Formula 2 Preview: Baku

Credit: Formula 2

Formula 2 heads to Azerbaijan for Round 12 of the 2026 championship. DIVEBOMB covers what you need to know ahead of the weekend.

Track

The Baku City Circuit is one of the longest tracks on the calendar at 6km (3.73 mi) long, with 20 corners. With its long main straight and tight corners, Baku is one of the more unique tracks on the calendar as well.

As it is a street track, it is known for its tight layout and trickiness to maneuver. Margin for error does not exist at Baku, if you make a mistake, you hit the wall. In qualifying, drivers will have to conquer this track by setting the fastest possible lap time without crashing, and timing will be a big factor because they’ll need clean air in front of them and no traffic.

In the races, the drivers will be looking for ways to catch each other out or hope for an incident, as overtaking is always difficult at tracks like Baku.

American driver Jak Crawford took pole position last year in Formula 2, which led him to the eventual Feature Race win. Dino Beganovic, who started the Sprint Race from second after qualifying ninth, took the Sprint Race win.

F2 standings

Nikola Tsolov continues to lead the drivers standings, though only by seven points after a points-less weekend at the Madring last time out. After a strong start and middle of the season, Tsolov has struggled a little in the past few rounds, only scraping up 16 points in the last three rounds.

Rafael Câmara is the driver closing in on him, with Gabriele Minì behind them in third by a more significant margin. All three of the top drivers actually had an anonymous weekend in Madrid, the three of them scoring a combined 10 points.

Alex Dunne and Noel Leon hold the other two spots in the top five in the standings. Dino Beganovic in sixth is 13 points behind Leon.

After Baku, just two more rounds are currently scheduled to take place, the two rounds that end the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. These rounds are scheduled for the end of November and beginning of December, so whatever the case, there won’t be any F2 racing for a while after Baku. And with tensions high in the Middle East, there’s always a chance that these rounds won’t actually happen, meaning there’s a chance that this race weekend in Baku could have bigger championship implications than we think.

This weekend will be essential for the top three drivers to put their best foot forward and score as many points as possible, which means a good qualifying will be key. But after the format was revised for this weekend, there are more points on offer than usual.

Weekend schedule

Credit: Formula 2

This weekend will be slightly different to F2’s usual schedule, as a second Feature Race has been added. It will follow the format that Formula 3 had for their championship round at the Madring last race weekend.

On Thursday morning (instead of their usual Friday), the grid will head out for Free Practice at 10am local time in Baku. They’ll then have two qualifying sessions in quick succession, Qualifying 1 going from 14:00 to 14:20, and Qualifying 2 beginning at 14:30. These sessions will set the grids for Feature Race 1 and Feature Race 2.

On Friday, the Sprint Race will begin the day at 8:15 local time, with the grid set by Qualifying 1 with the top 10 drivers reversed. The driver that qualifies 10th in the first qualifying session will begin the Sprint Race from pole position. Later that day, Feature Race 1 will take place at 14:15.

Feature Race 2 will happen on Saturday morning at 11:00.