Formula One has announced plans to return to Africa for the first time in nearly four decades, with Rwanda set to host a Grand Prix in the early 2030s under a 10-year agreement.
The race, to be called the African Grand Prix presented by Visit Rwanda, will take place on a new circuit being developed in Bugesera, about 40 kilometres outside Kigali, the Rwandan capital.
However, an exact date for the inaugural event has yet to be confirmed.
The announcement was made on Tuesday at an event in Kigali attended by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Formula One president and chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali, and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
If the race takes place in 2030, it will mark 37 years since Formula One last held a Grand Prix on the continent.
South Africa’s Kyalami circuit hosted the sport’s last African race in 1993.
Africa has remained absent from the Formula One calendar despite the championship’s expansion into other parts of the world, particularly Asia and North America.
In recent years, efforts to bring the sport back to the continent have intensified, with South Africa also expressing interest in hosting a race at Kyalami.
Rwanda, however, has made significant progress in negotiations with Formula One through the Rwanda Development Board, which is leading the project.
Reacting to the agreement, Kagame described the development as a historic moment for the continent and an opportunity to expand access to motorsport for young Africans.
“Today belongs to Africa,” Kagame said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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. This 10-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 proposed circuit is being designed in collaboration with WurzDesign, founded by former Formula One driver Alexander Wurz, and the Tilke engineering group, which has been involved in designing several circuits used by the championship.
The track will form part of a wider development project in Bugesera, featuring hotels, residential facilities and other recreational infrastructure.
The plan is to establish the area as a destination for motorsport and entertainment throughout the year rather than a venue used only during the race weekend.
Rwanda’s plans also include a new international airport, which the government hopes will support the development of a new urban centre around the circuit.
Speaking to The Athletic in December 2025, Rwanda Development Board chief executive officer Jean-Guy Afrika said the airport project presented an opportunity to develop an entirely new city incorporating the Formula One circuit and recreational facilities.
“So F1, the racetrack that we would have to build, the whole idea of the recreational facilities, because in F1 people come mostly for entertainment,” Afrika said. “It is one week. So the airport will be done and the negotiations with F1 will be to bring the racetrack.”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has also repeatedly called for Formula One to return to Africa, arguing that the continent should not be overlooked as the sport continues to add races to its calendar.
In 2024, the British driver said F1 “can’t be adding races in other locations and continue to ignore Africa, which the rest of the world takes from. No one gives anything to Africa”.
Hamilton renewed his call ahead of the announcement, saying in Singapore that bringing the championship to Africa was particularly important to him.
“I’ve always said that we need to have a grand prix in Africa. It is, for me, the most important continent, to be honest, and the most beautiful continent,” he said.
