Cape Town Grand Prix South Africa (CTGPSA) has accused Minister of Sport Gayton McKenzie of acting in the best interest of Kyalami’s bid to bring a potential South African Grand Prix to Johannesburg, rather than Cape Town.
Speaking to the Cape Argus, CTGPSA CEO Igshaan Amlay complained about how the application process has been conducted.
“Cape Town Grand Prix sees this whole process as a flawed process, because firstly, nowhere in South Africa in the new democracy, has there been a request that you have to pay R10 million rand to bid to bring an event to the country,” said Amlay.
The R10 million is a refundable deposit that is required by the local F1 Bid Steering Committee (BSC) to accompany all applications.
However, Amlay claims that when he asked what the money was for, he was simply told that it is refundable – but there was no timeline for when applicants would receive their money back.
CTGPSA then wanted to pay the deposit with a promissory note – but Amlay claims the BSC was vague about what was acceptable as a deposit.
“A payment of a deposit of R10 million to support an open bid submission should NOT be the determining factor as to whether a bid is considered or not, particularly when it does not make any changes to the economics of a bid,” said Amlay.
Furthermore, Amlay claimed that he has already been informed that his bid was unsuccessful.
He takes issue with this, given that he claims Gayton McKenzie had stated – before the BSC was even created – that the race would happen at Kyalami.
“Then, when the bid document was put out, we were given fewer than 10 days to submit our entire proposal, including a R10 million deposit – a bid to host a major global sporting event,” said Amlay.
“Only after we pushed for an extension to encourage a fair process did an extension emerge.”
As a result, Amlay believes that the process was inherently biased from the start towards ensuring the Kyalami bid was the winner.
Government responds
The Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture has responded to Amlay’s allegations, labelling them as “utterly baseless.”
The department’s spokesperson, Stacey-Lee Khojane, said that all bids were judged fairly.
“The bid process was open to anyone who wished to submit a bid,” said Khojane.
“All of the bids were judged fairly and objectively by the BSC. The minister was not a part of that process.”
“Their [CTGPSA’s] allegations are utterly and totally baseless.”
South African Grand Prix not a guarantee
While the BSC is expected to announce its preferred candidate within the next week, this does not guarantee that the candidate will actually host a South African Formula 1 bid any time soon – or at all.
According to Motorsport.com, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali believes readiness to host an African Formula 1 race is “not there yet.”
“We need guarantees on three fronts,” said Domenicali.
“Investment that benefits the community beyond F1’s presence, infrastructure (not just a circuit, but hotels, roads, airports), and an economic base that can support the event long-term.”
“We’re not on standby – we’re working to assess what’s still missing before we can say, ‘Okay, let’s go.’ But we’re not there yet.”
Furthermore, Domenicali has confirmed that an African Grand Prix would not be allowed to extend the race calendar past 24 races – meaning it would need to replace an existing race.
This would come as a challenge considering that South Africa is not the only country looking to get its own Formula 1 race.
In fact, Thailand is arguably in pole position to get a Formula 1 race approved onto the calendar in the next few years.
This is thanks to its government approving a $1.2 billion bid to host a street race in Bangkok from 2028 – whereas funding is still a question mark for a South African race.
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