Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has planned a meeting with Rwandan representatives in September to discuss a Grand Prix event in the East African nation.
Africa remains one of the few untapped markets for Formula 1 in its recent years of global expansion, in fact, an F1 race hasn’t been held on the continent since the 1993 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami.
Whereas talks of a Kyalami revival have never truly gotten off the ground, Rwanda is a different story.
“We want to go to Africa, but we need to have the right investment, and the right strategic plan,” Domenicali told Autosport.
With F1’s CEO duo to meet with Rwandan representatives next month, the Italian said “They are serious. They have presented a good plan and actually we have a meeting with them at the end of September. It will be on a permanent track.”
Autosport’s report noted that representatives of the Rwanda Development Board travelled to this year’s Monaco GP to meet with the FIA and that the motorsport governing body’s Annual General Assembly and Prize Giving Ceremony will be held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in December.
Rwanda isn’t alone in wanting to host Formula 1, with South Korea keen on hosting an event in the city of Incheon and Thailand keen on bringing Grand Prix racing to Bangkok.
“Up until 2020 we were in a situation where the number of places that wanted to host F1 were not so numerous,” Domenicali said.
“Therefore we were not able to apply what I would say was a constructive pressure to grow what we can offer to our customers and to our fans.
“Now, we are on the other side. We have so many places around the world that wants to host F1 that it allows us to make sure that we are working together with all of them to grow the experience.
Thailand’s bid is one that has been gathering momentum for some time, with the nation’s Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, meeting with Domenicali at Imola earlier this year.
“With Bangkok, we have different options on the table,” Domenicali said. “I am going to be in Bangkok after Singapore to go through this.”
However, with the GP calendar at 24 races, one shy of the hard limit of 25 per year and members of the paddock stressing the importance of keeping the calendar from growing further, managing F1’s global expansion is a hard task.
There’s already been talk of rotating European races to make room for new events and Domenicali has said discussions on how to handle the calendar will take place soon.
“With 24 races, I see that there’s a number that will be stable, and we can really tune the ones that we are discussing to see what will be the future in the middle term,” he said.
“I don’t see big changes coming in the short term, but in the next couple of months we need to discuss what will be ’26, ’27 and ’28. We have different options but we are in a good place.”
