FORMULA 1 2019 VTB RUSSIAN GRAND PRIX
Along with Canada and Spain, the Russian Grand Prix is one of three F1 circuits staged in a former Olympic complex. Though relatively unknown outside the country prior to the 2014 Olympics, several Grand Prix later and a football World Cup to boot and Sochi is well and truly on the map as an international sporting destination.
The event, though well-attended by domestic fans has not yet become a prime destination for the majority of international Grand Prix goers and the reasons are understandable if not entirely justified.
Sochi Autodrome has the look and feel off a theme park that should have closed its doors forty years ago and lacks the sense of history and myth that accompany circuits in Formula One’s European heartland. The location too, far from an iconic world class city like Singapore or Abu Dhabi keeps it low on the radar for your typical globe-trotting F1 fan.