First look at the Baku City Circuit in pictures

2016 European Grand Prix

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The new Baku City Circuit will hold its first grand prix this weekend. Here’s a look around the Azerbaijani track which will host the European Grand Prix.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “First look at the Baku City Circuit in pictures”

  1. So i see they’ve installed plenty of catch fences around the houses etc, but left the historic castle pretty much unguarded!??

    1. it’s a castle. it’s pretty solid.

    2. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      15th June 2016, 10:28

      @pukktpie It’s built to withstand trebuchets and cannon-balls. I think it’s going to be fine…

      …the guy who hits it on the other hand…

      1. Evil Homer (@)
        15th June 2016, 13:09

        @william-brierty
        @pukktpie
        @frood19

        No need to worry here, the guys from Monty Python are going to be present to re-enact some of the scenes from “The Holy Grail”- “I will ask him but I don’t think he will be interested as we already have one!!”

        …………. I will stop there before I add some Black Knight comments :)

        1. @evilhomer can we hire John Cleese to re-enact his french knight bit at the top of that turret? “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!” X-D

          1. Evil Homer (@)
            15th June 2016, 14:44

            @pukktpie
            Too funny mate!! Cleese will do it for free!
            “sorry, sorry………… sorry everybody!!!”
            “lets not worry about who killed who, this is meant to be a happy occasion”
            or better still…..

            “Mother!”
            “father son…. father!!” GOLD!!

        2. “I will ask him but I don’t think he will be interested as we already have one!!”
          I’ve seen it…itsa very nice!
          Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!

    3. There seems to be some protection there.

  2. I just really hope that nobody has a life-threatening crash here, or in the race there is a massive pileup. I can just sense it. I have bad feelings about this track.

    1. +1
      I had the same thoughts..
      I wonder how will they remove a crashed car from turn 10. It won’t be a quick job for sure.

      1. Instant red flag?!

  3. I must admit, this track does seem to have a proper street circuit feel to it, unlike say Sochi. I was hoping for something a bit more IndyCar (bumpy roads, very little in the way of run-off) but otherwise it doesn’t appear as bad as I expected.

    Sure there are too many 90-degree corners for my liking, but it’s not always easy to have otherwise on a street circuit.

    The final section also appears terrifyingly brilliant. The cars should hit some really high speeds, something unconventional of a typical street track.

    1. LovelyLovelyLuffield
      15th June 2016, 10:14

      See, there are bad tracks, and then there are good sectors in bad tracks. Baku City is the latter. Past T5 the circuit becomes both excitingly fast and vexingly terrifying, which is in short supply these days.

      1. Evil Homer (@)
        15th June 2016, 13:27

        I am actually looking forward to this one and happy to give it a chance before we write it off. It does look funny as a design and maybe a Phoenix, Arizona early 90’s feel (with the 90 degree corners) but its gonna be real fast and tight around the castle, so here is hoping for a good circuit for us all.

        There have been too many new ones in the past 10 years or so that certainly have not produced as a circuit- Sochi looks good on paper (well sort of), its all new and clean, buts its so boring. Korea and Turkey had pretty good circuits, but nobody went, Valencia looked great for a back drop in a Bond film, but not a good circuit but the worst for me is Abu Dhabi – I cant stand it!

        So I am pumped for this one………….. hope not to be disappointed :)

  4. Here’s a question. Why does the rate start at such a late time, locally? No big risk of dusk or anything but it’s still unusual as they could easily have started at CET 14:00.C

  5. On this website a lot of us (myself included) like to have a good whinge about the soulless, cookie-cutter identikit Tilkedromes. We should therefore thank our lucky stars that we’re not about to face another new Tilkedrome built in the middle of nowhere with overblown architecture that doesn’t have the circuit to match. I’d much rather see a city centre circuit like this, ok Valencia didn’t work but this is more like Singapore and Macau and I for one cannot wait to see the flat out kinks after the narrow city gate section and the blast back to the pits. Baku is adding much needed variety to the calender and we should be grateful for that. And it would also be good to wait till the cars have even got out the pits before we start talking it down!

    1. +1 There’s Baku itself, tight bits, ultra fast bits, and some elevation changes. Lets see how the racing will be before crying wolf. Critizing some tracks is taboo due that we grew up with them, but from a pure track layout perspective Monza and Silverstone dont have any elevation or particular location going for them… and while their layouts have never really gotten my juices flowing, we still cherish them. Give Baku a chance, the racing will tell.

      1. And Baku itself looks beautiful, lots of grand old solid buildings. Just to contradict myself though it’s a shame that the roads get the ‘billiard-table’ treatment which makes it to more of an urban circuit like we see at Valencia and Sochi. If they do have to resurface it then I’d really like to see the road markings put back on so that it looks like a proper street circuit.

      2. from a pure track layout perspective Monza and Silverstone dont have any elevation or particular location going for them

        I don’t follow this at all. To me, “from a pure track layout perspective”, Monza is the quickest track and Silverstone is one of the quickest tracks on an increasingly slow calendar. I’d keep either of them over most of the other tracks, irrespective of where they are or how long they’ve been hosting F1 races.

  6. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    15th June 2016, 12:24

    Fans of “Homer Simpson comedy” might be interested in F1.com’s latest video, which spends four minutes heralding “the return of the European Grand Prix” at a “fitting backdrop”…outside of Europe…:

    https://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/video/2016/6/Your_guide_to_the_European_Grand_Prix.html

    1. Europe is not a continent, it has lines drawn on maps which tell people where countries start and end, poletics have defined what is and isn’t europe and imperial countries. To many people Baku is europe, if you don’t like it, that is your agenda.

      1. +1 Couldn’t agree more. Baku = Europe Deal with it!

      2. WheeledWarrior
        15th June 2016, 18:33

        Azerbeidzjan might be a part of Europe geographically, but culturally it is certainly not. Even accounting for the differences in culture within Europe itself.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      15th June 2016, 12:57

      @william-brierty – “backdrop” is a choice of words considering lots of the buildings have been covered by them to make Baku look nicer on TV!!

  7. Five questions:
    Why is it the European Grand Prix?
    Why not Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
    Why not Caspian Grand Prix?
    Why not Asian Grand Prix?
    Why not Middle East Grand Prix?

    1. Because Bernie.

      Though that’s probably a bit simplistic. Azerbaijan seems to be “looking West” rather than East and this certainly isn’t the first time they have been involved in an event with European in the title, they did host the European Games and Socar (the Azeri state oil company) has its logo plastered all over the advertising boards next to the pitches at Euro 2016.

    2. Sean Newman, to a certain extent, it is no more illogical than holding a Swiss GP in Dijon-Prenois or a Luxembourg GP in Germany.

  8. Tony Mansell
    15th June 2016, 13:53

    Looks a bit like one of those silly Formula milk float tracks. All cages and narrow vista’s. Still no run offs is good , unless your name is Nico Rowboat…

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