Why F1 is going to Azerbaijan

摘要

A lot of folk in Formula 1 were rather mystified about the decision to sign a deal for a race in Baku, Azerbaijan, and call it the European Grand Prix. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. There's money in Azerbaijan, of course. It comes out of the ground in oil and gas and the locals use it to build extravagant architectural works in the hope that tourists will flood in. But the country doesn't have a great reputation, with corruption being deemed widespread by the CIA and Transparency International ranking the country 127th out of 177 in its corruption index.