British racing star Lewis Hamilton, 41, says Rwanda Grand Prix will delay retirement

British racing star Lewis Hamilton said Formula One's new deal to race in Rwanda means he will have to stay in the sport "a lot longer," suggesting the seven-time world champion could still be driving in the 2030s.

Hamilton, 41, has pushed for years for Formula One to return to Africa. The series agreed on Oct. 13 to a 10-year deal for an African Grand Prix in Rwanda, starting in the early 2030s. The earliest possible date is 2030, when Hamilton would be 45.

"I'm now forced to have to stay a lot longer because we have a race in Africa," Hamilton said on Thursday at a news conference in Austin, Texas, ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix. He said he would need to keep himself fit, adding: "If I can still punch out good results over the next year, we'll keep it going."

The Ferrari driver has a contract that runs through 2027. He turns 42 in January. Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, at 45, is the oldest driver on the grid and has signed on for another season.

Rwanda's 10-year deal

The race will be held on a new circuit in Bugesera, about 40 kilometers south of the capital Kigali, next to a new international airport that is under construction. The track is being designed by former F1 driver Alex Wurz's WurzDesign with Tilke Engineers and Architects, the firm behind many of the sport's newer circuits. It is planned to hold 100,000 spectators and to be used year-round for concerts, exhibitions and conferences.

The event will be presented by Visit Rwanda, the tourism brand that already sponsors European football clubs including Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain. Neither F1 nor Rwanda has disclosed the fee the country will pay to host the race or what the circuit will cost. The Rwanda Development Board is leading the project, which its chief executive, Jean-Guy Afrika, said would be coordinated by the government and likely driven by private investment.

"Africa has always been part of Formula 1's future," F1 Chief Executive Officer Stefano Domenicali said when the deal was announced alongside Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the sport's governing body, the FIA.

It will be the first world championship race in Africa since the 1993 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, near Johannesburg.

Human rights criticism

The deal has drawn criticism. Amnesty International called it a "sportswashing prize" for Kagame's government, which rights groups accuse of repressing critics. The Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.S. and United Nations experts have accused Rwanda of backing the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo, a charge Rwanda has denied.

Hamilton, who has spoken out on racial justice and human rights throughout his career, said he does not choose where F1 races and urged people to "educate themselves" about Rwanda's history. "I think we really have to approach it with humility," he said. "Growing up in England, they never taught us anything about Africa."

He said many of the continent's problems stem from colonialism and Western intervention, and called for "free Congo, free Sudan, free Syria, free Palestine."

Hamilton, who joined Ferrari from Mercedes in 2025, remains one of the best-paid athletes in the world. Estimates put his earnings over the past year at about $100 million, including $70 million from racing and $30 million from sponsors and other business deals. Before the Rwanda deal was confirmed, he said he did not "want to leave the sport without having a grand prix there."