In the midst of the global expansion plan for Formula 1 , the premier category of motorsport is very close to completing its return to the African continent by 2023 after thirty years off the calendar.
Stefano Dominicali, CEO of F1, traveled from Baku after the Grand Prix in the capital of Azerbaijan to South Africa to try to close the return of the Kyalami circuit, thinking of expanding the calendar for next season to 23 races with the latent possibility that the Circuit Paul Ricard in France or the historic Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium are excluded.
The South African Grand Prix was a classic in Formula 1 until its discontinuation after the 1993 season . It was run in Kyalami uninterruptedly from 1967 to 1993 , being the circuit in which Carlos Reutemann won his first race in the category in the 1974 edition . He climbed back to the top step of the podium in the 1981 season , where he would end up being runner-up in the world just one point behind Nelson Piquet when the Santa Fe rider was racing at Williams and the Brazilian at Brabham .
Negotiations are estimated to be close to completion but an announcement is unlikely to be made this week due to another big comeback . This weekend F1 returns to the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal, Canada, for the first time in three years after being able to hold the Grand Prix due to restrictions in the North American country due to the pandemic.