Azerbaijan to host Formula 1 until 2023

Formula One – F1 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan – April 29, 2018 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton crosses the finish line to win the race Srdjan Suki/Pool via Reuters – RC196FC34300
Formula One – F1 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan – April 29, 2018   Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton crosses the finish line to win the race   Srdjan Suki/Pool via Reuters
Formula One – F1 – Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Baku City Circuit, Baku, Azerbaijan – April 29, 2018 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton crosses the finish line to win the race Srdjan Suki/Pool via Reuters

Azerbaijan will continue to host the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix until at least 2023.

On 5 February, Azerbaijani Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov and Formula One Group CEO Chase Carey signed an agreement extending the current contract set to expire in 2020 by three more years.

According to Russian newspaper

Kommersant

, Baku will pay some $60 million to host the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2019 – twice as much as the average $30.7m other promoters are estimated to spend.

Back in April 2018, the director of the company organizing the Azerbaijani Grand Prix, Arif Rahimov, the son of the Minister of Youth and Sports, had

hoped

to decrease hosting fees, realizing that “we are paying more than we probably should.”

With hosting fees usually

increasing

by 5% every year, the costs associated with holding the Grand Prix are expected to grow in the future.

The Formula 1 debuted in Azerbaijan in 2016. It is

supposed

to polish the country’s international reputation, boost the local economy and attract more tourists.

Critics

, however, have dubbed it a lavish vanity project that comes at the expense of the Azerbaijani public and fuels corruption.

In 2016, Meydan TV published an

interactive guide

along the Baku City Circuit to shed light on the stories hidden behind the Formula 1.

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