When Azerbaijan was added (originally as the European Grand Prix) to the Formula 1 calendar in 2016, many were sceptical about what Baku would bring to the championship.
After seeing several new race projects including Turkey, India and South Korea fall by the wayside as those venues failed to attract the fan or government support needed to keep them going, few were convinced that the Azerbaijan tale would be much different.
In the first year, many newspapers focused more on the country's human rights issues rather than the racing - and a pretty boring inaugural event left some suggesting that F1 might not even return for a second attempt.