Why the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is on Saturday, not Sunday
Formula 1 is racing on a Saturday in Baku, and the reason has nothing to do with the sport
Formula 1 will run the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Saturday 26 September, a full day earlier than the usual Sunday slot. The race around the Baku City Circuit has been pulled forward at the request of the local promoters and government stakeholders, so it does not fall on 27 September, Azerbaijan's Remembrance Day.
That national day was decreed in December 2020, in the weeks after the ceasefire that ended the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, the 44-day conflict with Armenian and Artsakh forces over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The fighting began on 27 September that year, and the date now commemorates the roughly 2,900 Azerbaijani soldiers killed. With the race weekend originally set to run straight over it, F1 agreed to shift the whole thing back a day.
The whole weekend moves, not just the race
Every session slides forward by 24 hours. Both Friday practice runs move to Thursday, final practice and qualifying land on Friday, and the race itself takes the Saturday. For viewers in Belgium the timings are actually friendly, with the Grand Prix starting at 13:00 our time, which is 15:00 in Baku, over 51 laps or a maximum of 120 minutes.
Free practice 1, Thursday 24 September, 10:30 (Belgian time)
Free practice 2, Thursday 24 September, 14:00
Free practice 3, Friday 25 September, 10:30
Qualifying, Friday 25 September, 14:00
Race, Saturday 26 September, 13:00
Rare now, but not unheard of
A Saturday Grand Prix feels strange in 2026, yet Formula 1 started this way. The very first world championship race was held on a Saturday, at Silverstone in May 1950, when British Sunday trading laws kept sport off the schedule until the rules eased in the mid-1970s. More recently the Las Vegas Grand Prix has run on Saturday night since its 2023 return, and the 2024 Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races were brought forward to avoid the start of Ramadan. Baku is the first of two Saturday races this season, with Las Vegas again the other.
There is a decent sporting subplot too. Only Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have won in Baku more than once. Perez took his wins for Red Bull in 2021 and 2023 and is back on the grid in 2026 with newcomers Cadillac, while Verstappen arrives in the RB22 chasing a first Baku hat-trick after a season without a victory.
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Moving a Grand Prix is not a small thing. Broadcast windows, freight schedules and hospitality bookings all lock in months ahead, so shifting Baku by a day took real coordination behind the scenes. Doing it so the race does not run over a day when Azerbaijan mourns nearly 3,000 dead is a plain act of respect, and F1 was right to agree to it quietly. It is also a reminder that the calendar, increasingly shaped by commercial and sporting priorities, can still bend for something that matters more. European fans get an early Saturday race out of it, and a free Sunday for once.
