🏁 Baku 2026 - El Box de Franco

Franco returns to the circuit where he made F1 history

Published

23 Sep 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

🇦🇿 Baku, a one-of-a-kind circuit

This year it comes with something extra: the race is on Saturday. Not Sunday. Saturday.

Because Sunday 27th September is Azerbaijan's Remembrance Day and F1 moved all the sessions one day earlier than usual. So if you were planning to watch the race on Sunday morning with your coffee, we've got news for you: this weekend the plan changes and we get a lie-in on Sunday.

Franco arrives here with something very special: Baku was the circuit where he scored his first ever F1 points. In 2024, in just his second race with Williams, he finished P8 and became the first Argentine to score in the championship since Carlos Reutemann in 1982.

He knows this circuit. And he respects it.

The Baku City Circuit is one of the most extreme and entertaining tracks on the calendar

6.003 km of absolute contrasts. On one side, the 1.4-mile main straight along the Caspian Sea, the longest of the entire season, where cars exceed 350 km/h and can run three abreast into Turn 1. It's the most adrenaline-filled moment of the year.

On the other, the historic Icheri Sheher district, Baku's old town, where the streets narrow to just 7.6 metres between medieval walls. It's the tightest section on the entire F1 calendar. One millimetre of error and the race is over.

Teams have to choose between downforce for the technical sector or less drag for the straight. There's no perfect setup. You just have to find the balance.

⚡ What changes in 2026

Under the new regulations, Baku's main straight becomes the perfect stage for the overtake mode system. The car behind that gets within one second of the car ahead can activate additional electrical power exactly when it needs it most: on the longest straight of the season.

This year the overtakes could be spectacular.