I’m watching the regrettably/called F1 Grand Prix of Europe and cannot get my thoughts of the suspicious looking purple advertising boards in which somebody seems to want to publicise the fact that ‘Baku welcomed all of us’.

Am I the only one to find this strange that somebody thought it important to announce this? I would have said that this is something that should be taken for granted. It seems as though this somebody – I wonder who was actually responsible for those adverts – thought it important enough to state the obvious, I didn’t quite see any signs saying ‘Le Mans welcomed all of us’.

I may understand a ‘Baku welcomes you’ (it even rhymes), but the use of the past tense is somewhat suspect. The democratic credentials, or lack of them, might have persuaded the authorities that they should give assurances about the fact that there was no crackdown on errant F1 teams or fans. Let’s put it this way, Azerbaijan is not exactly a stalwart of human rights and democracy.  And the F1 being staged there comes across as a way to showcase a ‘normal’ European nation. Hmm, right.

Probably the same people thought it justified to congratulate themselves with other advertising board saying ‘Well done Baku’. I would have thought that it would be better to wait for the end of the race for self-congratulations. I would have been far better to have ‘VisitBaku’ ad boards instead.

Speaking about the race itself, I am not a big fan of city circuits, but it’s not too bad with overtakes and all. But I still believe that there are many racetracks which are far better suited for purpose, probably because they are, erm, racetracks. And yes, I am not a fan of the Monaco Grand Prix either – it’s only saving point is the historic element behind the race.