Lewis Hamilton said Formula 1 could no longer ignore Africa and increased pressure on the sport’s bosses to end their three-decade absence from the continent.
The F1 calendar was expanded to a record-breaking 24 rounds this season, but the last race in Africa took place in 1993.
Rwanda has emerged as the region’s leading contender, with F1 boss Stefano Domenicali describing the country’s plans as “serious.”
He is due to hold talks with representatives next month, but it is clear that an election there is far from certain.
But Hamilton, who spent Formula 1’s summer break in Morocco, Senegal, Benin, Mozambique and Madagascar, said: “The timing is 100 percent right (to hold a race in Africa).
“We cannot add races elsewhere and continue to ignore Africa, from which the rest of the world is only taking. Nobody is giving to Africa.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done there. But many people in the world who have not been there don’t know how beautiful this place is. A Grand Prix there could really highlight that and boost tourism.”
“Why are we not on that continent? The current excuse is that maybe no track is finished, but at least there is one track (Kyalami) that is finished.
“In the short term we should just have it as part of the calendar and then work on building something. I will talk to Stefano about that.
“Rwanda is one of my favorite places to visit. I worked on it a lot in the background.
“I’ve spoken to people in Rwanda, I’ve spoken to people in South Africa. Rwanda is a longer-term project, but it’s amazing that they’re so keen to be part of it.”
Hamilton’s season began last month at Silverstone, where he took his first win in two-and-a-half years, before teammate George Russell’s exclusion from the final round in Belgium gave him his second triumph in three starts.
Hamilton will contest the final ten races of his career with Mercedes before his surprise move to Ferrari. However, ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, it was confirmed that his long-time race engineer Peter Bonnington will not accompany him in the Italian team.
Instead, Bonnington, known as “Bono,” received a promotion to head of racing engineering.
“I would have loved to continue with Bono,” admitted Hamilton. “We have a great relationship. He’s like a brother.”
“It’s just a matter of people doing what’s best for them and packing up and leaving (from England to Italy). I can only imagine that that wouldn’t have been good for him and his partner.
“I knew it was unlikely that he would go with me because it would have been such a drastic change in his life.”
