{"id":54563,"date":"2025-06-19T13:16:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T13:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/fia-approves-south-african-track-upgrade-to-host-formula-one\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T12:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T12:33:47","slug":"fia-approves-south-african-track-upgrade-to-host-formula-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/fia-approves-south-african-track-upgrade-to-host-formula-one\/","title":{"rendered":"FIA approves South African track upgrade to host Formula One"},"content":{"rendered":"

The approval comes after the FIA accepted final design proposals that will elevate the circuit from Grade 2 to Grade 1, the standard required to host Formula One. <\/p>\n

The announcement was made on Wednesday by Toby Venter, owner of the Kyalami circuit, who hailed the development as a “defining moment for South African motorsport”.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we turn the page to a bold new chapter for Kyalami. We are ready for the return of Formula 1 to African soil,\u201d Venter said during a press conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we acquired Kyalami in 2014, we made a commitment to restore it as a world-class venue and a beacon for motorsport across the continent. The FIA\u2019s acceptance of our Grade 1 design is a major step forward in that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

The circuit has been given a three-year window to complete the necessary upgrades, though work will only proceed if Kyalami is officially selected to host a Formula One race.<\/p>\n

Clive Bowen, founder and director of UK-based Apex Circuit Design \u2014 the firm overseeing the upgrades \u2014 described the changes as a \u201clight-touch upgrade in engineering terms,\u201d saying they would bring the already excellent circuit in line with modern F1 requirements.<\/p>\n

Kyalami, located just north of Johannesburg, hosted 21 South African Grands Prix before falling off the calendar in 1993. With Africa currently the only continent absent from Formula One\u2019s 24-race global calendar, there has been growing pressure to reintroduce a race on the continent.<\/p>\n

Kyalami is competing with two other proposed circuits, including one planned for construction in Rwanda and another that South Africa intends to build in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The international governing body for motorsport, FIA, has approved plans to upgrade South Africa\u2019s historic Kyalami circuit, moving the country one step closer to hosting a Formula One Grand Prix for the first time in over three decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000089376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000089376,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/kyalami_circuit.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000089376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54563"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54563"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}