Formula-one supremo Bernie Ecclestone has given South African motor-racing fans a boost by promising to stage a grand prix in Cape Town within three years.
”We are definitely coming to Cape Town,” Ecclestone told Cape Town daily Die Burger on Thursday.
”Cape Town would be good for everybody — formula one, South Africa and the city itself — and plans are already well advanced,” he added.
”I also understand that the government possibly will get involved. This will help us to bring the grand prix there within five years.”
But pressed for an exact answer on the time frame, Ecclestone said: ”Three years, at the most.”
South Africa’s Omega Consortium announced last month it was bidding to host a leg in the 2007 formula-one grand prix world championship and planned to build a multimillion-rand track in Cape Town.
”The plans for the bid are far advanced. We are waiting for a response from the South African government to commit itself to the project,” David Gant, chief executive of the Omega Consortium, said at the time.
A site for the racecourse has already been identified near Cape Town’s international airport and will cost about R400-million.
”We want to establish a public-private partnership and we are also talking to the private sector.”
If the bid is successful, the South African government will have to waive its ban on tobacco advertising, which figures prominently in formula-one events.
”We hope government will allow them to advertise as this has huge economic implications for the country,” said Gant.
South Africa last staged a grand prix at Kyalami, near Johannesburg, in 1993.
Africa is the only major continent missing from the formula-one calendar.
A South African grand prix would put more pressure on formula one’s crowded schedule, with tracks such as Silverstone, Magny-Cours and Imola already in danger.
Bahrain and China made their debuts this year and Turkey is on the provisional calendar for 2005.
Mexico claims to have a five-year deal from 2006, and Ecclestone has also talked of India and Russia hosting races in the future.
Motor-sport fans were dealt a blow last month when the International Motorcycling Federation announced South Africa had been replaced by Brazil after five consecutive years of staging grand prix bike racing. — Sapa-AFP