Baku throws F1 a curveball this year — the whole weekend has moved forward a day, and the race runs on Saturday.
Race Day Is Saturday
For the first time in Baku's F1 history, the entire weekend has been shifted forward by a full day — practice on Thursday, qualifying on Friday, and the race itself on Saturday, September 26. The reason isn't strategic, it's respectful: Sunday the 27th is Azerbaijan's National Day of Remembrance, honouring the military personnel and civilians lost in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Organisers moved the entire event rather than run it on a day of national mourning.
If you're used to checking in on a Sunday afternoon for the race, set your alarm a day earlier this time.
When To Tune In
| Day | Session |
|---|---|
| Thursday, Sept 24 | Free Practice 1 & Free Practice 2 |
| Friday, Sept 25 | Free Practice 3 & Qualifying |
| Saturday, Sept 26 | Race — 51 laps, 306.049 km |
The Circuit
Baku City Circuit
Baku is the strangest kind of street circuit — half of it is a flat-out drag strip, the other half is tighter than Monaco. Cars scream down a 2.2 km shoreline straight from Turn 16 all the way to Turn 1, hitting the highest top speeds of any circuit on the calendar and setting up three-abreast slipstream chaos into the first braking zone. Then, minutes later, the same cars are threading a 7.6-metre-wide gap through the Turn 8–9 "Castle Section," scraping past the sandstone walls of Baku's medieval Old City, Icheri Sheher — a UNESCO World Heritage site that leaves absolutely no room for error.
It's this split personality that makes Baku a strategic minefield: teams need a car that's brave on the straights and precise in the castle, and a Safety Car — thanks to those unforgiving walls — is never far away.
Five Things To Watch
Leclerc's penalty gamble
Charles Leclerc has owned Baku qualifying for four straight years, but Ferrari is weighing a fresh power unit here — which would mean a grid penalty at the one track where his one-lap pace is basically unbeatable. A cruel trade-off: take the hit now on a circuit where he can recover positions on the long straight, or protect the pole and gamble on reliability later.
Williams finally sheds the weight
James Vowles has confirmed Williams are introducing a new, lighter FW48 chassis built specifically to claw back under the minimum weight limit. It's the kind of unglamorous engineering fix that doesn't show up on a highlight reel but can be worth tenths every lap — exactly what a team scrapping for ninth in the constructors' table needs.
Norris is red-hot, but the math is brutal
Lando Norris has won two of the last four races and taken three poles in four — form that would be title-defining in any normal season. Except Antonelli's lead has ballooned to 106 points, and street-circuit lottery or not, that gap is now closer to arithmetic reality than momentum.
Verstappen's Grand Slam anniversary
Twelve months ago, Max Verstappen delivered a Grand Slam in Baku — pole, fastest lap, every lap led, victory. He returns still winless in 2026, but riding Red Bull's best form of the season. If there's a circuit built for a statement drive, it's the one where he was untouchable last year.
Mercedes is sandbagging
Word is Mercedes has a significant upgrade package ready but is holding it back, trusting the current car's Monza-proven straight-line form to be enough for Baku's drag-strip layout. Antonelli leads by 81 points over Russell — there's no urgency to rush anything through.
Weather Watch
Recent Baku Winners
Standings Entering Baku
LOcO Predicts
LOcO Says
Baku doesn't care about your championship position — it cares whether you brake ten metres later into Turn 1 than the car next to you, and whether you can thread a needle past a 700-year-old wall without touching it. With Leclerc weighing a penalty, Verstappen chasing history, Norris refusing to fade, and the race itself landing a day early out of respect for a national day of mourning, this is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable rounds of the year — and it starts a full 24 hours sooner than you think.
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