Formula One's Africa Return - Not To Kyalami After All?

Cover Image.jpg
Modern Kyalami. Image: Ossewa on Wikimedia Commons via Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
It is a long argued point of discussion that there is no Formula One race on the continent of Africa. But where would the F1 circus call home on the continent?

Formula One has been absent from Africa for a 31 years as of 2024. Kyalami in 1993, was the last time F1 stepped into Africa for an official World Championship round, and the race was won by Alain Prost for Williams, as the grid would soon become accustomed to that season.

For those who want to see F1 return to Africa, there might be renewed hope with a surprise contender: Rwanda.


Rwanda's Formula One Dreams​

The East African country is hosting the FIA Prize Giving ceremony this year ahead of crucial talks with F1 to bring the pinnacle motorsport back to the African continent. The discussions are part of Rwanda's 'Leveling up' plan.

Naturally, sim racing already has a track availabe as an Assetto Corsa mod. OverTake.gg community member @infinite torque has created a concept circuit based on the borders of Rwanda. Whilst the real track will not resemble this concept, it is great to see people engaged and excited about the prospect of F1 coming back to Africa after so many years away.


The track has a crazy indoor-style pitlane that would be very out of the ordinary if it were to make it to the real track. The permanent venue would be a welcomed addition to the calendar in terms of circuit design, as new permanent circuit additions are few and far between in the modern era.

Of course, the country has a long way to go to make it happen, and the addition of the circuit to the calendar is certainly years away - if it ever happens at all.

But what happened to bringing F1 back to its original African home at Kyalami in South Africa?

Is the dream of Kyalami dead?​

Unfortunately for fans of the iconic venue, Kyalami appears to be dead in the water when it comes to welcoming Formula One back to its circuit. However, this has been said multiple times over the past few years, and it always finds a way back into the headlines after a prolonged absence.

F1 was very close to agreeing an arrangement with the Kyalami circuit in 2023. However, a promoter change as well as the global political situation soon spelled the end of negotiations once again.


Kyalami hosts many international events from GT racing to motorcycles, but F1 will not be joining that lineup; at least not for now. If an F1 event does fall into place for Rwanda, it may prompt South Africa to start pushing for an event again as well.

Historically, the South African rounds of the World Championship were always some of the most hotly contested, particularly on the classic layout of Kyalami.

Would you welcome F1 returning to Africa? Let us know in the comments below!
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Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

Comments

The current Rwanda's political situation being a highly controversial topic, I suggest this article to be fullt erased and forgotten. The whole point of this project is about money and it immediatly raises the current government politics. It has been made clear before that politics should not be a subject on OT, and this article is 100% about politics. Tracls selection in F1 has often been about politics but Rwanda, that's an explosive subject. I would just state that, currently, I would never support this project although I'm sure there is largely enough money to achieve it ; this answers your question and avoids the whole political drama you may get for the article.
 
OverTake
Premium
Politics never crossed our minds as motivation behind this article. Of course, it is not an easy subject, which is why the article - even originally - only touched upon it where necessary. I can see how parts of it might have seemed a bit too positive for some, so references to the political stuff have been removed where possible.

The core question is rather about whether or not F1 should return to Africa, with it being a World Championship. For me, that means they should ideally visit all continents as part of it (save for Antarctica, for obvious reasons). The most realistic option considering what is already there would certainly be Kyalami, but knowing F1 and its recent decisions, it's probably going to end up being another street circuit somewhere :confused:
 
The current Rwanda's political situation being a highly controversial topic, I suggest this article to be fullt erased and forgotten. The whole point of this project is about money and it immediatly raises the current government politics. It has been made clear before that politics should not be a subject on OT, and this article is 100% about politics. Tracls selection in F1 has often been about politics but Rwanda, that's an explosive subject. I would just state that, currently, I would never support this project although I'm sure there is largely enough money to achieve it ; this answers your question and avoids the whole political drama you may get for the article.
South Africa getting the F1 race again and then losing it for 2024 was also political (not the reasons mentioned in this article). Welcome to Africa, everything is political, controversial, greed and corruption with us :laugh:

And the FIA and FOM have proven, both in F1 and the WRC, that if you have enough money, they will come, and don't care about the politics involved.
 
The current Rwanda's political situation being a highly controversial topic, I suggest this article to be fullt erased and forgotten. The whole point of this project is about money and it immediatly raises the current government politics. It has been made clear before that politics should not be a subject on OT, and this article is 100% about politics. Tracls selection in F1 has often been about politics but Rwanda, that's an explosive subject. I would just state that, currently, I would never support this project although I'm sure there is largely enough money to achieve it ; this answers your question and avoids the whole political drama you may get for the article
Of course it is political.Nearly all races are.COTA,Las Vegas,Miami,Spa,Silverstone etc. have all had direct or indirect funding to either pay to host the race or build road & infrastructure.There is zero chance of a race being held in Africa without a political involvement.Why you think a race in Africa should not be discussed in a sim racing forum I dont know.Its not going to change a thing.
 
Watched this demo vid on YT a couple of days in advance to this article - at first sight I thought this was just a fictional rF1 track mod, but immediately learned this suggestion was real and digged a bit more into it.

I'm just as much a bike rider and cycling fan as I am a sim racer, track day racer and a fan of motorsports in general and to me it's a bit like the UCI Cat 2.1 stage race Tour du Rwanda, arranged by the ASO :

Sports washing.

But it has become completely acceptable, just look at the dictatorships that have been added to the calendar, recent decade...

However, as a track hunter since early 1980s I find this article much interesting,
Nomatter how politically controversal it might be...
 
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Why is it due to get worse?
Because none of our infrastructure is being maintained and our power stations are way outdated and falling apart. Meanwhile we continue to develop our lands and demand more power. Same issue with our water, all our major cities are running out of water and its not because there is no water in the dams, its because the pipes to the cities are broken and never getting repaired. Mekonrider is unfortunately very right, our country has way bigger issues to worry about right now than hosting an F1 race.
 
Because none of our infrastructure is being maintained and our power stations are way outdated and falling apart. Meanwhile we continue to develop our lands and demand more power. Same issue with our water, all our major cities are running out of water and its not because there is no water in the dams, its because the pipes to the cities are broken and never getting repaired. Mekonrider is unfortunately very right, our country has way bigger issues to worry about right now than hosting an F1 race.
Thats terrible man, hopefully things turn around eventually. Thanks for the explanation as well!
 
Rwanda's nominal GDP per capita is 966$. There are many ppl in the F1 Paddock who have more net worth than the whole population of Rwanda can produce for a whole year!
 
FOM will be payed in blood minerals from eastern Congo.
Drivers security will be provided by M23 rebels...
 
Premium
Why not?
They also drive in other unjust states. For the FIA money makes the world go round.
Only a worldwide boycott, which will never happen, would make the Formula Money rethink.
It would be enough if the drivers, teams or TV-Stations did not say yes to everything like standard puppets and simply stayed away from the race. But that requires guts.
But then there is the wallet that makes everything look rosy.
 
Of course it is political.Nearly all races are.COTA,Las Vegas,Miami,Spa,Silverstone etc. have all had direct or indirect funding to either pay to host the race or build road & infrastructure.There is zero chance of a race being held in Africa without a political involvement.Why you think a race in Africa should not be discussed in a sim racing forum I dont know.Its not going to change a thing.
It is usually regular diplomatic stuff. With Rwanda it is a whole other thing. As I said, I won't go into details, and I assume there's enough information on the Internet for each one to form his own opinion.
 

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