Azerbaijan GP 2026: Why Is The F1 Race On Saturday?

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix will break from Formula 1’s usual Sunday routine, with the race in Baku scheduled for Saturday, September 26.

The entire weekend has been moved forward by a day, with practice beginning on Thursday and qualifying taking place on Friday. The unusual schedule is linked to a national day of remembrance in Azerbaijan, rather than a sporting or logistical change within Formula 1.

Why is the Azerbaijan GP being held on Saturday?

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was originally scheduled for Sunday, September 27. However, Formula 1 and the FIA announced in June 2025 that the weekend would be moved forward following a request from the Azerbaijan promoter and relevant government stakeholders.

The reason is September 27, which is observed as Remembrance Day in Azerbaijan.

The national day commemorates Azerbaijani military personnel who died during the 2020 conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Fighting began on September 27, 2020, and continued for 44 days before a ceasefire agreement was reached in November.

Azerbaijan’s president subsequently established September 27 as an annual day of remembrance in December 2020.

Rather than hold the country’s biggest annual motorsport event on the same day, the Azerbaijan GP was therefore shifted forward by 24 hours.

Why wasn’t the race moved to another weekend?

Formula 1 has not publicly stated whether moving the Azerbaijan round to an entirely different weekend was considered.

The decision also had an unforeseen logistical benefit because the calendar later changed around Baku.

The Azerbaijan GP now sits at the start of a demanding sequence of races in Asia. The Bahrain Grand Prix was originally cancelled earlier in the season because of conflict in the region before Malaysia was announced as its replacement on October 4.

That placed the Malaysian GP directly between Azerbaijan and Singapore.

The Saturday race in Baku gives teams an additional day to dismantle their operations and travel roughly 5,500 kilometres from Azerbaijan to Malaysia before the next race weekend begins.

What is the 2026 Azerbaijan GP schedule?

Moving the race to Saturday has shifted the entire F1 weekend forward by one day.

• Thursday, September 24: FP1 and FP2
• Friday, September 25: FP3 and qualifying
• Saturday, September 26: Azerbaijan Grand Prix

The race is scheduled to start at 3pm local time in Baku, which is 12pm BST and 4:30pm IST.

The F2 schedule has also been adjusted around the altered F1 weekend, with its Baku round beginning on Thursday and running through Saturday.

Has F1 held Saturday races before?

Yes. Saturday Grands Prix are unusual but not unprecedented.

The Las Vegas Grand Prix has been held on Saturday night since joining the calendar in 2023, although its timing means it is Sunday morning for many international viewers.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also raced on Saturdays in 2024. Saudi Arabia’s race was moved to Saturday to avoid a clash with the start of Ramadan, while Bahrain was subsequently brought forward to maintain the required gap between the two events.

Saturday races were also more common in Formula 1’s early decades.

For Baku, however, the change is specific to the 2026 event. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix has traditionally been held on a Sunday.