Sirius Autodrom

Formula One racing circuit in Sirius, Russia

A Lap Around Sochi's Olympic Park

Laid out among the arenas of Sochi's 2014 Winter Olympics on the Black Sea coast, the circuit hosted eight Russian Grands Prix, every one won by Mercedes.

This circuit had to wait politely for the Olympics to finish before its asphalt could go down. The track now known as the Sirius Autodrom lies in Sirius, a settlement beside Sochi on the Black Sea coast of Russia's Krasnodar Krai, threaded around Sochi Olympic Park, the seaside cluster of arenas that staged the 2014 Winter Games. Its surface could only be laid once the closing ceremony was over. The project ended roughly thirty years of campaigning for a Russian Grand Prix, an idea first pursued as a Soviet race in 1983. The Russian government earmarked 195.4 million US dollars for construction in 2011, and the FIA gave its final approval in August 2014.

Hermann Tilke's Grand Prix layout stretched to 5.848 kilometers, among the longest on the calendar. The grid lay beside the railway station on the park's northern edge. From there the track ran toward the sea and swung counterclockwise around the Medals Plaza through the long Turn 3, often likened to Turn 8 at Istanbul Park, then circled the Bolshoy Ice Dome, picked through a run of tight corners, passed the skating and curling venues and finished with two right angle turns. It was, in effect, a tour of the Olympic venues at racing speed.

The Russian Grand Prix ran here from 2014 to 2021, and its results sheet had a certain monotony. Mercedes won all eight races. Lewis Hamilton took five of them, including the first in 2014 and the last in 2021, when Lando Norris had started from pole, while Valtteri Bottas won twice and Nico Rosberg once.

The 2022 race was suspended and then cancelled after Russia invaded Ukraine. With international racing gone, the long circuit was dismantled after a final race in November 2023, leaving a short layout of 2.313 kilometers, and in April 2024 the venue adopted the name of the Sirius settlement. Its Formula One record stays at 8 championship rounds, all of them run as the Sochi Autodrom.

Every Grand Prix here

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