[Gayton McKenzie, South African sports minister] I have set up meetings with relevant people already, my term will be a failure if I don’t bring one of the biggest sporting tourist events to South Africa which is F1. Our first meeting is end of August in Monaco.
South Africa has bigger fish to fry. Like not having rolling blackouts every day
Or crime. Especially violent crime.
For reference, according to the UN Global study on homicide 2019, here’s South Africa and a few other countries’ knife homicide rates:
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UK, Monaco (joint lowest): 0.08 per 100k
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France: 0.2 per 100k
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Germany: 0.23 per 100k
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New Zealand: 0.4 per 100k
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United States: 0.6 per 100k
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South Africa (hold onto your fucking hats for this one, the highest in the world): 16.95 per 100k
You are 212x more likely to die from stabbing in South Africa than the UK or Monaco. It’s crazy.
Why would I stab someone when I could simply shotgun them in half?
Or …
Here’s a list of Intentional Homicide rates by country.
South Africa is still insanely high (#4 under 3 countries that have at least one order of magnitude less population).
I mentioned knife crime because my manager, an immigrant from South Africa, said knife crime in particular is rampant, and it’s something she was fearful of. But yes it’s not limited to knife crime only.
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I mean, its not like that is on the Sport Minister’s agenda
Question is, what race comes off the calendar for it?
Easy, one of the circuits with no soul and no history!
So FOM will probably go with monza, spa, monaco, or imola
I love how both Spa and Monza get brought up. Yet for 20plus years, concessions have been made by FOM to keep them on the calendar.
The power of clickbait.
I honestly wouldn’t mind Monaco, if only because it’s basically a parade with how impossible overtaking is.
Edit: Hungaroring, too. What a trash fucking race yesterday…
I like Hungaroring, it has good overtaking areas and generally I found the race quite interesting. I love seeing a move develop through multiple corners and that is one of the best tracks for that
Felt more like Monaco to me, but that’s just my two cents.
I damn sure hope it’s Mexico. You can like the stadium section all you want and it’s cool on the post race cooldown lap and all, but man that track is garbage and I’ll die on that hill.
Otherwise Imola seems likely, I think the contract is running out? Wouldn’t be a huge loss, it’s not a suitable track for modern F1 cars anyway despite its historic relevance.
It’s not a suitable track for modern F1 cars anyway despite its historic relevance.
Bah gawd, that’s Monte Carlo’s music!
Eh, I think Monaco is special enough to get a pass. It’s okay with one track like that on the calendar. It’s got enough about it to make it feel special, and at least the qualy makes up for the race. Monaco qualifying is still one of the most exciting and entertaining days on the F1 calendar.
I mean Monte Carlo is cool and all, but I think it’d be better for something like a uniquely Formula One version of the Goodwood Festival versus an actual race weekend.
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