Ben Sulayem on F1 in South Africa: 'That would be something great'

That question was put to Mohamed Ben Sulayem of Motorsport-Magazin.com. "We have very good contacts in Africa. There should be more focus on Africa. We have a good vice-president in Africa. We are strengthening the local clubs there. In some regions, we start at the grassroots, we call it 'Motorsport in a Box'. This is a box you get from the FIA. It has very simple equipment in it, like timing and phones. At least then you can do speed tests."

The FIA president continued by saying that if you want to grow, you cannot do it from above. "I cannot give orders, the water does not flow down here. It is the other way round, it goes from the bottom to the top. You have to start at the bottom. That is why we have recently launched 'Motorsport in a Box', we are sending it to them and we are going to get them involved in motorsport."

Kyalami

Still back to Formula 1 and the possibilities in Africa: Ben Sualyem circled the issue for a while but agrees that South Africa could be an option for the top class of motorsport. "In South Africa, they have a lot of history in motorsport. Since last year, there has been a lot of talk about Formula 1 returning to Kyalami. That would be something great for Africa. We are also thinking about an electric championship that Africa would like to be involved in. That would also be good," he concluded his story to the German medium.