- Rwanda Secures 10-Year Formula 1 Deal as African Grand Prix Returns After Four Decades
Rwanda has signed a 10-year agreement to host the Formula 1 African Grand Prix from the early 2030s, securing the return of the world championship to Africa for the first time since 1993.
The agreement will see a new FIA Grade 1 circuit constructed in Bugesera, approximately 40 kilometres south of Kigali and adjacent to the country’s new international airport.
The purpose-built venue will form part of a broader sports, tourism, infrastructure and commercial development project led by the Rwanda Development Board.
Formula 1 said the circuit would be designed around Bugesera’s natural landscape, using the area’s elevation changes to create a fast and technically demanding track while providing spectators with close views of the racing.
The proposed circuit, being developed by former Formula 1 driver Alex Wurz alongside specialist circuit designer Tilke, is expected to include a straight of more than one kilometre, significant elevation changes and capacity for approximately 100,000 spectators.
Beyond Grand Prix weekends, Rwanda plans to operate the facility as a year-round venue for international motorsport, conferences, exhibitions, concerts and other major events.
The strategy reflects Rwanda’s attempt to ensure that the substantial infrastructure required for Formula 1 produces economic activity beyond one race weekend each year.
“Today belongs to Africa,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame said at the announcement.
“For more than three decades, the world’s premier motorsport championship has raced without this continent, and that changes with this agreement.”
Mr Kagame said the partnership was intended to support employment, skills development, tourism and new commercial activity around Bugesera and the wider region.
“This 10-year partnership is also an investment in Rwanda’s future,” he said. “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.”
Formula 1 President and Chief Executive Stefano Domenicali described the agreement as a landmark moment for the championship’s global expansion.
“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.”
Africa is estimated to have more than 100 million Formula 1 followers, with almost 60 per cent of fans in key Sub-Saharan African markets aged under 35.
Despite this audience, the continent has been absent from the championship since the 1993 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami. Morocco and South Africa are the only African countries previously to have staged rounds of the Formula 1 World Championship.
The Rwanda agreement represents the culmination of an international sports strategy that has seen the country host the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, the Basketball Africa League, the 2023 FIFA Congress and the FIA’s 2024 General Assemblies and awards ceremony.
Its Visit Rwanda campaign has also used partnerships with leading European football clubs to position the country before global audiences.
The Formula 1 deal takes that strategy to a different scale. A Grand Prix provides international television exposure and can stimulate demand for aviation, accommodation, hospitality and professional services.
However, the commercial case will ultimately depend on the cost of constructing the circuit, annual hosting fees, private-sector participation and whether the facility attracts sufficient activity outside the race weekend.
Rwanda Development Board Chief Executive Jean-Guy Afrika said the project would likely be driven by private investment and coordinated by the government.
“We want to make it bigger than just Rwanda,” he said. “We want to make it the moment when the sport came back to Africa and then never left.”
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said the governing body would work with Formula 1 and Rwanda to ensure the circuit met the highest international standards.
He said the project should also create opportunities for African engineers, technicians, drivers and motorsport businesses.
The deal does not necessarily prevent another African country from joining the championship. South Africa has continued examining proposals involving Kyalami and Cape Town, although Formula 1’s 24-race calendar leaves limited space for additional events.
For Rwanda, therefore, the agreement represents both a sporting victory and a long-term economic wager. Its success will be measured not merely by the spectacle on race day, but by whether the investment generates lasting jobs, tourism, skills and commercial opportunities.
If those benefits materialise, Bugesera could become more than Africa’s newest Formula 1 venue. It could establish Rwanda as the country that successfully returned the world’s most commercially powerful motorsport championship to the continent.
The agreement, circuit location, development plans and quotations were confirmed by Formula 1’s official announcement.
