Formula 1 is returning to Africa. Rwanda has signed a 10-year deal with the sport to host races starting in the early 2030s, BBC Sport reported on Tuesday.
If the plan holds, Rwanda would host Africa's first Formula 1 race since South Africa's last grand prix in 1993, ending an absence of nearly four decades for the continent on the F1 calendar.
The deal is a long-horizon one: races would not begin until the early 2030s, which gives Rwanda years to deliver the circuit and infrastructure a modern grand prix requires, and gives F1 a flagship event in one of the world's fastest-growing sports markets.
For the sport, an African round has been the most obvious gap in a calendar that now spans five other continents. For Rwanda, it is the biggest single event in its strategy of using international sport to put the country on the global map.
