“Greedy” Reasons for Lewis Hamilton’s Shattered South African GP Dream Comes to Light as Insider Spills Beans

Even someone as successful and powerful as Lewis Hamilton cannot get everything he wants. Despite his best efforts, Hamilton’s South African dream has been shattered. The Brit fought tooth and nail and put his backing into the bid of getting the South African GP back on the calendar. However, his dream won’t come true as revealed by a former world champion, an insider on the South African deal.

Jody Sheckter, the only South African world champion, and Grand Prix winner, recently sat down with Motorsport-Total to discuss the South African GP deal. He revealed that Hamilton’s dream GP deal, which got the backing of Liberty Media’s CEO as well, collapsed primarily due to greed. Other experts also reported the same. As the Kyalami track is rented out, the caretakers quoted $2 million as the going prize for any promoters willing to use the track for the Grand Prix.

“I was an inside part of it,” Scheckter said. “The guy from Kyalami went from 500,000 to 2 million, and he wanted to take the whole thing over.”

“F1 came over to sign. He had got government backing, some of the wealthiest people in South Africa behind it. Everything was in place, and the guy from Kyalami got greedy. Just as soon as F1 left, he changed the whole thing completely. The government realised there was a fight [going on] and withdrew, and that was the end.”

“Maybe it’ll happen back here again. I don’t know,” he concluded optimistically.

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The Mercedes man had been extremely vocal about his desire to race in Kyalami. However, his dream would remain just that, at least for the 2023 season. In fact, The Brit isn’t alone in his desire to race in South Africa for the first time since 1993.

Apart from Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen also showcased a desire to race in South Africa

There are hardly any topics on which Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton see eye to eye. However, when it came to the South African GP, the ardent rivals put their rivalry aside and communicated their unified desire.

“South Africa? I think it’s good to race…Well, I mean, when you look at the continents where you race. I think we definitely need to try and pursue a bit more into Africa,” said Verstappen. “And at the moment, which looks like most likely place to go to is South Africa. Because they already have a track, and they’ve been there before.”

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There is a huge backing to see for the circus to take a trip down to Africa, as it is the only continent exempt from the current calendar. However, despite hope, the busy schedule might not allow any changes anytime soon.