F1 will return to Africa “in the early” 2030s after signing a deal with Rwanda for the African Grand Prix. The circuit will be built in Bugesera District near the capital Kigali alongside the redeveloped international airport.
F1 hopes the race will provide an opportunity for the sport to expand its profile in Africa, a relatively unexplored market compared to Europe, Asia and the Americas. The sport hasn’t raced in Africa following the brief return to South Africa in the mid-1990s following the end of apartheid.
South Africa has held talks on and off throughout the 2010s and early 2020s but its support for Russia in its war with Ukraine has made it politically difficult. As well as unfounded claims by President Donald Trump and his administration of discrimination against Afrikaners, descendants mainly of Dutch and French settlers.
Land ownership remains a highly sensitive issue in South Africa more than three decades after the end of apartheid, under which the black majority was dispossessed of land and denied many basic rights.
The country’s crime statistics do not indicate that white people are at a greater risk of violent crime than other racial groups. Other statistics back this up.
A statement from F1 said the project came as a result of “years of collaboration to ensure the right foundations, with the best partner, are in place to deliver a successful, sustainable and world-class Grand Prix for generations to come”.
The circuit, designed by former F1 driver and GPDA chairman Alex Wurz, has been “designed to work in harmony with the natural landscape, using the area’s elevation changes to create a unique and challenging racing experience while delivering exceptional viewing opportunities for fans,” the statement added.
The race is likely to be controversial as Rwanda has previously been accused of sportswashing. Since the 1994 genocide, the government has used the image of sport to distract from its military involvement in the DR Congo, genocide prevention, racial discrimination, women’s rights and torture.
Rwanda formally announced their bid in December 2024, when the country hosted an FIA assembly and gala.
President Paul Kagame, who seized power after the genocide and has run the country for three decades, said: “For more than three decades, the world’s premier motorsport championship has raced without this continent, and that changes with this agreement.
“Rwanda is proud to host the Formula 1 African Grand Prix, and to share this moment with more than 100 million fans across Africa, many of them young people who deserve to see the sport at home and to see themselves in it: as engineers, technicians, entrepreneurs and, one day, drivers.”
The track’s build process will be overseen by three companies, with long-time F1 track architect Tilke and DAR working alongside WurzDesign as the creator of the circuit. A deal to return to Kyalami has failed to materialise over the last decade.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has been pushing hard over the last few years for the continent to return to the F1 schedule.
