How a rejected Baku option taught F1 a key lesson

Despite the first Formula 1 race in Baku being a dull affair, the two most recent races have been full of fireworks. This is largely down to the city circuit's layout, which could have been completely different

Jonathan Noble Apr 25, 2019, 8:58 AM

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When Azerbaijan was added (originally as the European Grand Prix) to the Formula 1 calendar in 2016, many were sceptical about what Baku would bring to the championship.

After seeing several new race projects including Turkey, India and South Korea fall by the wayside as those venues failed to attract the fan or government support needed to keep them going, few were convinced that the Azerbaijan tale would be much different.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.