Baku F1 race boosted by move from Le Mans date

The organizers of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix have seen a boost in interest in the race following a move to avoid a clash with Le Mans.

The inaugural race in Baku took place on the same weekend as last year's Le Mans 24 Hours, with the grand prix itself starting just as the iconic endurance race finished. The organizers in Azerbaijan were keen to avoid a repeat, having also been paired as a back-to-back with the Canadian Grand Prix, and the final version of the 2017 calendar saw the pair separated to ensure Baku is held a week after Le Mans.

Baku City Circuit executive director Arif Rahimov says there are a number of knock-on benefits to the switch, both from an interest and organizational point of view.

"Obviously it is good to have more media and spectators in Azerbaijan for the race," Rahimov said. "Last year, a lot of people got a chance to see what the race looks like and it attracted a lot of international spectators, and we are happy that those spectators won't have to choose between the two races. On the press side, Le Mans is a big event and a lot of media had to choose between the races and they won't have to do that this year.

"Another thing is that our race isn't back-to-back with any other race so we have more time to prepare ourselves together with Formula 1 Management and their technical teams to make sure that the track is right because last year was quite a bit of a logistical nightmare to organize everything in such a short period of time."

And Rahimov says there has also been a major increase in ticket purchases for the second edition of the race, citing the successful running of the first event as the key reason for additional sales.

"They are definitely up – from the trend that we see right now, in the same period of time it was last year, we have sold five times as many tickets as were sold in the same period last year so we see a big change – which was probably influenced by the fact we had the television viewers last year which persuaded people to go and buy a ticket.

"A lot of the locals got educated on what the race is so they know exactly what they are buying now and they just want to go and get there – they want to see the race, they want to be part of the excitement, they want to attend the F1 Village and other roaming areas to see all the entertainment we have in place. So it is going up."