Lewis Hamilton's dream of racing in the South African Grand Prix has been pushed back after Gayton McKenzie, the country's sports minister, confessed that achieving the target of a Grand Prix in 2027 was 'definitely not possible'.

South Africa has been chasing a spot on the F1 calendar for many years, with sports minister McKenzie pushing hard for the Kyalami Circuit's return to the schedule. With Spa moving to a rotational spot and the Dutch Grand Prix and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix stepping away, spots are opening up, but competition is fierce.

In early 2025, South Africa made a bid targeted at a return as soon as 2027, but this now looks impossible. Still, the Kyalami Circuit has gone ahead with FIA-approved upgrades to restore the venue to grade one status, getting it in shape for the return of F1 action.

"Next year, definitely not," McKenzie told ENCA, discussing the time frame for the South African GP's return. "We have underestimated what is required to host an F1 event."

McKenzie is confident that South Africa will eventually be the country to bring Grand Prix racing back to Africa. "But F1 has held our hand," he added. "But now we've got the experts and are putting together a bid they can't refuse."

However, South Africa will still face intense competition. Portugal has secured a contract to host a Grand Prix at the Portimao venue in 2027 and 2028, and Madrid's street race will make its debut in 2026, joining the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as Spain's second Grand Prix.

Still, South Africa's ambition will be music to the ears of seven-time world champion Hamilton, who has been vocal in calling for F1 to return to Africa amid interest from Kyalami and Rwanda.

"We can't be adding races in other locations and continuing to ignore Africa, which the rest of the world just takes from," the 41-year-old said at the Dutch Grand Prix last year.

"No one gives anything to Africa. There's a huge amount of work 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."