F1 / NEWS & CONTEXT

RacingNews365: Baku Saturday race fits into a long F1 tradition

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is scheduled for Saturday 26 September. Writing for RacingNews365, Stefan Kerk links the unusual schedule to earlier Saturday races, including several title deciders. Not all the historical claims stand up to scrutiny.

GPBeat · Newsroom24 Sept 2026, 10:25 · 2 min

According to RacingNews365 and Grande Prêmio, the unusual race day in Baku is linked to the national day of remembrance on Sunday 27 September. Both outlets report that the weekend was brought forward at the request of the promoter and the Azerbaijani authorities. The official F1 schedule confirms that the race is scheduled for Saturday, but does not explain the decision-making process.

In his RacingNews365 retrospective of 24 September, author Stefan Kerk takes this as an opportunity to look at earlier Saturday races. His central point: Sunday is the usual race day, but Formula 1 has a much longer history of departing from that convention. Some caveats are needed, however, regarding the historical figures and examples.

How many Saturday races have there been?

Kerk cites 61 Saturday Grands Prix already held, without explaining his counting method. Writing for Grande Prêmio on the same day, Victor Martins puts the number of races that counted towards the Drivers’ World Championship before Baku at 62. He includes the Indianapolis 500 races of 1953 and 1959: World Championship races that were not held under Formula 1’s technical regulations. Without those two, his count comes to 60. He does not include sprints.

This makes clear why the scope of the count matters, but does not conclusively explain the difference between the two publications. The cut-off point is also important: the Saturday race in Baku has yet to take place.

Lauda’s victory and a forgotten title decider

The accounts of the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix differ in emphasis. Kerk cites the football World Cup as the reason for the Saturday date. Motor Sport’s contemporary race report provides no further confirmation of this, but does describe the sporting controversy surrounding winner Niki Lauda. His Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46B was allowed to start after the organisers rejected five official protests before the race. The F1 results archive confirms Lauda’s victory on Saturday 17 June.

On Las Vegas, the retrospective contains a demonstrable omission. Kerk presents the Caesars Palace races of 1981 and 1982 as the only two Saturday races on American soil at which the drivers’ title was decided. This leaves out Max Verstappen’s 2024 championship. According to the official F1 race report, the Dutchman secured his fourth world title by finishing fifth in the Saturday-night race in Las Vegas. There had therefore already been a third case.

Third free practice and qualifying are scheduled for Friday in Baku. Under the current schedule, the Grand Prix starts on Saturday at 15.00 local time, or 11.00 UTC.

Sources 11

SOURCEFrom the World Cup to a car park: F1's most memorable Saturday grands prixRacingNews365 English · Source date as found: 2026-09-24; publication metadata: 10.00 +02:00
SOURCEFORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2026Formula 1 · Source date as found: Schedule for 24–26 September 2026; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCEBlood memoryPresident van de Republiek Azerbeidzjan · Source date as found: Undated; truncated excerpt accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCEVerstappen crowned champion as Russell heads Mercedes 1-2 in Las VegasFormula 1 · Source date as found: 2024-11-24
SOURCEFORMULA 1 HEINEKEN LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX 2025Formula 1 · Source date as found: Schedule for 20–22 November 2025; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCE1967 SOUTH AFRICAN GRAND PRIX - RACE RESULTFormula 1 · Source date as found: Race on 1967-01-02; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCE1978 RACE RESULTSFormula 1 · Source date as found: 1978 season; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCE1985 RACE RESULTSFormula 1 · Source date as found: 1985 season; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCE1978 Swedish Grand Prix race reportMotor Sport · Source date as found: July 1978 archive issue; accessed 2026-09-24
SOURCEHow many times has F1 raced on Saturday? Azerbaijan GP becomes the 63rdGrande Prêmio · Source date as found: 2026-09-24
SOURCEThe story of the hotel car park that hosted F1's first two trips to VegasAutosport · Source date as found: 2023-11-14; only the supplied opening excerpt was assessed

Source context

Grande Prêmio’s historical total has not been recalculated race by race.

Claims and supporting evidence 11

Stefan Kerk published a historical retrospective in RacingNews365 English on 24 September 2026, prompted by the Saturday schedule in Baku. The piece describes earlier departures from Sunday racing and does not announce a new calendar decision. The selection of memorable races is the author’s, not a demonstrably objective ranking.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Origin and nature of the occasion: 24 September 2026. The date comes from the supplied publication metadata. Although the page document is marked as an excerpt, the substantive article text is present through to the closing conclusion; the subsequent podcast content is not a full transcript.

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RacingNews365 and Victor Martins in Grande Prêmio link the decision to bring Baku forward to the national day of remembrance on 27 September and a request from the promoter and the Azerbaijani authorities. Grande Prêmio explicitly states that the race was originally scheduled for Sunday 27 September. The official F1 schedule confirms the current Saturday date, but does not document the original decision-making process or the reason.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Attributed reason for the move in Baku: reporting from 24 September 2026 about the weekend of 24–26 September. These are matching accounts in two publications, not two directly checked confirmations from the organiser. The FIA announcement is missing, and the relevant passage from the presidential website is not available.

[1][10][2]

The official schedule places the first two free practice sessions on Thursday 24 September 2026, third practice and qualifying on Friday 25 September, and the Grand Prix on Saturday 26 September. According to the schedule, qualifying starts at 16.00 local time; the race starts at 15.00 local time, or 11.00 UTC. The schedule lists 51 laps or 120 minutes for the race. RacingNews365’s statement that free practice takes place on Thursday leaves the Friday session unmentioned.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Official schedule and incomplete description of practice sessions: 24–26 September 2026; schedule as it stood on 24 September. The timetable is subject to change. Scheduled sessions are not the same as sessions that have actually taken place.

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RacingNews365 calls the title deciders at Caesars Palace in 1981 and 1982 the only ones during a Saturday race on American soil, and presents 2026 as a possible third occasion. This wrongly leaves out Las Vegas 2024. According to the official F1 report, Max Verstappen secured his fourth drivers’ title there on Saturday evening by finishing fifth. A third case therefore already existed alongside the two cited by Kerk.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Material counter-evidence concerning American title deciders on Saturdays: 1981, 1982 and Las Vegas 2024; retrospective of 24 September 2026. This concerns drivers’ titles and Saturday evening in local time. The F1 report is dated 24 November 2024 in UTC. No calculation has been made of a possible title decider in 2026.

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RacingNews365 presents 22.00 local time as the consistent start time for Las Vegas since 2023. However, the official schedule for Saturday 22 November 2025 lists 20.00 local time, two hours earlier. According to that schedule, the Saturday-evening format was retained, but not the stated start time.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Material counter-evidence concerning the Las Vegas start time: the article’s claim about the period from 2023 onwards; the checked schedule for 22 November 2025. The evidence concerns the published schedule for 2025, not the actual moment when the starting lights went out. The start time for 2026 has not been established separately.

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Writing for RacingNews365, Kerk cites 61 Saturday Grands Prix already held without explaining the basis of the count. Writing for Grande Prêmio, Martins counts 62 races before Baku that counted towards the Drivers’ World Championship, including the Indianapolis 500 races of 1953 and 1959. Without those two, his count comes to 60; sprints are excluded. If Baku takes place as scheduled, those figures will become 63 and 61 respectively. Grande Prêmio thus makes the set of races included and the cut-off point explicit, but does not prove which scope RacingNews365 used.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Difference in historical counts between RacingNews365 and Grande Prêmio: from 1950 to before Baku on 26 September 2026; both publications dated 24 September 2026. Grande Prêmio refers to the official F1 results archive, but the full count has not been reproduced. His figures are therefore an attributed alternative count, not an independently verified replacement total.

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RacingNews365 states that, up to and including 1985, the British Grand Prix had only one exception to Saturday racing. The supplied F1 results pages date the British races of 1978 and 1985 to 16 July and 21 July respectively. Both calendar dates fall on a Sunday. The available official archive therefore provides two counterexamples to RacingNews365’s wording.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Counter-evidence from the results archive concerning the British Saturday tradition: the British Grand Prix up to and including 1985; checked archive entries from 1978 and 1985. The days of the week are derived from the calendar dates given. This is neither a complete survey nor a check of the archive dates against original race documents.

[1][7][8]

The official results archive dates the 1967 South African Grand Prix to 2 January, a Monday, rather than 1 January. RacingNews365’s explanation that the Monday and Friday races mentioned always took place on New Year’s Day is therefore incorrect.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Correction of the South African New Year’s explanation: 2 January 1967. The day of the week is derived from the date. This counterexample corrects the explanation for the dates, but neither confirms nor refutes the separately stated total of eighteen South African Saturday races.

[1][6]

The official F1 archive confirms Lauda’s victory for Brabham-Alfa Romeo on 17 June 1978, a Saturday. RacingNews365 links the Saturday date to the football World Cup and mentions the BT46B’s victory. The Motor Sport report from July 1978, which is available in full, confirms the victory with that car, but focuses on the technical controversy: five official protests had been rejected before the race. The report contains no confirmation of the football-related reason.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Sweden 1978: a supported result, a different emphasis and an unconfirmed football-related reason. 17 June 1978; report in Motor Sport from July 1978; retrospective of 24 September 2026. The absence of the football-related reason from a race report does not refute that explanation. The day of the week is derived from the date. The Motor Sport report is signed D. S. J.; the author’s full name has not been verified.

[1][7][9]

RacingNews365 explains the choice of Saturday at Caesars Palace by citing the casino’s need to make the car park available to guests again on Sunday. That causal explanation is not confirmed by the available supplementary material. The presence of a circuit in the car park does not in itself prove why Saturday was chosen.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Caesars Palace: parking needs as an attributed explanation. Caesars Palace races of 1981 and 1982; retrospective of 24 September 2026. No explanation from the organisers is available. The relevant passage about the scheduling for 1982 that the research attributes to Autosport falls outside the supplied excerpt. The car park explanation is therefore unconfirmed, not refuted.

[1]

Writing for RacingNews365, Kerk presents Caesars Palace as a striking historical example. In his Autosport retrospective of 14 November 2023, marked as opinion, Jake Boxall-Legge instead assesses the venue’s suitability for racing: he calls the setting unworthy of the crowning of two world champions and describes, among other things, the extra neck strain caused by the compact circuit, which was run anticlockwise. These are different emphases: memorable history versus criticism of the racing environment.

This source finding should be read within the scope and source context described. Different value judgements about Caesars Palace in the available media texts: Autosport on 14 November 2023, before the return to Las Vegas; RacingNews365 on 24 September 2026. Boxall-Legge is not responding to Kerk’s later article. His judgement represents him as an opinion writer, not automatically the editorial team. Only the supplied opening excerpt from Autosport has been assessed; it does not confirm the reason for choosing Saturday.

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This article was produced with AI assistance. Source references make its supporting evidence traceable.