Rwanda Signs 10-Year Deal to Bring F1 Back to Africa for First Time Since 1993

Rwanda has signed a 10-year agreement with Formula 1 to host the African Grand Prix from the early 2030s, bringing the sport back to the continent for the first time since 1993. The race will be held at a purpose-built circuit in Bugesera, about 40 kilometres south of the capital Kigali, alongside a new international airport under construction.

The deal was announced on Tuesday at a press conference in Kigali attended by F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The circuit will be developed to FIA Grade 1 standards and is expected to be completed early in the next decade. It will have a capacity of 100,000 and will operate as a year-round venue for motorsport, concerts and exhibitions.

Rwanda will become the third African country to host a Formula 1 race, after Morocco in 1958 and South Africa, which last hosted at Kyalami in 1993. Africa is home to more than 100 million F1 fans, with nearly 60 per cent of fans in key Sub-Saharan markets under the age of 35.

“Today is a landmark moment for Formula 1,” Domenicali said. “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”. Kagame said the moment belonged to the entire continent. “For more than three decades, the world’s premier motorsport championship has raced without this continent, and that changes with this agreement,” he said.

The circuit will be designed by Austrian former driver Alex Wurz with long-time F1 architect Hermann Tilke involved. Rwanda Development Board chief executive Jean-Guy Afrika said the initiative would be powered by the private sector and coordinated by the government. “We want to make it bigger than just Rwanda. We want to make it the moment when the sport came back to Africa and then never left,” he said.

The deal has drawn criticism from human rights groups. Amnesty International accused F1 of offering Rwanda a “sportswashing prize” and said the Rwandan authorities are “prolific in arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech”. The United Nations has also accused Rwanda of backing M23 rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. F1 has not publicly responded to the criticism.

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