After pressure from academics suggesting that there was little economic benefit from its clocks moving forward as they do in the rest of Europe, the government announced earlier this week that daylight saving time (DST) was being cancelled.

It means that plans to move the clocks forward on March 27 have now been abandoned.

The decision to call off a change of clocks means it likely that the originally scheduled 6pm start time for Baku will have to be changed – because sunset there will now take place at 8.14pm.

The most obvious solution will be to shift the race forward an hour to 5pm – which will avoid issues with fading light and still ensure that the start of the race does not clash with the finish of Le Mans.

Any move to change the start will have to be sanctioned by FOM and then approved by the FIA.