F1 has released the provisional calendar for 2022, which features record-breaking 23 races, including in Azerbaijan and Russia.
The Formula-1 world championships will reportedly run an eight-month-long marathon next year from March 20 to November 20. According to the calendar, Bahrain will host the curtain-raising race, and the United Arab Emirates will be the last stop.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is scheduled for June 12, 2022, being the eighth tournament in the preliminary calendar. Russia will host the 17th stage of the motorsport event – the Russian Grand Prix - on September 25.
The previous edition of the F1 race in Baku took place on June 4-6, 2021, while Russia’s Black Sea coastal Sochi city is gearing up to host the race this week, on September 24-26.
The first Formula One Grand Prix was held in Azerbaijan as the European Grand Prix in 2016 at the Baku City Circuit. A year later, in 2017, Baku City Circuit hosted the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The following episodes of the race in the country took place in April 2018 and April 2019. Last year’s tournament was postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Baku City Circuit racetrack runs through several major streets of Baku, close to the main promenade on the Caspian Sea. Along with many long straights that make it the “fastest street circuit in the world,” the Baku circuit challenges the drivers with a very narrow section next to the Old City walls, a historical site in the center of Baku. Measured 6.003 kilometers in length, the Baku City Circuit is the second-longest on the current F1 calendar after Spa Francorchamps (7.004km) in Belgium.
In Sochi, the race will be winding through a 5,848-meter long Sochi Autodrom racetrack, the first and only circuit hosting the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix. The inaugural event at the Sochi Autodrom took place in 2014. Ever since, the track hosted the F1 motor racing event annually.
However, Sochi will bid a farewell to F1 after the next year’s race. Igora Drive racetrack in Saint Petersburg will reportedly be the new venue for the Russian Grand Prix from 2023 onwards.