Azerbaijan marks Remembrance Day every year on 27 September. It was established by presidential decree in December 2020 as a national day of mourning, commemorating the Azerbaijani military personnel who died in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which began on 27 September 2020.

In 2026, the Grand Prix weekend fell on exactly that weekend: 27 September is a Sunday. Holding a Formula 1 race, with its crowds, music, celebrations and TV spectacle, on a national day of mourning would have been inappropriate. So, following a request from the Azerbaijan promoter and the relevant government bodies, Formula 1 moved the entire weekend forward by 24 hours.

It’s a date clash that hadn’t come up before. In previous years the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been held on a Sunday that didn’t coincide with 27 September. In 2025, for example, the race was on Sunday 21 September. The 2026 calendar put Baku a week later, onto Remembrance Day weekend, and the Saturday race is the result.

Rather than squeezing practice and qualifying into fewer days, F1 moved the whole schedule. Media day moved from Thursday to Wednesday, and every track session moved forward one day:

Qualifying on Friday has already produced plenty of drama. George Russell took pole by 0.837 seconds, championship leader Kimi Antonelli crashed in Q1 and starts 16th, and four grid penalties reshuffled the midfield. Our F1 qualifying explainer covers how the three-part session works, if you’re new to it.

The race starts at 15:00 local time in Baku. Because it’s a Saturday, the usual Sunday routine doesn’t apply, so double-check your local time:

In the UK, the race is live on Sky Sports F1, and Channel 4 shows free highlights on Saturday evening at 17:30. In the US, Apple TV carries Formula 1 from 2026. For every country, our guide to where to watch Formula 1 lists the options.

Sunday racing is so normal in Formula 1 that a Saturday race feels strange. But the sport has moved races to Saturday several times, for religious, cultural, commercial and historical reasons:

The best-known modern example is Las Vegas. Since joining the calendar in 2023, it has run on Saturday night local time, and it does so again this year on 21 November. The race goes down the Strip under the lights, and the Saturday slot is part of the show. That makes it Sunday morning in Europe, which is one reason Las Vegas start times confuse so many fans.

In 2024, the season’s first two races, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were both held on Saturdays. The start of Ramadan meant the usual Sunday slot would have clashed with religious observance, so F1 moved both races forward a day. It’s the closest precedent to Baku 2026: a whole weekend moved one day earlier out of respect for an important day in the host country.

Further back, Saturday races were normal in parts of the sport’s history. The British Grand Prix was held on Saturdays for many years before moving to Sunday, and the 1985 South African Grand Prix was also a Saturday race.

For fans

The biggest risk is simply missing it. Anyone who plans to watch “on Sunday as usual” will find the race already finished. The time zones make it worse for some: in the US, the race starts at 07:00 Eastern and 04:00 Pacific on Saturday morning. In the UK, it’s a lunchtime start at 12:00, and in India and Bangladesh it’s a late-afternoon race. If you’ve missed it, highlights and the full result will be available on Saturday.

For the teams

Moving everything forward gives the teams one extra day after the race. That matters this year, because the next round, the Bahrain Grand Prix, is on 2–4 October, just a week later, with a long freight journey in between. An extra day to pack up in Baku and prepare for Bahrain helps teams, mechanics and logistics staff on a busy run of races. Our when is the next F1 race page has the full upcoming schedule.

For Formula 2

Formula 2 also races in Baku this weekend, and its schedule moved with F1’s. Its second Feature Race of the weekend runs on Saturday morning, a few hours before the Grand Prix. We covered the earlier Baku action in F2 Baku: Dunne wins as Câmara takes the lead.

For the championship

On track, nothing changes: points, tyre rules and race distance are the same. The only difference is the date. But it’s an unusual setting for what could be a key race in the title fight, with Russell on pole and championship leader Antonelli starting 16th, 81 points ahead. Our Antonelli vs Russell analysis looks at every scenario.