Russia will spend $200 million on its Grand Prix

In 2014, the first Winter Olympic Games will take place in Russia. But not only that: a Formula 1 Grand Prix is also planned for that same year in the land of the tsars, and the agreement signed with Bernie Ecclestone spans seven years.

But this requires the development of a circuit worthy of the name: thus, Vladimir Putin’s government has decided that about 200 million dollars will be invested by the Russian state for the implementation of this project: « The federal government has decided to allocate nearly 6 billion rubles (or about 195.4 million dollars, editor’s note) for this project » indicated Alexander Ivanov, the deputy governor of the Krasnodar region. The rest of the funding will be provided by sponsors and private investors.

The Grand Prix will take place in the city of Sochi, just like the Olympic Games. However, if organizational issues made it difficult to hold these two global events in the same year, the first Russian Grand Prix could be postponed to 2015.

Russia is a young nation in F1: with the first Russian driver in the history of Formula 1, Vitaly Petrov, since 2010, the land of the tsars will now have its own Grand Prix.