MOSCOW, September 27 (R-Sport) – Russia’s maiden Formula One Grand Prix has been confirmed for October 5 next year, governing body FIA confirmed Friday at a meeting of its World Motor Sport Council in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
There are a record 22 races on the calendar for next year, three more than this season, although events in South Korea, New Jersey, Germany and Mexico are still classed as provisional in a statement on the FIA website.
The new race in New Jersey, which has been struggling with financial problems, returned to the calendar after being omitted from an earlier provisional version.
The Russian Grand Prix will take place eight months after the circuit’s Olympic Park site in Sochi hosts the Winter Olympics. Efforts to bring F1 to Russia date back to the 1980s but have never previously borne fruit.
F1 is also set to return to two old venues. Austria’s Red Bull Ring in Spielberg last hosted F1 in 2003, when it was known as the A1 Ring, while the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez near Mexico City has been off the F1 calendar since 1992 and was recently renovated.
The Austrian race is set for June 22, with Mexico on November 16. As this season, Australia starts the 2014 calendar and Brazil’s Interlagos circuit hosts the finale.
