Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with Formula One CEO Bernie Ecclestone
“This new Formula One track will provide our drivers and Russian motorsport with another good, modern venue for training and competitions,” the prime minister said at the meeting. Mr Ecclestone, in turn, said that he was “impressed by the idea to use all the Olympic venues after the Olympics.”
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Ecclestone. I'm very pleased to meet with you here in Sochi. I know that you have been discussing the plans to build a track for Formula One races with the Soviet and Russian leadership for a long time. You even discussed this issue in person with Leonid Brezhnev. Finally, after decades of negotiations, we have reached a solution.
We are happy about this for several reasons. First of all, thanks to your efforts, Formula One has become extremely popular and counts millions of fans all around the world. This was all made possible by your efforts and your talent.
Now, I hope, we will be able to bring everything you have developed over these decades to Russia and use it on Russian soil. This is very important for us because we have to use everything we build for the 2014 Olympics to its fullest, including the infrastructure and hotels.
There are other reasons for our enthusiasm. This new Formula One track will provide our drivers and Russian motorsport with another good, modern venue for training and competitions. This will get a lot of young people interested in sports, particularly motorsports.
We are very pleased with the latest agreements. I'm sure that they will all be carried out. On behalf of the government of the Russian Federation, I would like to welcome you to Russia.
Bernie Ecclestone (back translation from Russian): First of all, I would like to say that I'm very happy that a Formula One event will be held in Russia. Now that I've been to Sochi, I'm also very happy that this particular city has been chosen for Formula One. I was especially impressed by the idea to use all the Olympic venues after the Olympics because in all the Olympic cities I have been to so far these venues are often almost never used after the games.
I think it is very important that these things are thought through properly, and, obviously, that is being done in Sochi. I sincerely hope that Formula One will play a big part in what I see happening in Sochi.
