The 2026 Components 1 marketing campaign is reaching its finish with 14 of the at present scheduled 23 rounds now full after final weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli took the chequered flag in Madrid on Sunday, which marked an finish to the European leg of the calendar, with Azerbaijan up subsequent earlier than a collection of Asian and American flyaway races.
However the Baku contest is going down on a Saturday in 2026, so why is that this the case?
Why is the 2026 Azerbaijan GP on a Saturday?
The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will happen on Saturday 26 September – every week later than its 2025 date – regardless of initially being scheduled for Sunday 27. A tweak was made in June final yr “following a request from the Azerbaijan promoter and related authorities stakeholders” in keeping with an F1 assertion on the time.
It’s because Azerbaijan Remembrance Day happens yearly on 27 September because the Euro-Asian nation goes right into a day of mourning. The folks of Azerbaijan dedicate their ideas to army personnel and those that died throughout the Second Nagorno-Karabakh Warfare, in any other case generally known as The Patriotic Warfare.
However it’s solely a latest prevalence, as a result of the warfare broke out on 27 September 2020 within the Nagorno-Karabakh area that’s disputed between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The warfare lasted for 44 days and resulted in an Azerbaijan victory, igniting anti-government protests in Armenia.
In keeping with the Azerbaijan authorities, 2,783 of its troopers have been killed throughout the battle. So, with Azerbaijan Remembrance Day on Sunday 27 September, the entire F1 weekend will shift a day forwards – which means media day is on the Wednesday, FP1 and FP2 on the Thursday, FP3 and qualifying on the Friday and the 51-lap grand prix itself on the Saturday.
Is it frequent for an F1 race to be held on a Saturday?
George Russell, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Pictures through Getty Pictures
Though it is not uncommon for F1 to host its grands prix on a Sunday, there have been a number of events through which a race has been held on a special day. In truth, day by day of the week has really hosted one and it began with the 1950 British Grand Prix which was held at Silverstone on a Saturday.
The British Grand Prix continued to be held on a Saturday annually till 1975 which means, again then, a non-Sunday race was really fairly frequent. Significantly when the Indianapolis 500 was technically on the calendar between 1950 and 1960, as a result of it was historically held on 30 Might – aside from when that date fell on a Sunday. In these conditions, automobiles would race round The Brickyard on the next day.
However because the seasons glided by, it simply grew to become the norm for grands prix to be held on a Sunday and the 1985 South African Grand Prix – hosted on a Saturday – was the ultimate non-Sunday race till Las Vegas returned to the calendar in 2023.
The American metropolis has hosted its race on a Saturday annually since, whereas 2024 additionally noticed Bahrain and Saudi Arabia host their grands prix on a Saturday because of the begin of Ramadan.
F1 2026 drivers’ standings earlier than the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
1
292
2
211
3
191
4
186
5
167
6
145
7
120
8
71
9
59
10
41
11
31
12
27
13
18
14
10
15
7
16
6
17
5
18
3
19
3
20
1
21
22
23
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