Within 72 hours of Formula 1 revealing a decade-long deal to race in Africa, footage from a user-created onboard camera recording of Rwanda’s future grand prix venue began circulating online.
It’s a fun look at what the track could feel like from the cockpit, but it’s a hobbyist’s best guess created from the single preview image F1 has released so far, not the real layout. So bear that in mind.
The modder is Nukedrop, and Spanish F1 account Nachez spread the clip on X. The screen recording accumulated approximately 695 likes and reached 41,000 viewers, having initially surfaced in the Formula1 section of Reddit.
The mod, created within the Assetto Corsa game, was built in “the last 24 or so hours”, according to Nukedrop’s YouTube description. He placed the circuit by matching the airport in the background of F1’s render to satellite imagery, then used real elevation data for the surrounding landscape. The simulation uses a Ferrari bearing its current red-and-white livery and the number 44 - Hamilton’s car - with the seven-time champion’s yellow helmet just poking out at the bottom of the screen as it navigates beneath a bridge and across multi-hued track kerbing.
Tyrone Hesbrook, using the Nukedrop alias, has established himself as a prominent circuit creator in the Assetto Corsa community, with previous work spanning Pikes Peak and independently designed tracks including Circuit Thermalito.
Don’t confuse it with the other fan efforts. Romeo Gagliotti’s “Rwanda International Circuit” mod is a fictional 5.3km clockwise layout, and TC Esports has posted an unofficial version in the F1 25 game.
Fan version vs. the real plans
Nukedrop’s track measures just 4.65km - about 1.35km short of the roughly 6km layout the official designers describe. The official circuit will have 17 corners and run anti-clockwise. The full layout is yet to be published, and Nukedrop admits his version involves “plenty of educated guesses about scale, elevation and details hidden from view”.
Elevation is even trickier to understand. Wurz has calculated the lap to involve 197m of vertical elevation gain, whereas the fan-built version accounts for roughly 70m of altitude variation across the circuit. Those aren’t the same measurement, so both can be right: a track can climb 197m in total yet only span 70m from bottom to top.
WurzDesign, collaborating with Tilke Engineering, is developing the circuit in Bugesera, roughly 40km south of Kigali near an airport that is due to open in 2028. The track weaves through elevated terrain, runs through a lakeside section, features cambered corners, and contains a high-speed straight exceeding 1km that will end in a tight corner meant to facilitate passing.
Carsten Tilke says gradients reach 12-13%, and Wurz calls the result “like a roller coaster and truly unique”.
Wurz has completed numerous laps through simulation, and the virtual layout has been tested by active F1 drivers as well. That’s a slightly different standard of research from a modder working off a press render, though the fan version arrived first, and Nukedrop’s Patreon supporters can already download it.
With the first race not due until the early 2030s, we’ll be speculating for years. Until the full layout is released, a Ferrari in Assetto Corsa is as close as most of us will get.