Azerbaijan's biggest city will host its first ever grand prix in July next year, on a 6km circuit around the streets near the Baku Boulevard.

Baku GP boss Arif Rahimov says the circuit is ready for homologation and has no doubts there will be no issues to have it ready in time.

"The track layout has been finalised," Rahimov told Motorsport.com.

"There are just small details like safety equipment at some corners that took a bit longer to finalise, but we are waiting for the homologation to be done.

"We've also met in Hungary with Charlie Whiting to discuss it and hear what he has to say. There are no major issues."

Rahimov is adamant the track will offer plenty of opportunities for drivers to overtake.

"Yeah, there's the long straight just before Turn 1. That's a huge overtaking possibility. There's quite a lot of places where you can overtake."

No motorsport culture

The circuit will be capable of hosting 19,000 seated spectators, but organisers are also considering a general admission area to increase capacity.

Rahimov said they are also working on a programme to help Formula 1 popularity grow in Azerbaijan to make sure the sport has a long future in the country.

"The first thing we need to make sure is to maintain that popularity and interest from the F1 community and the people who travel with the F1 races, so when they come to this race they really want to return," he added.

"So we are trying to organise the best possible race to make sure that people come back the following years.

"Secondly we are trying to develop some kind of programme to make sure we increase the popularity of the sport within the country because there's no motorsports culture.

"So we are going to try to through different programs on the TV and through marketing to increase the interest in the sport."