KIGALI — Formula 1 and the government of Rwanda have announced a historic 10-year deal to bring the African Grand Prix to Kigali, with the first race targeted for 2030 at the earliest. The event, officially billed as the Formula 1 African Grand Prix, presented by Visit Rwanda, will be held at a yet-to-be-built natural road course 40km south of the capital next to the under-construction Bugesera international airport, marking the sport's return to Africa for the first time since the 1993 South African Grand Prix.
The agreement was announced on Tuesday at a press conference in Kigali attended by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Formula 1 CEO and President Stefano Domenicali and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. "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," Kagame said.
"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," Kagame 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, because our aim was never a single race weekend, but a lasting benefit for our people." The Bugesera track, designed by former driver Alex Wurz and his design company, is expected to make full use of Kigali's hilly terrain to create a challenging layout as part of a wider investment plan by the Rwandan Development Board in tourism, infrastructure and commercial development.
Domenicali said, "Today is a landmark moment for Formula 1. 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 added, "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." FIA President Ben Sulayem added, "The return of the FIA Formula One World Championship to Africa is a historic moment for our sport and an important step in the continued global growth of motorsport. Rwanda has demonstrated a strong commitment to delivering a world-class event, and the FIA will work closely with FOM and our partners as this new circuit is developed to the highest international standards."
Talks between Formula 1 and Rwanda accelerated in 2024 as the central African nation pushed to attract major sporting events to boost tourism and business. Kigali hosted the UCI Road World Championships last year and hosted the FIA's annual Prize Giving Ceremony in 2024, with Max Verstappen among the FIA world champions traveling to the country to collect his fourth Formula 1 world title trophy. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, a long-time proponent of a return to Africa, said earlier this year, "For the past six years I've been fighting in the background to get a grand prix," asking stakeholders, "why are we not in Africa? We're on every other continent, why not Africa?"