Formula 1 returns to Africa after 32-year absence with landmark Rwanda deal

Formula 1 will return to the African continent for the first time since the 1993 South African Grand Prix after signing a 10-year deal with Rwanda to host a new African Grand Prix in Kigali, with racing set to begin no earlier than 2030.

The agreement was announced on Tuesday at a press conference in Kigali attended by Rwandan president Paul Kagame, F1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali, and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The race will be officially titled the ‘Formula 1 African Grand Prix, presented by Visit Rwanda’.

The circuit itself does not yet exist. The planned Bugesera track, located 40km south of Kigali adjacent to the capital’s under-construction Bugesera international airport, has been designed by former F1 driver Alex Wurz and his design company. The layout is expected to exploit Kigali’s hilly terrain to produce a technically demanding course. The 2030 start date is contingent on when construction of the track is completed.

President Kagame framed the deal as both a sporting milestone and a long-term economic investment. “Today belongs to Africa. For more than three decades, the world’s premier motorsport championship has raced without this continent, and that changes with this agreement,” he said. “This ten-year partnership is also an investment in Rwanda’s future. The circuit in Bugesera, alongside the new international airport, will bring jobs, skills, tourism and new business to our country and our region for decades to come.”

Domenicali described the announcement as a defining moment for the sport’s global reach. “With Rwanda joining the calendar from the next decade, our sport will race in every inhabited continent, bringing the World Championship closer than ever to fans around the globe,” he said. “Africa has always been part of Formula 1’s future, and from the beginning we were determined to return in the right way, with the right partner, a long-term commitment and a clear vision for creating meaningful impact.”

The deal is part of a broader investment programme by the Rwandan Development Board targeting tourism, infrastructure, and commercial development in the Bugesera region. F1’s last race on African soil was the 1993 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, won by Alain Prost.