The Bahrain and Chinese Grands Prix made their debut during the 2004 season. This year, a new round of the F1 championship will be added as well: the Turkish Grand Prix...
The 5.3 km track is taking shape and will be ready on time for the Grand Prix scheduled on 21 August 2005, which confirmed Bernie Ecclestone (he visited Istanbul at the beginning of January 2005).
"It will be a nice track," said Mark Webber, who was impressed by the magnitude of the work in process. "It is a bit strange to walk on the soil where the main straight will eventually be but we can see that things are shaping up. The amount of work that has been done in such a short period of time is very impressive."
"I know that the Turkish people are very proud of this project and I am sure that the first Grand Prix here will be a major event for the whole country and a great challenge for the teams and drivers who will participate to the race," added Webber in the press conference organised by the local media.
Designed by Herman Tilke, the architect who was also responsible for designing other new F1 tracks such as Bahrain and China, the Turkish circuit will have 14 corners - 8 to the left and 6 to the right (and also 4 straights). The main grandstand of the Istanbul Otodrom will have a capacity of 25 000 people. The overall capacity of the site is 130 000 seats.