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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finland’s Mika Häkkinen, who won the 1998 and 1999 F1 titles for McLaren during a fierce rivalry with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, is a fan of a Grand Prix in South Africa.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He raced at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in 1992 in a Lotus and has fond memories of that time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking after the announcement of the 2025 Laureus World Sport nominations, which features current world champion Max Verstappen as one of the finalists in the sportsman of the year category, Häkkinen was adamant Africa should be on the calendar.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Formula One should definitely come back to South Africa,” he said. “I was at Kyalami in 1991 and 1992 and I had a fantastic time. I’ve always had a super-nice welcome over there. People are very kind. It would be a brilliant place to have a Formula one race.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Häkkinen didn’t specify whether he would prefer Kyalami, or the other option which is a street circuit through Cape Town.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has established a committee to assess the viability of a South African Grand Prix. Bids are expected later this year with the aim of hosting an F1 race in 2027.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Formula One calendar is now jam packed and includes a race on every continent except Africa, which is a glaring omission.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton has advocated strongly for Africa to be on the schedule and at this stage it seems only South Africa and Rwanda have expressed serious interest in staging a Grand Prix.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The South African Grand Prix was a regular fixture on the F1 calendar from 1934 to 1993, staging 33 official Grands Prix and two unofficial races in that period.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2619583\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mika-Hakkinen-Image-2.jpg\" alt=\"Hakkinen\" width=\"1651\" height=\"2361\" /> <em>Mika Häkkinen as a McLaren driver in 2001. (Photo: Andreas Rentz / Bongarts / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ironically, when South Africa emerged from apartheid and became a welcome member of the international community in the early 1990s, the Grand Prix fell away due to financial constraints.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1993 race at Kyalami, won by former four-time world champion Alain Prost in a Williams holding off Ayrton Senna in a McLaren by a mere 0.08 seconds, was the last.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Formula One is a great example for youngsters to understand teamwork and see how much physical fitness it takes,” Häkkinen added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Definitely, Formula One should be coming to South Africa, flat out.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Predictions</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, Häkkinen has thoughts on the current crop of drivers and the potential rivalries to look forward to in 2025.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The season starts in Melbourne on 16 March and will include a total of 24 races. Verstappen, driving for Red Bull Racing, is aiming for a fifth consecutive title while McLaren’s Lando Norris appears to be the best-positioned rival to challenge for the title.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Norris’s McLaren team won the 2024 Constructors’ title, suggesting they have a car to compete with Red Bull. And in Norris they have a driver capable of taking the fight to Verstappen.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Absolutely yes, Norris can win the title,” Häkkinen said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I experienced so many years of racing in F1 without success. Why I did not get the success? It was partly because of my development to become a good racing driver and also that the car was not good enough.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You keep developing and pushing to become a good driver and that means you are taking risks and risks mean that you are putting yourself in positions to make mistakes.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2619572\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mika-Hakkinen-Laureus-Image-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" /> <em>Laureus World Sports Academy member Mika Häkkinen. (Photo: Ian Walton / Getty Images for Laureus)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think that Lando has reached all these elements in his career. He has been taking risks, he has been critical of himself, he has been pushing flat out.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When I have been studying and looking around, people say ‘is he ready, can he mentally take this kind of pressure’?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When you are not world champion and you are working towards that goal it requires a lot of mistakes.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I believe Lando is ready, he is flat-out ready to achieve his goal and he can become a world champion.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Häkkinen was not ready to write off Verstappen yet.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You can be talented and a fantastic racing driver but becoming the level of being world champion requires more than that. It requires hard work with the team,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Max has won the world championship four times. I won it twice and that was mega hard work.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Winning four times, that kind of achievement does not just happen without incredible psychological power inside of you and huge preparation all the way through your childhood.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Nominees</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which is why it’s not surprising to see Verstappen’s name alongside tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, French swimming sensation Léon Marchand and Slovenian cycling ace Tadej Pogačar on the shortlist for 2025 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One name that was expected to be on the shortlist was that of tennis player Jannik Sinner.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He won the Australia and US Opens in 2024 and finished the year as the world No 1. But a doping scandal,</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-16-sinner-suspended-for-three-months-after-agreement-with-world-anti-doping-agency/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which has resulted in a three-month ban</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, saw Laureus take the unusual step of scratching Sinner from the event.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Following discussions by the Laureus Academy it has been decided that Jannik Sinner’s nomination for this year’s Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award is to be withdrawn,” Laureus organisers said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We have followed this case, the decisions of the relevant global bodies and – whilst we note the extenuating circumstances involved – feel that the three-month ban renders the nomination ineligible. Jannik and his team have been informed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This case is the first time we’ve had an athlete nominated by the world sports media, then banned from competing in sport before being announced as a nominee. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It happens in extremely rare occurrences, but Laureus has previously rescinded awards for athletes who become ineligible to win awards after they receive their Laureus statuettes.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are no nominees for South African athletes for the “Oscars of Sport” this year, but in the Laureus Sport for Good Award, the 2025 shortlist includes Kick4life, a South Africa-based charity which uses football to reach at-risk children and young people in Lesotho.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The awards ceremony will be held in Madrid on 21 April. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>Carlos Alcaraz</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) tennis: Won the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympic silver medal. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Mondo Duplantis</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Sweden) athletics: Retained Olympic pole vault title; has now broken world record 10 times. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Léon Marchand</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (France) swimming: Won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Tadej Pogačar</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Slovenia) cycling: 25 wins, including Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and World Championship. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Max Verstappen</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Netherlands) motor racing: Won a fourth successive Formula One World Championship. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>Simone Biles</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) gymnastics: Impressive return to Olympic stage with three golds and a silver in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Aitana Bonmatí</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) football: Second straight Ballon d’Or Feminin as Barcelona won Champions League, Liga F and Copa de la Reina. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sifan Hassan</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Netherlands) athletics: Bronze in 5,000m and 10,000m plus marathon gold in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Faith Kipyegon</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Kenya) athletics: Became the only three-time Olympic champion in 1,500m in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) aAthletics: Olympic golds in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Aryna Sabalenka</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tennis: Won Australian and US Opens; became world No 1 in singles and doubles. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Team of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>FC Barcelona Women’s Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) football: Won Champions League, Liga F and the Copa de la Reina. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Boston Celtics</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) Basketball: Claimed a record 18th NBA title, one more than their old rivals, LA Lakers. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>McLaren Formula One Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (UK): Secured their first World Constructors’ Championship since 1998. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Real Madrid </b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Spain) Football: Won 15th Champions League/European Cup, La Liga and Supercopa de España. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Spain Men’s Football Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Became most successful team in European Championship history with fourth win. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>US Basketball Men’s National Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Claimed US’s fifth straight Olympic gold to emulate the famous Dream Team.</span>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finland’s Mika Häkkinen, who won the 1998 and 1999 F1 titles for McLaren during a fierce rivalry with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, is a fan of a Grand Prix in South Africa.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He raced at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami in 1992 in a Lotus and has fond memories of that time.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking after the announcement of the 2025 Laureus World Sport nominations, which features current world champion Max Verstappen as one of the finalists in the sportsman of the year category, Häkkinen was adamant Africa should be on the calendar.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Formula One should definitely come back to South Africa,” he said. “I was at Kyalami in 1991 and 1992 and I had a fantastic time. I’ve always had a super-nice welcome over there. People are very kind. It would be a brilliant place to have a Formula one race.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Häkkinen didn’t specify whether he would prefer Kyalami, or the other option which is a street circuit through Cape Town.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has established a committee to assess the viability of a South African Grand Prix. Bids are expected later this year with the aim of hosting an F1 race in 2027.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Formula One calendar is now jam packed and includes a race on every continent except Africa, which is a glaring omission.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton has advocated strongly for Africa to be on the schedule and at this stage it seems only South Africa and Rwanda have expressed serious interest in staging a Grand Prix.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The South African Grand Prix was a regular fixture on the F1 calendar from 1934 to 1993, staging 33 official Grands Prix and two unofficial races in that period.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2619583\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1651\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2619583\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mika-Hakkinen-Image-2.jpg\" alt=\"Hakkinen\" width=\"1651\" height=\"2361\" /> <em>Mika Häkkinen as a McLaren driver in 2001. (Photo: Andreas Rentz / Bongarts / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ironically, when South Africa emerged from apartheid and became a welcome member of the international community in the early 1990s, the Grand Prix fell away due to financial constraints.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1993 race at Kyalami, won by former four-time world champion Alain Prost in a Williams holding off Ayrton Senna in a McLaren by a mere 0.08 seconds, was the last.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Formula One is a great example for youngsters to understand teamwork and see how much physical fitness it takes,” Häkkinen added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Definitely, Formula One should be coming to South Africa, flat out.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Predictions</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, Häkkinen has thoughts on the current crop of drivers and the potential rivalries to look forward to in 2025.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The season starts in Melbourne on 16 March and will include a total of 24 races. Verstappen, driving for Red Bull Racing, is aiming for a fifth consecutive title while McLaren’s Lando Norris appears to be the best-positioned rival to challenge for the title.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Norris’s McLaren team won the 2024 Constructors’ title, suggesting they have a car to compete with Red Bull. And in Norris they have a driver capable of taking the fight to Verstappen.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Absolutely yes, Norris can win the title,” Häkkinen said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I experienced so many years of racing in F1 without success. Why I did not get the success? It was partly because of my development to become a good racing driver and also that the car was not good enough.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You keep developing and pushing to become a good driver and that means you are taking risks and risks mean that you are putting yourself in positions to make mistakes.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2619572\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1706\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2619572\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Mika-Hakkinen-Laureus-Image-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" /> <em>Laureus World Sports Academy member Mika Häkkinen. (Photo: Ian Walton / Getty Images for Laureus)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think that Lando has reached all these elements in his career. He has been taking risks, he has been critical of himself, he has been pushing flat out.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When I have been studying and looking around, people say ‘is he ready, can he mentally take this kind of pressure’?</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When you are not world champion and you are working towards that goal it requires a lot of mistakes.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I believe Lando is ready, he is flat-out ready to achieve his goal and he can become a world champion.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Häkkinen was not ready to write off Verstappen yet.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“You can be talented and a fantastic racing driver but becoming the level of being world champion requires more than that. It requires hard work with the team,” he said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Max has won the world championship four times. I won it twice and that was mega hard work.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Winning four times, that kind of achievement does not just happen without incredible psychological power inside of you and huge preparation all the way through your childhood.”</span>\r\n<h4><b>Nominees</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which is why it’s not surprising to see Verstappen’s name alongside tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, French swimming sensation Léon Marchand and Slovenian cycling ace Tadej Pogačar on the shortlist for 2025 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One name that was expected to be on the shortlist was that of tennis player Jannik Sinner.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He won the Australia and US Opens in 2024 and finished the year as the world No 1. But a doping scandal,</span><a href=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-16-sinner-suspended-for-three-months-after-agreement-with-world-anti-doping-agency/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which has resulted in a three-month ban</span></a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, saw Laureus take the unusual step of scratching Sinner from the event.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Following discussions by the Laureus Academy it has been decided that Jannik Sinner’s nomination for this year’s Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award is to be withdrawn,” Laureus organisers said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We have followed this case, the decisions of the relevant global bodies and – whilst we note the extenuating circumstances involved – feel that the three-month ban renders the nomination ineligible. Jannik and his team have been informed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This case is the first time we’ve had an athlete nominated by the world sports media, then banned from competing in sport before being announced as a nominee. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It happens in extremely rare occurrences, but Laureus has previously rescinded awards for athletes who become ineligible to win awards after they receive their Laureus statuettes.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are no nominees for South African athletes for the “Oscars of Sport” this year, but in the Laureus Sport for Good Award, the 2025 shortlist includes Kick4life, a South Africa-based charity which uses football to reach at-risk children and young people in Lesotho.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The awards ceremony will be held in Madrid on 21 April. </span><b>DM</b>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>Carlos Alcaraz</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) tennis: Won the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympic silver medal. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Mondo Duplantis</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Sweden) athletics: Retained Olympic pole vault title; has now broken world record 10 times. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Léon Marchand</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (France) swimming: Won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Tadej Pogačar</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Slovenia) cycling: 25 wins, including Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and World Championship. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Max Verstappen</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Netherlands) motor racing: Won a fourth successive Formula One World Championship. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>Simone Biles</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) gymnastics: Impressive return to Olympic stage with three golds and a silver in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Aitana Bonmatí</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) football: Second straight Ballon d’Or Feminin as Barcelona won Champions League, Liga F and Copa de la Reina. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sifan Hassan</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Netherlands) athletics: Bronze in 5,000m and 10,000m plus marathon gold in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Faith Kipyegon</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Kenya) athletics: Became the only three-time Olympic champion in 1,500m in Paris. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) aAthletics: Olympic golds in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Aryna Sabalenka</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tennis: Won Australian and US Opens; became world No 1 in singles and doubles. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Laureus World Team of the Year Award</b></h4>\r\n<b>FC Barcelona Women’s Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Spain) football: Won Champions League, Liga F and the Copa de la Reina. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Boston Celtics</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (US) Basketball: Claimed a record 18th NBA title, one more than their old rivals, LA Lakers. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>McLaren Formula One Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (UK): Secured their first World Constructors’ Championship since 1998. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Real Madrid </b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Spain) Football: Won 15th Champions League/European Cup, La Liga and Supercopa de España. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>Spain Men’s Football Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Became most successful team in European Championship history with fourth win. </span>\r\n\r\n<b>US Basketball Men’s National Team</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Claimed US’s fifth straight Olympic gold to emulate the famous Dream Team.</span>",
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Mika Häkkinen as a McLaren driver in 2001. (Photo: Andreas Rentz / Bongarts / Getty Images)
Laureus World Sports Academy member Mika Häkkinen. (Photo: Ian Walton / Getty Images for Laureus)