Rwanda signs 10-year deal to bring African Grand Prix back in early 2030s
Formula 1 is going back to Africa. Rwanda has signed a 10-year deal to stage the African Grand Prix from the early 2030s, the first F1 race on the continent since 1993, according to BBC Sport.
The deal puts a second long-term contract on the books and ends a wait of almost four decades. Africa has waited a long time. The last world championship race there was the 1993 South African Grand Prix.
The new race will be held on a purpose-built circuit, a track created from scratch for racing, at Bugesera. The site sits 25 miles south of the capital, Kigali, alongside the city’s new international airport.
The layout was designed by former F1 driver Alex Wurz. Construction will be overseen by Tilke, DAR and WurzDesign, firms with long experience in building Grand Prix venues.
F1 has said the calendar will stay capped at no more than 24 races a season. That limit matters. A Grand Prix is a single round of the world championship, and adding Africa in the 2030s means existing races will have to fight harder to keep their slots.
The announcement follows a two-year courtship. President Paul Kagame made Rwanda’s bid public in December 2024, according to Reuters. Visit Rwanda then used the Qatar Grand Prix in late 2024 to promote its tourism experiences to F1 fans, team guests and sponsors.
Kyalami, near Johannesburg, hosted that final African race in 1993. Since then, F1 has expanded in the Middle East, Asia and the United States, but it has not raced in Africa.
For fans, this means a genuinely new stop on a familiar tour. A fresh circuit brings unknown corner speeds, unknown tyre wear and unknown overtaking spots. Drivers will start from zero in the simulator before anyone turns a wheel in Bugesera.
