Azerbaijan GP 2026: eSIM, Schedule and Guide

The 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix runs from 24 to 26 September on the Baku City Circuit, a street track threaded through the middle of the Azerbaijani capital. One detail catches people out every year: this is a Thursday-to-Saturday weekend. The race is on Saturday 26 September at 15:00, not Sunday, and first practice is on the Thursday.

Because the layout is woven into downtown Baku, fans spend the whole weekend moving in and out of the city centre around shifting road closures. A phone that cannot load a map, a ride app or a mobile ticket turns that into a headache fast. This guide covers the session times, the shape of the circuit, getting around the city, and how to sort out connectivity before you travel using a single-country Azerbaijan eSIM. Azerbaijan does not sit inside any Lotsotravel regional plan, so it needs its own profile rather than riding along on a Europe package. We sell the eSIM, so the pricing here is exactly what appears on our live site.

Session times

All times local (UTC+4), as published by Formula 1 and checked on 18 August 2026.

The Thursday start is the thing to plan around. A fan who books the usual Friday-arrival, Monday-departure race trip would miss both Thursday practice sessions entirely and spend Sunday in a city with no track activity. Arrive Wednesday if you want the full weekend.

For anyone following from home, 15:00 in Baku on Saturday is 12:00 in London, 13:00 in central Europe and 07:00 on the US east coast.

The circuit

Baku is 6.003 km, run anti-clockwise over 51 laps for a race distance of 306.0 km. It has 20 corners and has been on the calendar since 2016.

What makes this track unusual is how sharply it splits into two different circuits. The start/finish straight runs along the seafront near Azadliq Square and Government House, and at roughly 2.2 km it is one of the longest flat-out runs in Formula 1. Cars reach their highest speeds of the year down there, which is why Baku produces slipstreaming packs and late-braking moves into the tight left at the end of it.

The other half is the opposite. The track climbs away from the water and squeezes around the walls of Icherisheher, the medieval Old City, into a section so narrow that at its tightest point there is barely room for one car to pass another. It is the closest thing on the calendar to threading a Formula 1 car through an alleyway, and it is where qualifying laps get thrown into a wall.

From there the layout drops back down to the Caspian promenade and runs along Baku Boulevard to rejoin the main straight. For spectators, the seafront sections offer speed and overtaking, and the castle section offers the spectacle of cars in a place they clearly do not fit.

Getting around

The circuit occupies the city centre, which cuts both ways. Many central hotels sit inside or beside the track perimeter, so walking to a gate is often realistic. It also means road closures reshape the middle of the city for several days, and the crossing points across the circuit are limited and change by session.

Metro. Baku's metro runs underneath the closures and is the most reliable way to move during track activity. It is cheap and you will need a rechargeable card rather than cash at the gate.

Taxis and ride apps. Ride-hailing is widely used in Baku, and the city's distinctive purple cabs are everywhere. As at any street circuit, pickup points move away from the closed roads, and walking a few blocks clear of the barriers before requesting a car is usually faster than waiting at a jammed designated zone.

From the airport. Heydar Aliyev International sits roughly 20 to 25 km northeast of the centre. There is an airport bus into the city as well as taxis, and the run takes longer than the distance suggests once race-week closures are in place.

Currency and payments. The local currency is the Azerbaijani manat. Cards work in most central hotels, restaurants and shops, but carrying some cash is worth it for smaller vendors, the metro and short taxi rides.

Weather and what to pack

Late September in Baku is one of the more comfortable stops on the calendar. Expect highs around 25 to 27C (77 to 81F) and lows around 17 to 19C (63 to 66F), with very little rain.

The variable is wind. Baku sits on an exposed Caspian peninsula and gets strong, persistent winds, which is pleasant in the afternoon sun and noticeably cold once the sun drops behind the buildings. Grandstands along the seafront catch the worst of it. A windproof layer is more useful than a warm one, and anything loose is going to be a nuisance.

Sessions run in daylight and the race finishes in the late afternoon, so this is not a night-race packing problem the way Singapore or Las Vegas is.

What you use data for on race weekend

It is easy to underestimate how much your phone does over three days at a street circuit. The usual list looks like this:

• Maps and walking directions around road closures to gates and grandstands.
• Ride and taxi apps for the trips you do not want to walk.
• Your mobile ticket, loaded and scanned at the entrance.
• The official event app for schedules and any timing or onboard features.
• Group chats to find the rest of your party in a downtown crowd.
• Translation, since Azerbaijani and Russian are far more common than English outside tourist areas.
• Posting photos and short clips while the moment is fresh.

None of that is heavy on its own, but it adds up across a weekend. Budget around 1-3 GB per day and you will have room for everything above without watching a counter.

Why an eSIM beats roaming and venue Wi-Fi

Roaming on your home plan can work, but the cost is the catch. Per-day roaming passes stack up fast across a long weekend, and pay-as-you-go roaming rates can produce a nasty bill, more so for a destination like Azerbaijan that often sits outside the cheaper roaming zones bundled with home plans. Venue Wi-Fi, where it exists, gets overwhelmed when tens of thousands of people reach for it at once, and it does nothing for you in a taxi queue or back at the hotel.

An Azerbaijan eSIM sidesteps both problems. It connects to local Azerbaijani networks at local data rates, it travels with you everywhere around the circuit rather than staying tethered to one hotspot, and it costs a fraction of a roaming pass. You set it as your data line and forget about it.

Recommended plan and Azerbaijan pricing

This is a single-country eSIM, and every plan below covers Azerbaijan only. Here are the VIP rates referred customers pay, verified against live pricing on 2026-09-25:

For a single weekend in Baku, the 3GB or 5GB plan is the sweet spot for most fans. If you are streaming at the hotel or extending the trip beyond the race, the 10GB plan gives you headroom.

Setting it up before you fly

Getting online should be the easy part of the trip. Here is the order that works:

1. Buy your Azerbaijan plan before you leave home.
2. Install it over your home Wi-Fi once the email says your QR code is ready. The QR is delivered through our website, with that email as your heads-up.
3. Set the eSIM as your data line in your phone settings.
4. Keep your home SIM active for calls, texts and two-factor authentication codes.
5. Turn off data roaming on your home line so it cannot ring up charges.

Done in that order, you land at Heydar Aliyev International already connected, with no kiosk hunt and no roaming surprise.

A standalone stop on a European run

Plenty of fans pair the Azerbaijan round with European races either side of it, but the eSIM does not travel the way a Europe profile does. Azerbaijan is not on any Lotsotravel regional plan, so the eSIM that gets you through Baku is a separate, single-country profile rather than an extension of a Europe package. Buy it on its own, keep it alongside your Europe eSIM, and switch the active data line to the Azerbaijan profile while you are in the country. For the full season plan, see the main F1 2026 eSIM guide.

Sort the connectivity now, book the Wednesday flight rather than the Friday one, and the only thing left to think about is the racing.