Formula One to return to Africa

Rwanda will host Africa's first Formula One Grand Prix since 1993 in "the early 2030s" after the circuit announced a decade-long deal with the country on Tuesday.
The East African nation has been chasing a Grand Prix race for years, having already used football, basketball and other sports to enhance its image and attract investment.
President Paul Kagame formally announced the bid when Rwanda hosted a gathering of the FIA in December 2024.
The last time an F1 race was held in Africa was the 33rd South African Grand Prix, won by Alain Prost 33 years ago.
The first African Grand Prix in Rwanda will take place "once a new purpose-built circuit in Bugesera, Rwanda, has been completed", F1 said in a statement.
"Today is a landmark moment for Formula One," F1 president Stefano Domenicali added.
"With Rwanda joining the calendar from the next decade, our sport will race in every inhabited continent, bringing the world championship closer than ever to fans around the globe.
"Africa has always been part of Formula One's future, and from the beginning we were determined to return in the right way, with the right partner, a long-term commitment and a clear vision for creating meaningful impact."
A landlocked country still widely associated with a horrific genocide in 1994, Rwanda has used sports to revamp its image, attract tourists and impress investors with its organisational efficiency.
It has spent lavishly on football sponsorship deals with clubs including Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, partnered with the NBA to be the main hub of its African basketball league, and hosted last year's cycling world championships.
Critics have called this "sports-washing" -- using glitzy events to distract from accusations of serious human rights abuses, including a brutal crackdown on any opposition or dissent.
Others see that as Western hypocrisy, arguing that no one described this year's World Cup in the United States as "sports-washing", despite the country's rights abuses.