Istanbul Park and an Ottoman Inheritance

Turkey hosted nine Grands Prix at Istanbul Park, and its cooking carries centuries of Ottoman, Central Asian and Mediterranean traditions into every region.

The Turkish Grand Prix came to the World Championship in 2005 at Istanbul Park in Tuzla and stayed on the calendar every year through 2011. It returned for two more editions in 2020 and 2021. Our records count 9 Turkish Grands Prix, all at Istanbul Park, and the last of them, in 2021, went to Valtteri Bottas.

No Turkish driver or team appears in our records. Turkey's place in the sport rests on that single circuit and its two spells on the calendar.

Turkish cooking grew mainly out of Ottoman cuisine, which wove together Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean traditions and in turn shaped the food of the Balkans, the Levant and well beyond, an empire whose recipes have long outlived it. The country cooks very differently from region to region. Istanbul and western Anatolia inherited much of the palace kitchen, with rice, köfte, vegetable stews and stuffed dolma. The Black Sea coast lives on fish, anchovies above all, and on maize. The southeast is famous for kebabs, mezes and pastries such as baklava and künefe, and Central Anatolia gives the country mantı and gözleme.

At home, though, meals center on vegetables, legumes, rice and bread more than on meat. A typical dinner opens with a thin soup, moves to a vegetable or bean dish cooked in olive oil or with a little minced meat, and closes with tea or coffee. Breakfast is a generous spread of cheese, olives, tomatoes, eggs and bread. For a race weekend, a pot of lentil soup and a tray of stuffed eggplant make a fine start.

A taste of Turkey

• Karnıyarık, Eggplants stuffed with spiced minced beef
• Mercimek çorbası, Red lentil soup with mint butter
• Balık ekmek, Grilled mackerel sandwich with onion and lettuce
• Lahmacun, Thin flatbread with spiced lamb topping
• Çılbır, Poached eggs on garlic yogurt
• Hünkâr beğendi, Lamb stew on smoky eggplant cheese purée
• Rakı, Anise spirit with water and ice
• Türk kahvesi, Turkish coffee
• Fıstıklı baklava, Pistachio filo pastry in syrup

Circuits

• Istanbul Park

Drivers