Fans in the grandstands as an F1 car passes the Four Seasons Hotel during the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Photo: The Presidential Press and Information Office of Azerbaijan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Formula 1 goes to Baku with Kimi Antonelli 81 points clear, Mercedes 145 points clear, and a calendar that has quietly run out of places where a lead that size is in real danger. The Baku City Circuit is one of the few left. It has produced a Safety Car in two of every three recent races, it punishes a single misjudged braking point with a wall rather than a gravel trap, and this year it squeezes the whole weekend into three days so the race can run on Saturday.
Nobody is taking the title off Antonelli this weekend. The more useful question is whether anyone can make the last eight rounds look like a contest, and Baku is where the chasing pack gets its best odds.
| Event | Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Round 15 of the 2026 season |
| Venue | Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan (6.003 km, 20 corners) |
| Race | Saturday, September 26: 51 laps, 3:00 p.m. local / 7:00 a.m. ET |
| Qualifying | Friday, September 25: 4:00 p.m. local / 8:00 a.m. ET |
| Tires | C3 (hard), C4 (medium), C5 (soft) |
| 2025 winner | Max Verstappen, Red Bull (from pole) |
| Standings leader | Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 292 points (+81 over George Russell) |
Azerbaijan Grand Prix schedule
Everything moves forward a day. Practice is Thursday, qualifying is Friday, and the Grand Prix is Saturday afternoon. The promoter and Azerbaijani government asked for the change so the race does not fall on the country’s Remembrance Day on September 27. We broke down the knock-on effects in Tuesday’s Daily Motorsport Briefing.
| Session | Day | Local (Baku) | U.S. Eastern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 1 | Thursday, Sept. 24 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | 4:30-5:30 a.m. |
| Practice 2 | Thursday, Sept. 24 | 4:00-5:00 p.m. | 8:00-9:00 a.m. |
| Practice 3 | Friday, Sept. 25 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | 4:30-5:30 a.m. |
| Qualifying | Friday, Sept. 25 | 4:00-5:00 p.m. | 8:00-9:00 a.m. |
| Grand Prix (51 laps) | Saturday, Sept. 26 | 3:00 p.m. | 7:00 a.m. |
The compression matters. With qualifying on Friday, teams get one fewer overnight to digest practice data before parc ferme locks their setups. And because the Formula 2 sprint and first feature race both run on Friday before F1 qualifying, the track gets a lot of rubber down in a short window. Expect the grip level to change noticeably from FP3 to Q3.
The circuit: two tracks bolted together
Baku is a 6.003-kilometer contradiction. The first half is a sequence of 90-degree city-block corners where the car needs downforce and traction. Then comes the Old Town, where the track narrows to 7.6 meters between Turns 8 and 9 as it climbs past the medieval city walls. Then comes a flat-out run along the seafront and back to the start line that is long enough to make low drag the priority. Every setup is a compromise between those two personalities, and the teams that win here usually pick the straight.
Some numbers worth knowing, all from F1’s official circuit data:
- Lap record: 1:43.009, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 2019.
- Braking zone into Turn 1: 111 meters, the shortest on the calendar, arriving at the end of that long straight.
- Pit lane time loss: about 19.3 seconds, including roughly 2.5 seconds stationary.
- Overtakes in 2025: 55.
- Safety Car likelihood: a Safety Car appeared in 67% of the last six races here, a Virtual Safety Car in 50%.
The part that is new for 2026 is what that straight does to the power units. This year’s engines get a much bigger share of their output from the battery, and a battery can’t run at full deployment forever. A lap with more than two kilometers of full throttle is the hardest test of that on the calendar. Watch the speed traps during practice. A car that is fast early on the straight but slows down before the braking zone has run out of electrical energy, and in a race that car is an easy target. The drivers have to harvest energy in the slow sections of the lap so they have enough to spend on the straight. Baku will show which teams have sorted that out.
Championship situation
Antonelli has won eight of the 14 Grands Prix so far: China, Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco, Belgium, Italy and Spain. His Madrid win pushed the gap to Russell out to 81 points. The rest of the season’s winners fit in one sentence: Russell (Australia, Austria), Lando Norris (Hungary, Netherlands), Lewis Hamilton (Barcelona) and Charles Leclerc (Britain).
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 292 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 211 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 191 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 186 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 167 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 145 |
In the Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes has 503 points, Ferrari 358, McLaren 306 and Red Bull 230. Further down, Williams (11 points) sits ninth, six points behind Audi and ten behind Haas. At that end of the table, one lucky Safety Car in Baku can be worth millions in prize money.
The math is simple. A Grand Prix win is worth 25 points and there is no longer a bonus point for fastest lap, so even Antonelli’s worst possible weekend combined with a Russell win only brings the gap down to 56. The title fight is not over, but Russell needs Antonelli to have several bad weekends, not just one.
Key storylines
Mercedes is winning without bringing upgrades
After Madrid, Toto Wolff pointed out that Mercedes has won at two very different tracks, Monza and the Madring, without a major upgrade to the car since Canada. That is the most worrying fact for the rest of the grid. Antonelli was also honest about Madrid, saying the team had been “a little bit fortunate” with when the VSC came out. Baku, like Monza, rewards a car that is strong on the straights, and a car that has already won at Monza should do well here.
Norris and McLaren want a race decided on pace
Norris took pole in Madrid by 0.011s and led the race. Then Lance Stroll’s brake failure brought out a VSC at the exact wrong moment. The drivers who pitted under it saved a lot of time, Norris stopped later under green flags, and a seven-second stop dropped him out of the lead. We covered the few seconds that cost Norris the win in detail. Baku carries the same risk. With a VSC likely in half the races here, the teams that are ready to react quickly will have an advantage.
Verstappen’s best track, and Hadjar is back
Verstappen won in Baku in 2022 and again last year from pole, and he finished second in Madrid. He is sixth in the standings and has no realistic title chance, but he could easily win on Saturday. Red Bull has also confirmed that Isack Hadjar is fit to return after missing Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid with a wrist injury. Watch how he handles Baku’s walls in his first weekend back. It’s a tough place to get your confidence back.
Ferrari: Leclerc’s best track and an engine penalty question
Leclerc has more Baku poles than anyone, with four. Ferrari, though, comes in with problems. Hamilton retired on Lap 6 in Madrid after reporting brake problems. Leclerc still has the engine question hanging over him after his Monza crash: Ferrari is allowed extra engine upgrades under the FIA’s ADUO rules, but installing new parts still counts toward his allowance and can bring a grid penalty. We explained why the free upgrade doesn’t come with a free pass. Keep an eye on the FIA documents on Thursday. At a track where overtaking is possible and Safety Cars are common, Baku is a sensible place to take a grid penalty.
Also worth watching
- Williams’ upgrade. The team announced months ago that its Baku upgrade package was coming. We’ll find out if it’s enough to catch Audi and Haas.
- Haas’s 2027 seat. Haas still hasn’t named a driver after testing Ryo Hirakawa, Rafael Camara, Leonardo Fornaroli and Jack Doohan. Fernando Alonso also hasn’t announced his plans for 2027.
- The Formula 2 title. Nikola Tsolov leads Rafael Camara by seven points, with Gabriele Mini 24 back. Three F2 races this weekend give Camara a chance to make a case for that Haas seat.
Strategy variables
Tires. Pirelli has brought the C3, C4 and C5, the three softest compounds, one step harder than last year. Baku’s asphalt is smooth and wears tires very little, so Pirelli expects a one-stop race. In 2025 every finisher stopped once and the softest tire went unused in the race. This year the C5 is the soft, and it has already done very long stints at Monza. The hard might barely get used. Each driver has two sets of hards, three mediums and eight softs.
Low grip early on. Turns 2 to 4 have been resurfaced, and new, smooth asphalt has little grip at first. Expect the track to get much faster over the weekend. That makes Friday’s practice times less reliable than usual.
Cold tires into Turn 1. The long straight cools the tires and brakes right before the shortest braking zone of the year. Pirelli has warned about front-tire lock-ups there. It’s the most likely place for a first-lap crash and for mistakes on restarts.
Safety Cars and the pit window. A normal pit stop costs about 19 seconds. Under a Safety Car or VSC, it costs much less. In a one-stop race, the best plan is to stay flexible and pit when the race is neutralized. Madrid showed what happens when you don’t: Norris lost the lead. Expect several teams to leave their one stop as late as possible, hoping for a Safety Car.
Weather and wind. The forecast is mild and dry, but wind off the Caspian Sea can change how the cars handle on the straight and in the Old Town section. It’s also one of the reasons Baku’s lap times vary so much from session to session.
Where to follow official coverage
- United States: Every practice, qualifying session and the race stream live on Apple TV, which is F1’s exclusive U.S. partner in 2026. The $12.99/month subscription includes F1 TV Premium, which also carries Formula 2.
- Outside the U.S.: Formula 1’s official event page has the timetable and broadcaster listings. F1 TV Pro streams every session in supported countries.
- Live timing: The official F1 app and F1 TV have live timing, tire data and team radio.
- Stewards’ decisions and penalties: The FIA posts official documents, including engine component changes and grid penalties, throughout the weekend.
Related Reading on Backfire Racing
- The Few Seconds That Cost Lando Norris a Win in Madrid
- Ferrari’s Engine Upgrade Was Free. The Grid Penalty for Using It Still Isn’t.
- Daily Motorsport Briefing: Baku Races on Saturday, Hadjar Returns, Mir Sidelined
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