Baku City Circuit

Baku City Circuit, or simply "Baku," is a racing venue that hosts one of the Formula One World Championship races - the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Baku City Circuit is a street circuit situated in Baku, Azerbaijan, near Baku Boulevard. It has an FIA Grade 1 license, which means that the circuit meets the highest standard of safety, infrastructure, layout, and other facilities.

The designing process of the Baku City Circuit began in 2013, and the circuit was ready to host its inaugural Grand Prix in 2016. In the year 2016, Baku City Circuit hosted the European Grand Prix and its support events.

A year later, in 2017, Baku City Circuit hosted the inaugural Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Ever since then, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been hosted exclusively at Baku City Circuit. The race took place every season from 2017 except for 2020, when the event was canceled due to the pandemic.

The circuit is 6.003 km (3.730 miles) long with 20 turns and it was designed to be the second longest circuit in the calendar, however, a few longer circuits have been added to the calendar since then.

Some longer circuits include Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which hosts the Belgian Grand Prix; Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which hosts the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (and also took its position as the longest street city circuit); and Las Vegas Strip Circuit, which will host the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Baku City Circuit was also designed to be the fastest street city circuit, and the goal was achieved with cars reaching speeds of more than 349 km/h (216,8 mph) on the 2.2 km (1.4 mi) long straight along Neftchilar Avenue. This is also the longest straight in the Formula One calendar.

The circuit is one of the few in the Formula One calendar that runs in an anti-clockwise direction. Baku City Circuit was designed by the famous Formula One circuit designer Hermann Tilke.