History
The first South African F1 race was held on 29 December 1962 at the East London track. It was held there again in 1963 and 1965. In 1967, the race was moved to Kyalami, where it would remain as long as the South African Grand Prix was on the official Formula One calendar. A total of 23 F1 Grands Prix were held between 1962, and the final event in 1993.
This was the location of one of the most gruesome crashes in history, as Tom Pryce was killed when he hit and killed track marshal Jansen Van Vuuren at full speed in 1977.
The 1981 event was a victim of the FISA-FOCA war. As agreement could not be reached with FISA for the Grand Prix to be run as a round of the Formula One World Championship or as a non-championship Formula One race, it was officially staged as a Formula Libre event. Consequently it was contested only by the FOCA-aligned teams, with cars which did not strictly comply with the 1981 Formula One regulations.
Going into the 1980s, turbo-charged cars began to dominate the Grand Prix. Because of the high altitude of the fast Kyalami circuit (approx. 6,000 feet above sea level) the forced induction turbo engines could regulate how much air went into the engine whereas the normally aspirated engines could not, the turbo-charged engines had a horsepower advantage in 1982 of 150 hp over the normally aspirated engines, and often qualified on the front row of the grid considerably faster than the normally aspirated engined cars; and the Renault team dominated both the 1980 and 1982 races.
The 1985 race was mired in international controversy as nations began boycotting South African sporting events because of racial segregation in the country, called apartheid. Most people involved in Formula One were strongly against going to race in South Africa. Some governments tried to ban their drivers from going, and the Ligier and Renault teams did boycott the race in line with the French government's ban on sporting events in South Africa; however French drivers Alain Prost, who had wrapped up the 1985 championship in the previous race, and Philippe Steriff, both driving for British teams, did take part. British driver Nigel Mansell won his second consecutive Formula One race and his teammate Keke Rosberg stormed around the track after 2 pitstops to take 2nd, completing a 1-2 for the Williams team.
1985 was the final South African Grand Prix until the end of apartheid, with FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre announcing days after the race that a Grand Prix would not return to the nation because of apartheid.
After the end of apartheid in 1991, Formula One returned to Kyalami for two Grands Prix in 1992 and 1993.
The only South African driver to win the South African Grand Prix was Jody Scheckter in 1975. British driver Jim Clark won it 4 times and Austrian driver Niki Lauda won 3 times.
Read more about this topic: South African Grand Prix
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