The World Motor Sport Council is not scheduled to announce the provisional 2014 calendar until September, after which it will be ratified early in December, but the promoter, Formula Sochi, claims the most likely date for the inaugural event is October 19 - seven months after the Black Sea resort has finished hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

"We are pleased to announce that the International Formula 1 Promoter,Formula One Management, has set a preliminary date for Russian Grand Prix on the calendar of 2014," said Oleg Zabara, deputy deneral director of OJSC Center Omega, the company responsible for staging the event.

"The date fits perfectly into our plans for the Grand Prix organisation.

"Construction of the circuit is nearing completion; preparations for the first Russian Grand Prix are well underway."


The event is expected to attract major sponsors keen to break into the Russian.  

"The hosting of the event will open up fresh commercial perspectives, the opportunity to attract more Russian and foreign tourists by extending the holiday season in southern Russia," said Zabara.

"I am sure Sochi will become a modern and comfortable 'home of motorsport' with its own inimitable style for all Formula One fans.

"Today we are submitting a formal application to the Russian Automobile Federation for inclusion of the Russian Grand Prix on the FIA calendar."

The agreement for Russia to host a round of the world championship in Sochi was signed by Bernie Ecclestone and OJSC Center Omega in October 2010, in the presence of Vladimir Putin.

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