The Turkish Grand Prix that will be raced in Istanbul on 8 May, 2011, will be the last F1 race in the city.
The city of Istanbul is no longer interested in hosting the Grand Prix. According to Turkish newspaper reports Bernie Ecclestone wanted to raise the fee to host the race from $13 million to $26 million. This did not go down well with the Turks, and therefore Istanbul will not be in the 2012 F1 calendar.
It’s likely that the F1 circus will find a replacement to Istanbul and there are reports of several cities wanting to host a race. One strong candidate is Moscow. The streets surrounding Moscow’s Kremlin have been transformed into a racing track before and there’s a lot of interest in Formula 1 now that Vitaly Petrov has been doing quite well.
Russian organisers say a project to build the fastest city track on the F1 circuit by 2012 is already in the works. “We’re working on a project to create a high-speed motorway. It’ll be 4,420 metres long and wind through the city centre, with cars being able to reach speeds of up to 320km/h. We are hoping that both the city and state governments will support the project, which will help bring Formula 1 to Moscow,” said Vladimir Makarov from the Committee on Advertising, Information and Appearance.