Baku GP Will Still Clash with Le Mans

[cosworth151]

The F1 race in Baku will still conflict with The 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will start at the same moment Le Mans ends.

From the beginning, the FIA claimed that The Grand Prix of Azerbaijan Europe wouldn't conflict with Le Mans. Now, the  Azerbaijani government has announced that it is cancelling Daylight Savings Time.

I still have my doubts that the race will run. If it does, I know which one I'll be watching. (Hint - it's the one with the real V8's)

[Scott]

Tape one, watch the other (yes, I realize tape no longer exists - just an expression).

[John S]

I still have my doubts that the race will run.

Perhaps you could elaborate a bit more on that statement Cossie?    

None of the many websites I look at about F1, including major newspaper sites, are making any noises about it not happening.

Reputable F1 travel companies are selling hotel/race packages and Bakucitycircuit.com and F1.com are selling tickets.   

[cosworth151]

Perhaps you could elaborate a bit more on that statement Cossie?

http://www.azernews.az/formula1/94712.html

Is it really a good idea to have a race in a country with an active civil war being waged?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/world/europe/nagorno-karabakh-fighting-azerbaijan-armenia.html?_r=0

There are only two reasons to have the race. 1. More money for Bernie. 2. Bernie wants a race on Le Mans week-end to prevent F1 drivers from racing at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Azerbaijan was most likely the only that would stage a conflicting race.

[Alianora La Canta]

There's more. Azerbaijan is dependent on petrochemical dollars and the price of petrol's collapsed. The opposition has already called for the race's cancellation (along with the Islamic Games, a smaller version of the Olympic Games which is taken very seriously in the Middle East) for financial reasons.

I doubt Azerbaijan or any other venue was given a choice over race slot. Bernie makes those choices, and only in the case of conflict with an already-scheduled event may a track do other than what it is told. (Though they can offer suggestions and inducements for those suggestions to be followed). More likely, Bernie wanted an F1 clash and Azerbaijan, having a brand-new venue and thus unable to cite any clashing events, had to go with Bernie's choice of date. Even though that choice makes little sense given the country's weather at that time of year (hot), its ability to control its citizens then (reduced due to weather fraying tempers in general), the attractions of other places at that time (many) and the fact that it is the weekend immediately after the controversial National Salvation Day (held on June 15 each year, to celebrate Parliament inviting Heydar Aliyev, who some view as a dictator, to lead/invade the country in 1993). Oh, and it's a national holiday for the gas sector, which is facing hard economic times...

Did I mention it's scheduled for the middle of Ramadan, in an Islamic country, so even non-Muslims may find it difficult to get anything to eat at the track, or consuming food they have brought without social disapproval?

Basically, there is no reason Azerbaijan would want that particular weekend to be the F1 weekend unless Bernie foisted it on them. I think the race has been set up to fail. (I don't think it's smart to hold a race in a place with an active civil war, but that hasn't stopped Russia or Bahrain. The former's war was a little under 100 km away and the latter is stop-start, with F1 occasionally getting used as ammo for both sides).

I can see a lot of reasons why Baku wouldn't happen, and most of them I would expect to be short-notice in nature. Some I can see happening only after the F1 circus arrives, let's put it that way.

[Irisado]

I used to know an Azerbaijan woman from Baku.  She wrote her MA dissertation on that regional conflict.  It's extremely complex and almost impossible to solve.

Getting back to the race, I find it hard to believe that it will happen, but I've been wrong before.  It's just pure greed on the part of Ecclestone that it's even being contemplated.  There are so many reasons not to hold a race there.