Azerbaijan GP goes ahead as FIA navigates major Middle East disruption

GPblog understands that F1 is no closer to a final decision on calling off races in fellow neighbouring states Qatar and Abu Dhabi, while Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have already been cancelled due to the conflict.

Azerbaijan, though, remains an outlier, which becomes more understandable when the specifics are taken into account.

Currently, on the US State Department website, travel to Azerbaijan comes with the following warning: “Reconsider travel to Azerbaijan due to terrorism, armed conflict, and risk of landmines. Some areas have increased risk.”

In fact, that increases to ‘Level 4 - do not travel’ in areas that border Armenia and Iran.

Azerbaijan was directly caught up in the wider conflict when, on March 5, Iranian drones struck Nakhchivan International Airport in the country's exclave, damaging the terminal building and injuring civilians. The US State Department since raised Azerbaijan's advisory level to 3 in April.

The difference between Baku going ahead and the Gulf races stalling is logistics. A sharp military escalation in the Middle East on February 28, 2026, triggered immediate closures of the Strait of Hormuz and widespread airspace shutdowns across key Gulf states.

Qatar and Abu Dhabi both sit behind that waterway. Insurers broadly withdrew coverage for transits through the Strait, leading to a near-total suspension of tanker and container traffic. By early May, more than 1,550 commercial vessels and around 22,500 mariners were reported stranded in and around the strait.

F1 moves approximately 1,500 paddock personnel to each flyaway race, along with hundreds of tonnes of freight. With the Strait closed, getting that operation into the Gulf is the biggest obstacle.

However, Baku doesn’t have such a problem. The city is reachable by land from Europe through Turkey and Georgia, bypassing the Strait entirely.

Azerbaijani airspace has not only remained open but has become one of the busiest corridors in the world: according to reporting in The Telegraph, by early 2026 as many as 1,000 flights per day were passing through the Azerbaijani air corridor linking Europe and East Asia.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan's government has underlined its confidence. A presidential order dated August 25 lets anyone holding a race ticket or accreditation from Formula One Management, the FIA, or the Baku City Circuit Operations Company collect a visa at any Azerbaijani international airport, valid through September 30.

So the question is not how close a circuit sits to the conflict. It is whether cars, equipment, and people can physically and safely get there and back. For the FIA and F1, that answer for Baku is yes.