Formula 1 teams are working without their usual weather radar system at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, because of a political dispute between the Azeri and French governments. French nationals, including dual citizens, are advised not to travel to Azerbaijan.
That is why representatives from the Meteo-France organization that implements F1’s official weather radar system have not traveled to this weekend’s Baku event. Therefore, F1 is operating without the radar system that is usually deployed at the highest point of any circuit location to pinpoint weather systems traversing the areas and their surrounds.
Instead of the usual four weather stations monitoring each track, this weekend there is only one, which is positioned in the pitlane. French citizens from several F1 teams have also chosen not to attend this weekend’s event as a result of the situation. The dispute between Azerbaijan and France centers on tensions around the various interests in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and the arrest of a French citizen last December, who was charged with espionage.
