F1: Why Azerbaijan?

Why Azerbaijan? That’s the question that has swept through the F1 series since Azerbaijan was announced as the location for the Baku European Grand Prix.

Since its announcement, the Baku European Grand Prix has raised eyebrows.

To begin with, Azerbaijan, the country in which the city of Baku is located, sits on the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Technically, it’s still Europe, but any further east and you’ll hit Turkmenistan, and after that you’re only two stone’s throw away from China.

Of course, a European country is still part of Europe no matter how far east or west it happens to be. So any criticism of the race’s geographical location should be met with suspicion.

But why Baku, Azerbaijan?

It could be hypothesized that the location was chosen for the Euro GP because of the country’s large amount of wealth.

It is considered by many to be one of the most important oil exploration spots in the world, Azerbaijan’s oil industry pumping large amounts of money into the country’s economy, so much so that it is now nestled nicely in the top 100 richest countries in the world.

Whether this translates into Bernie Ecclestone wanting to rub shoulders with the oil tycoons of Azerbaijan can be disputed. But it would be foolish to ignore the possibility of Baku simply being chosen because Azerbaijan has deep pockets.

But is this so different to any of the other locations Formula One visits?

Not at all, as all of the Grands Prix are held in economically stable countries, financially capable of putting on a great race.

Why Baku was chosen specifically is anyone’s guess, as whatever deal was made behind closed doors will no doubt remain secret for the foreseeable future. The government of Azerbaijan no doubt offered Formula One what no other country could, whether that be a large sum of money or merely a venue to stage the race.

But Azerbaijan being chosen to host the Euro GP does reveal a rather alarming trend.

Since 2004 we have had a number of new additions to the Formula One calendar, race locations that are beautiful and spectacular in every sense of the word.

However, many of them have another thing in common, they are human rights abusers.

China, Bahrain, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Mexico, and Azerbaijan all fare terribly in the World Press Freedom Index, China for instance, ranking 176 out of 180 countries.

Similar results can be found in the Human Rights Watch 2016 World Report, all the countries listed above accused of committing serious human rights violations.

This has not gone unnoticed, and when asked why Azerbaijan has been added to the Formula One calendar despite these damning reports, Ecclestone had this to say:

"I think everybody seems to be happy… There doesn’t seem to be any big problem (in Azerbaijan)."

Ecclestone is no expert in human rights law, so his opinion shouldn’t be taken seriously. But it shouldn’t be ignored either.

This man ‘runs the show’, he dictates where our sport is carried out, and it seems his ethical compass may be out of whack. That, or his ‘advisors’ should be fired.

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Of course, we should give a country a chance to redeem itself, but only reward it after it has done so. Yet Formula One seems intent on doing it the other way around, the wrong way around.

As such, it doesn’t matter why Azerbaijan was chosen, it shouldn’t have been chosen in the first place.