Scheckter drove a smart campaign and out-scored team mate Gilles Villeneuve, who eventually had to play the role of back-up driver and let Scheckter take the title

It’s widely accepted that Giles did a deal with Enzo to allow Jody to win the championship in exchange for the No.1 driver status in Ferrari when he left.

To say that Jody out-scored him is, (while true) a little unfair to the memory of one of the most loved, admired and respected F1 drivers of all time.

Instead, tracks should apply to host a race and if deemed sufficiently equipped and of a decent standard. In return Bernie gets to decide on the track side branding & TV rights.

Bernie is often praised for the fact that he brought the manufacturers into F1, but he killed of the privateers. More manufacturers would be able to enter the sport & more countries would be host races if costs are lower.

Bernie, you’re the 8th richest person in the world. I guess that should be enough….

As has been said above, it’s all about the money. Not much of that around these days. At least South Africa is in the same time zone as Europe so no night race gimmickry is required. Also, I would like to see the Grand Prix in Cape Town at sea level. Kyalami is slower because they lose about 10% power due to the altitude.

It’s good to hear about such a strong motorsport presence coming to Kyalimi, but with all respect, there is a big difference between putting on an A1GP race and hosting an F1 Grand Prix. Obviously, the first question that comes up is who will pay for the race?

The money is always the problem, even in the UK and Germany it seems. I definitely still wouldn’t bet on a race. But it has just been the case that there has been a lot of talks about the subject around here recently. The investor are apparently corporate, and like I mentioned the government are already sponsoring a F1 team, so they themselves might not be adverse to help foot part of the bill.

But as the story goes these investors have been around for a while now. They at first wanted to build a new circuit in Cape Town (everything was in place), but unfortunately the Cape Town municipality didn’t want to release the land that the circuit was suppose to stand on. So now they have focused all their efforts again on Kyalami. (And as it happens the Johannesburg (Gauteng) municipality seems to be much more interested in motorsports). Apparently they have already even had a few discussion with Bernie about it. But like I said ultimately I wouldn’t bet on it.

I believe you may have Morocco mistaken for Mozambique when it comes to previous hosts to F1- they had a race for the first few years of the srries back in the 50’s I believe, under the title of Casablancan GP or something along those lines. Other than South Africa, I believe those have been the only stops in Africa for F1- I am sure you will agree that most other nations on the continent have had issues that would rank higher on their national agendas than hosting a GP.

In terms of the future, I do believe I have heard some rumblings about Egypt trying to get a date on the schedule, but I have had few details on that one.

Am I correct in thinking Jody lives on a farm in the UK now? I wonder what he’s doing with himself these days?

Reading through this I began to think what other African countries have hosted F1 GP’s in the past. I seem to think that Mozambique might have been one but I can’t say for sure? Does anyone else have any other information on this? Similarly can anyone think of an African country, other than South Africa of course, that might have a good venue and track to host a F1 GP?

I think the proposal for a race in 2011 might be more serious then some people think. Kyalami is busy with a plan, to use the circuit for as much international events as possible, so that they in the future could host a F1 race. Superbikes and A1(the race is already a sellout) are already going to be at Kyalami this year.

It is also clear that the Gauteng government has some interest in motorsport, they have been a sponsor of Renault now for the last three years. Much of the needed infrastructure will perhaps already be laid out with the preparations for world cup. And many people have already argued that a F1 race might actually be more beneficial for the country because it is not just a once off event. The global recession also haven’t been as hard here as in Europe and in the USA. (So the timing for a race might be good.)

And as far as future F1 hopefuls goes there is currently perhaps one – Simon Moss. He did take part in Formula BMW pacific last year and won the rookie championship. This year he will be taking part in F3, and he is 17 years old.

-Fred Schechter
Ferrari fan

I live in Johannesburg some 30 kilometers from Kayalami and used to attend many races there years ago. The classic 9 hour endurances where Scheckter competed in a souped up Mazda Wankel engined saloon and punched way above his class. His nick-name became “Sideways Scheckter” for the way he thew that little car ’round the track lap after lap,

I also attended many of the Grand Prix’s in the late 60’s beginning 70’s as a youngster. Was lucky enough to have a pit-pass each year and got close the the greats of that era. Hulme, Hill, Brabham, Jim Clark, and John Surtees racing the first Honda, and all white beast. Oh and the legendary privateer John Love that we were all rooting for, Kyalami was a great track before they changed it.

Those were the days, now we can only drool in front of the TV. Ah well

Why so? SA is set to be the host of the World Cup in 2010, and given that they’re running into more issues than first anticipated, I’d think they’re fully focusing on that first.

The Tom Pryce crash was utterly horrific, one of the worst in F1 history, and cost the sport a likeable driver of immense potential. And what makes it all the more galling was that it was entirely avoidable. Pryce hit a marshall who was running across the track to extinguish a fire on Renzo Zorzi’s car and was killed instantly as the fire extinguisher hit him in the head. Tom was replaced at Shadow by Alan Jones, who went on to win a GP later that year and become champion in 1980 driving for Williams.

Clay Regazzoni also suffered a nasty crash at Kyalami in 1973 and Mike Hailwood received the George Cross for pulling him out of the car.

The modern Kyalami – as used in 1992-3 – is fairly dull and neither of those races were particularly memorable, although possibly more because of the superiority of the Williams-Renault package than anything else.

I lived less than 10km away from Zandvoort, so I could hear the cars all weekend. I always dreamed of going to a race, but I was too young to actually go.