F1 chiefs may fail to fulfil Lewis Hamilton 'promise' before Brit retires

's hopes of having a Grand Prix in Africa added to the Formula One calendar before he retires from the sport have been handed a significant blow, despite previously claiming to have been 'promised' as such.

The Brit has spoken openly about his desire to take the sport back to Africa, with the last race in the continent taking place in Kyalami, South Africa in 1993. The star is keen to compete in Africa before bringing the curtain down on his career, though those hopes have been dented.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has revealed that the plans to expand the sport's calendar beyond 24 Grands Prix a year to include a race in Africa are not progressing. Asked by if F1's plans to head to Africa have been put on hold, Domenicali replied: "That's not the right word.

"Before taking that step, we need guarantees on three fronts: investment that benefits the community beyond F1's presence, infrastructure (not just a circuit, but hotels, roads, airports), and an economic base that can support the event long-term.

"We're not on standby - we're working to assess what's still missing before we can say, 'Okay, let's go.' But we're not there yet." The news will be a damaging blow to Hamilton's aspirations, having publicly revealed that he was told that an African Grand Prix would take place in the coming years.

Speaking last year after the Las Vegas Grand Prix about his talks with Domenicali, he said: "I've been speaking to him so much about getting the race in Africa and he's really the one that's promised that he's going to make sure we get this done before I leave here, so that's important."

He also spoke about why he feels so strongly about taking the sport to Africa, saying last August: "We can't be adding races in other locations and continuing to ignore Africa, which the rest of the world just takes from. No one gives anything to Africa.

"There's a huge amount of work that needs to be done there. I think a lot of the world that haven't been there don't realise how beautiful the place is, how vast it is. And probably they don't even know what the countries are doing still to those places in terms of holding back. So I think having a grand prix there will really be able to highlight just how great the place is and bring in tourism and all sorts of things."