 calendar is always changing with each year that goes by. Who knows what races will be replaced over the next few year.
 
The idea of a revived South African Grand Prix has been kicked around for a while now. There were some plans that emerged a while ago, for a triangle-shaped circuit that made Tilke's designs look like high art.
YellowG1
I also read Melbourne seems likely not to renew its contract to host the Australian GP, which frees up a slot for South Africa if the Aussie GP isn't moved to another circuit.
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That was just the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle, kicking up a fuss. The Grand Prix and its price have been political ammunition for years, and while $70 million might sound like a lot of money, the Victorian government collects more in stamp duty in a year than they do on the Grand Prix. Doyle is a failed politician who settled for the title of Lord Mayor when he realises that was about as far as he was going to get in the political world. All he's doing is preaching for political points in the face of the Victorian floods and the Liberal party's crusade against public spending.
 
weigert
With a host of different countries vying to be included on the F1 calendar over then next few years, would there be enough room in the F1 season to include yet another race?
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It's been months since I've seen it discussed, but I think important people have expressed concerns over the number of races in a season already. I think it was felt that 20 was basically the upper limit. There has been discussion of current venues falling off the schedule in favor of new ones, which of course hasn't been very well received by fans, especially since the circuits most at risk of being axed are typically the classics that we most enjoy watching.

For me personally, I wouldn't mind getting a few more races over the course of the year. If the number went up to 25 or 30, that would be just fine with me. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the powers that be in Formula One aren't quite so open to that many races, for their own reasons.
 
The teams don't like it because it puts a strain on their resources.
 
Increasing the number of races in a racing season would be better for the people who watch F1. I for one would like to see newer venues mixed amongst the current crop of F1 races, but as mentioned before, increasing the number of races would put a strain on the teams resources, which would reduce the amount of time available for them to develop their cars thoughout the season. It's more likely that we'll see current races getting replaced rather than seeing new races being added alongside the current ones.
 
There are 52 weeks in the year, which means there can only ever be a finite number of races. Asking people to commit to watching 25 races is a big ask. Look at me - I live in Australia, so a lot of races are on late on a Sunday night. Once I join the workforce full-time, I'll begin working early on a Monday morning, so watching races (especially Canada, America and Brazil) could well become a luxury.
 
I knew it was too good to be true to see Formula 1 returning to South Africa... but NOT at Kyalami (even if Kyalami is too ancient for today's F1). The one thing I'm always fascinated with in Formula 1 is more venues around the world. Sounds like a good deal regardless for F1 to race in Cape Town.
 
What happened to Phakisa? It's a motorcycle-exclusive circuit?
 
I would have loved Durban Street Circuit but it probably was only made look good because the A1GP cars weren't as good as F1.
 
Durban was too narrow an filled with chicanes.
 
Joker-GTBR
What happened to Phakisa? It's a motorcycle-exclusive circuit?
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Phakisa, well it's used as a car circuit also , for our local racing.But it was built for bikes as you said :sly:
 
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