After a rare Formula One schedule change, this year’s Azerbaijan GP will take place on a Saturday, rather than Sunday.
According to ESPN, F1 will be racing on a Saturday this week as the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix takes place in Baku on Saturday, September 26th.
Why is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday?
While the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was initially slated for Sunday, September 27, the FIA and Formula 1 announced a change in June 2025 "following a request from the Azerbaijan promoter and relevant government stakeholders" to "accommodate a national day."
That national day, observed annually on September 27, is Remembrance Day in Azerbaijan and commemorates those who died during the Second Nagorno Karabagh war, otherwise known as The Patriotic War.
Why Azerbaijan GP did not move to another weekend?
Formula 1 has not said whether moving the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to another weekend was considered, and it being the start of a demanding triple-header across Asia prompts the question why that was not the case.
But when Baku was shifted forward, it was not due to begin a triple header.
That changed more than a year later when F1 announced in July, stay with us here, that Sepang would stage the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on October 4, replacing the Bahrain race that had been cancelled earlier in the season due to conflict in the region.
That late addition placed Malaysia directly between Azerbaijan and Singapore, giving teams a logistically-challenging stretch of three straight races.
But Baku's Saturday race has therefore provided an unexpected benefit. Teams have an extra day to pack up and travel the roughly 3,400 miles (5,500 kilometres) from Azerbaijan to Malaysia before practice begins at Sepang the following Friday.
After a rare Wednesday media day, the race weekend begins with first and second practice on Thursday, September 24, rather than the usual Friday.
Third practice and qualifying will then take place on Friday, September 25, before the 51-lap Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday.
The race is scheduled to begin at 3 pm local time in Baku, which is noon BST and 7 am ET.
