F1 Is Dropping Korea in Favor of Azerbaijan

Bernie Ecclestone's strategy of constantly moving races continues unabated. We don't think this race will last long.

Image via Baku World Challenge

The pattern is pretty clear: Bernie Ecclestone is always courting new countries to host F1 races so he can use them as leverage when demanding more money each year from the existing hosts. It's the large scale, motorsport equivalent of an apartment with an annual rent increase, where an established country is the tenant and the small country is the recent college grad who will only live there for a year.

Because of this, there will be no Korean Grand Prix next year. Korea just lost its spot to Azerbaijan's capitol city: Baku. The Baku street course was used last year for an FIA GT Series race. The race will probably be called the Grand Prix of Europe or the European Grand Prix, because virtually nobody knows how to pronounce "Azerbaijan."

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[via The Independent

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