Formula 1 returns to familiar ground this weekend as Azerbaijan celebrates its 10th anniversary of being on the calendar.
The Baku street circuit first entered as the European Grand Prix in 2016 before running as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from 2017, featuring every season bar the COVID-struck 2020 campaign.
It has produced many memorable moments from Daniel Ricciardo’s mega win from 10th in 2017, his clash with team-mate Max Verstappen in 2018 or that incident-packed 2021 contest.
Let’s hope F1 is in for more of the same this weekend, as Baku hosts round 15 of the 2026 campaign with just eight left after the race next to the Caspian Sea.
Here are five things to look out for.
Race day is on Saturday
Azerbaijan holds its own Remembrance Day on Sunday, which is held each year on the 27 September to honour those who died in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The conflict began on that day in 2020 and lasted for 44 days, resulting in an Azerbaijan ‘triumph’ over Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
So because the Euro-Asian country is marking it on Sunday, race organisers requested for the grand prix weekend to shift forwards by a day and that is exactly what’s ended up happening. It means media day will now take place on Wednesday, ahead of free practice one and two on Thursday, respectively starting at 12:30pm and 4pm locally.
Friday will now see final practice and qualifying, again 12:30pm and 4pm session starts, ahead of the race on Saturday with lights out at 3pm. It shouldn’t make too much difference to how the racing will play out, but make sure to set reminders so that plans aren’t made to watch it on Sunday!
- Ed Hardy
Energy deployment at the top of the agenda again
In a parallel universe where the 2026 F1 power unit regulations aren’t such a bugger’s muddle, talk ahead of the Azerbaijan GP is quite rightly focusing on how the shorter, lighter, nimbler new-generation cars would look much more sprightly and alive around the Baku street circuit than their ponderous ground-effect predecessors. Having less downforce, along with narrower tyres, would also add spice to the track’s signature straight and the perilous braking area lying in wait at the end.
Instead, the vexatious topic of energy management will be the key point of driver feedback.
Baku’s long straight will easily deplete battery reserves long before the end, triggering the ramp-down phase as the software progressively tapers off electrical input. A long straightline mode (SM) zone on the straight will mitigate some of the effects, but the requirement to harvest energy to attack or defend between Turns 2 and 3 will affect the way drivers approach the big stop at Turn 1.
This is a track which the engineers would describe as deterministic, since the areas where lap time can be found through using the electrical boost are obvious.
It will also likely exaggerate the small differences in driving style that can add up to team-mates having different peak speeds. The final corner is quite challenging, and any speed scrubbed off by sliding will have to be re-accelerated – which comes out of the electrical ‘budget’ on the straight.
- Stuart Codling
The final race before Mercedes upgrades
Car upgrades has been a key battleground of the 2026 campaign with the pecking order constantly fluctuating depending on who has fitted updates and when. It has been a major talking point at the front of the field, as championship leader Mercedes opted for a different strategy compared to its two nearest rivals, Ferrari and McLaren.
While the latter two went for an aggressive front-loaded approach, Mercedes preferred to fit minor, race-specific tweaks with its only major upgrade package arriving at Montreal in May. A less aggressive approach has allowed Ferrari and McLaren to close the gap, as the Silver Arrows won the opening six grands prix from pole before winning four of the last eight.
It might, however, re-establish such dominance once it fits its next major update in Malaysia on 2-4 October. So that means Baku is Mercedes’ last race with its current package, which still hasn’t fared too badly with dominant championship leader Kimi Antonelli winning the last two races.
At the way he is going, one shouldn’t bet against the 20-year-old sensation from making it three victories on the bounce as he continues to romp towards a maiden title. Antonelli holds an 81-point lead over team-mate George Russell in second, the Briton effectively conceding his title chances last time out in Madrid.
- Ed Hardy
What has happened to Piastri?
Last year, Baku was supposed to present Oscar Piastri with a huge opportunity to extend his championship lead. He'd won in Azerbaijan the previous season, soaking up every one of Charles Leclerc's attempts to make a pass, and over 2025 had accrued a 31-point lead over Lando Norris at the top of the standings. Max Verstappen was a further 94 points behind.
Instead, the threads of Piastri's championship tapestry unravelled. A Q3 crash amid the onset of drizzle and high winds contrived to guide the Australian's path into the wall at Turn 3, and put him ninth on the grid. It only got worse: Piastri jumped the start, went into an anti-stall, dropped to the back of the field, and then crashed at Turn 6. The pressure had got to the usually unflappable Melburnian, and this was the moment that marked the power shift in the title fight.
Piastri returns to Azerbaijan without a victory to his name since, his last being his 2025 Dutch GP. This season has, generally, been a struggle; the lower levels of downforce and the deployment tactics involved have not sat particularly well with him, and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that Piastri is losing time through having to think too much about his inputs.
But he's proven before that he can perform brilliantly in Baku, per his '24 win, and it would be a fitting conclusion to a difficult 12 months if he could arrest that run of poor form and produce a headline result.
Of course, convenient patterns don't just happen quite like that - but the idea of a turnaround at the circuit where it all came apart last year could present Piastri with that extra smidgen of incentive to vanquish the spectre of 2025.
- Jake Boxall-Legge
Questions over Alonso’s future…again
One of the recurring talking points from recent grands prix is the future of Fernando Alonso. In Spain last time out, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem revealed that he had spoken to the 45-year-old and had promised to help him amid a horrible time for his Aston Martin squad.
“Not soon,” Alonso himself replied when asked in Thursday’s press conference when he would reveal his plans for 2027. “Because I think it’s nice, no?” he added. The question in Baku is whether the intrigue surrounding his future will remain nice with the belief that his plans may already be decided and that he is simply trying to apply a little pressure on F1. So expect more complaints about just how bad the 2026 cars are from the veteran Spaniard, whose contract expires at the end of this campaign.
After name-checking his chef and his press officer, will the team’s community manager get a turn next?
But what about his car? Aston Martin is bringing the final part of its upgrade package to Baku, with the team hoping it will finally get closer to the AMR26’s weight limit. Honda, which has no more upgrades in the pipeline, believes there is still some performance to unlock from its current package, and it will be down to the engine supplier to help make a points-scoring race possible.
- Jose Carlos de Celis
