Baku City Circuit is a street circuit located in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, near Baku Boulevard. The track was designed by Hermann Tilke, whose brief was to include as many of the city’s historic landmarks as possible; this lead to the track passing through the old city and past the Presidential Palace, with the pits and paddock based in and around Government House. Baku City Circuit is the 4th longest track on the 2024 calendar, and the third longest street track after the addition of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and the Las Vegas Strip Circuit. It is one of many street circuits on the calendar, joining the likes of Monaco, Melbourne, Singapore, Jeddah, Las Vegas, Montréal, and Miami. The circuit joined the calendar in 2016, when it hosted the European Grand Prix (now the Azerbaijan Grand Prix). The track disappeared from the calendar for a year, when the race was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however it rejoined shortly after in 2021.

Baku City Circuit (Photo via @redbullracing on Instagram)

For the 2023 Grand Prix, the track was resurfaced. Baku City Circuit also became the first circuit to host the new sprint race format: on Friday, a single practice session and qualifying for Sunday’s grid and Saturday’s usual FP2 session replaced by a qualifying session for the sprint race later that day. For the 2024 season, Baku City Circuit and Suzuka swapped places on the calendar, with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix now taking place in September without a sprint race.

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Track distance: 6.003 km/ 3.73 miles
• DRS zones: 2
• Corners: 20
• Elevation: 26.9 metres
• Laps: 51
• Race lap record: 1:43.009 Charles Leclerc (2019)
• Direction: anti-clockwise

Baku City Circuit (Photo via @mercedesamgf1 on Instagram)

According to F1.com, Baku configuration for this year is as follows:

PREVIOUS TYRE COMPOUNDS

• Selected compounds in 2023: C5 (soft) C4 (medium) C3 (hard)
• Selected compounds in 2022: C5 (soft) C4 (medium) C3 (hard)

Red Bull is the most successful constructor at the track with a total of 4 wins. The race had never been won twice by the same driver, from 2016-2019 and 2021-2022, with a different driver having won every year. In 2023, Sergio Perez became the first driver to win at Baku multiple times. The race has also only been won twice from pole position. Over the years, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has taken place as either the fourth, sixth, or eighth round on the calendar, meaning the race usually takes place at the end of April, or around May/June. This year will be the first time since the circuit’s addition to the calendar the race will take place later in the year.

Baku City Circuit (Photo via @astonmartinf1 on Instagram)

Baku City Circuit is a mixture of tight and twisty bits and very long and wide straights; this influences the car set up, as teams have to choose between downforce for the twists or less drag for the straights. Similar to Monaco, there’s not a lot of room for errors, mistakes are punished “quickly and severely”.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

• 2023 Sergio Perez
• 2022 Max Verstappen
• 2021 Sergio Perez
• 2019 Valtteri Bottas
• 2018 Lewis Hamilton