Ecclestone, the President and chief executive of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration, was shown around the circuit by Dmitry Kozak, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister who is in charge of overseeing the preparations for next year's Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the Black Sea resort.

The race is due to be held in November 2014 and initial problems of building a formula one circuit in the Olympic Park while it prepares to stage next year's Games have been overcome, claimed Kozak. 

"All construction works are carried out according to the schedule," said Kozak.

"The work is difficult.

"The track is located on the Olympic Park; it is necessary to coordinate activities of many building organisations and facilities.

"But we've solved all those problems and entered the final straight."


Ecclestone was certainly impressed.

"I was here before the building work started on the track and I was already impressed then," he said.

"Now I'm super-impressed with what's going on here.

"It is good to see that Russia has obviously already thought about how to make use of the Olympic facilities once the Games are over, because in most countries people build them without knowing what they are going to do with them afterwards."

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