New F1 project in South Africa

Proposed KwaZulu-Natal circuit

A South African company and an investor from Abu Dhabi are working to meet Bernie Ecclestone's desire for a Grand Prix in Africa.

The company behind this effort to return F1 to South Africa since the 1993 Kyalami race is Night Bridge Investments, working in conjunction with the Royal Group from Abu Dhabi. The original plan was to build a track in the South African province of Gauteng.

But now the province of KwaZulu-Natal on the east coast is also a possible location. The race track will be built in the vicinity of the airport of Durban. Durban hosted the A1GP series from 2005 to 2008 and drew up to 100,000 spectators at the start.

The hope to land a race for an estimated ten years at a cost of 680 million euros.

At the moment Russia is more important to Ecclestone than Africa. Russia, from a business perspective, is wide open.

"We have talked repeatedly with people in South Africa. We talked about building a track. It would take perhaps three years. At least that's what I hope," said Ecclestone, who wanted to go originally to Cape Town .