Cape Town, South Africa’s main tourist hub, is prepared to make a modest contribution toward the cost of hosting a Formula 1 race as the country bids for its first Grand Prix in more than three decades.
South Africa is seeking to raise $50 million (R900 million) to help fund its plan for the motor-racing event in 2027 and will submit a bid to F1 organizers in May, Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has said previously.
Race tracks in Cape Town and economic center Johannesburg are vying to stage the race.
The nation last hosted a F1 Grand Prix at the Kyalami race track north of Johannesburg in 1993 — the year before its first multiracial elections ended decades of White-minority rule.
“We’ll support any bid to bring Formula 1 to Cape Town,” Geordin Hill-Lewis, the city’s mayor, said in an interview.
“The numbers spoken about when you discuss Formula 1 are eye wateringly huge so we’ve made it very clear that it has to be largely self-funded and that our support is capped.”
In addition to granting approvals, the city is prepared to pitch in about 10 million rand to host the race, he said.
That’s equal to its contribution to stage sub-Saharan Africa’s first Formula E event in 2023 and is the most it has ever spent on an event, Hill-Lewis said.
Cape Town hopes to stage another all-electric street race in 2026 or 2027, with race organizers raising funds to host it, the mayor said.
An economic impact assessment found the Formula E street race, which was set against the backdrop of the iconic flat-topped Table Mountain, brought in as much as 1.8 billion rand for the city, he said.
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