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F1 return to Africa a priority for Liberty amid Marrakech interest

Formula 1's commercial boss Sean Bratches says a return to the African continent is a priority for Liberty Media, and that Marrakech has expressed an interest in holding a race.

Morocco hosted a round of the world championship on a single occasion - the 1958 season finale - on a road course in Casablanca.

Stirling Moss won the race, in which his Vanwall team-mate Stuart Lewis-Evans suffered fatal injuries in a crash.

The country also has a place on the international sporting calendar, with the semi-permanent Moulay El Hassan street circuit in Marrakech currently hosting the World Touring Car Cup and Formula E - although there is uncertainty about the future of FE's round.

F1's most recent visit to Africa was in 1993 for the most recent of the 20 South African Grands Prix to be staged at Kyalami. Prior to that, the country's race was held on the Prince George circuit in the city of East London.

Attempts to revive a South African race have been mooted in the intervening years, with Cape Town in the frame at one stage.

Kyalami was upgraded in 2016, and its developer said at the time the circuit was "close to being compliant for F1".

"We race on five continents and the last habitable continent that we don't race in is Africa," said Bratches during a conference in London.

"We've been having very productive conversations in South Africa and to a lesser extent in Morocco about bringing a grand prix.

"We raced there before. I've been told that due to political considerations historically, that ceased.

"We're on it, and it's really important to us."

Expanding afterwards on both countries' prospects, Bratches told Reuters and PA: "It's a marketplace in which we would like to race. We are a global sport.

"There's a historic circuit in South Africa, Kyalami. "Toby Venter, who owns the Porsche dealerships in South Africa has purchased it, fully remediated it, garages, paddock.

"Similarly to other markets around the world, we have been proactively approached by other areas such as Morocco, Marrakech.

"There's a circuit there as well. I'm a little bit less familiar with the status, I suspect it's not a Grade 1 circuit [the Moulay El Hassan circuit is Grade 2], but there is a high degree of interest."

Bratches suggested it was inevitable that public funding would be involved in any Morocco project.

"Wherever you go in the world [F1 races] are economic engines for these countries, states, cities, principalities, municipalities," he said.

"The vast majority of our grands prix are underpinned by government and it's because it works. We shine a bright light on these cities, there's a lot of direct economic impact that comes in."

Asked about a possible timeframe, Bratches added: "It's dynamic. We are looking in the short-term, let's frame it up that way."

Zdroj: autosport.com