NOVEMBER 27, 2002

Russia's Formula 1 project

Ever since the Moscow Formula 1 project flopped last summer, things have gone quiet in Russia but in St Petersburg the local authorities are still talking about a race track to welcome Formula 1 in 2005 or 2006. There has been talk of a completely new circuit to be called the Pulkovo Ring, which would be close to the airport.

Pulkovo is 10 miles south of St Petersburg and probably best known because of the Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was established in 1839 and was a leading observatory for more than a century. It is also the home of the city's airport, Construction plans for a racing circuit were approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May 2001 with a budget of $60m to build a track able to accomodate 150,000 spectators. The track itself would be 2.5 miles in length.