Formula 1 announced on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, in Kigali a ten-year agreement with Rwanda, which will host an African Grand Prix starting in the early 2030s. The championship will thus return to the continent for the first time since the race held at Kyalami, South Africa, in 1993.
The first race can only be held after the completion of a circuit built in Bugesera, approximately 40 kilometers south of Kigali. The track must meet the Grade 1 standard of the International Automobile Federation, essential for hosting a Formula 1 event, and will be located near the new international airport under construction.
The agreement involves Formula 1, the Rwandan government, and the Rwanda Development Board. The project is not limited to race weekends, as its promoters plan a site operated year-round for motorsport, conferences, and events, within a broader program dedicated to tourism and infrastructure.
The return to the continent will end an absence of more than three decades. The last African race of the championship was held on March 14, 1993, in Kyalami, where Alain Prost won at the wheel of a Williams-Renault. This event opened the 1993 season.
Rwanda will become the third African country to host a round of the World Championship. Morocco had organized a race near Casablanca in 1958, before South Africa established a permanent place on the calendar between the 1960s and the early 1990s.
The announcement was made in Kigali in the presence of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Paul Kagame described this partnership as an investment aimed at supporting employment, skills, tourism, and economic activity in Rwanda and the region.
Stefano Domenicali, for his part, highlighted the growth of the African audience for the sport. Formula 1 estimates that more than 100 million people follow the championship on the continent and states that nearly 60 percent of fans in several sub-Saharan African markets are under 35 years old.
The exact schedule is yet to be determined. Formula 1 has indicated that the date of the inaugural edition, the stages of the circuit’s construction, and the organization of the race weekend will be announced later, as the Bugesera project progresses.
