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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Ecclestone, it is a pleasure to see you again in Sochi.

I am happy to see our project’s progress. It is excellent that you have found the time to come here and see for yourself how the work is advancing.

A big section of the Formula One racetrack is ready now. As far as I know, of the overall 5.6 kilometres, 3.6 have already had the asphalt laid. True, this is still not the last layer to be laid, but the work is making progress in the right direction, and I think we should be able to hold the first races in October 2014, as we planned.

Much of the roads that will be used for Formula One are actually being built as part of the preparations for the Sochi Olympics, but the federal budget will do its part to ensure the entire project is completed.

It is a pleasure to see you.

President and CEO of Formula One Bernie Ecclestone: I am very happy to be here. And I must say I am very impressed with what’s actually been built up to now. It is going to put a few countries to shame, I am certain. Especially for the Olympics, I’ll feel sorry for my friends in Brazil when they see what you’ve built.

Vladimir Putin: Not just Russia’s people, but our guests from abroad will also get use out of these facilities. The Formula One competitions will be a good complement to the rest of the infrastructure and will help us to make use of many of the Olympic facilities that we will inherit from the Games.

Bernie Ecclestone: Oh, it’s nice to see, that Russia’s planned ahead what all the units are going to be used for. Most countries build with no idea of what is going to happen to it afterwards. And it seems that’s quite the opposite.

Vladimir Putin: Everything here will be put to good use, at least this is certainly my big hope. Right from the start, even before the construction work began, we already planned how we would use the facilities in the future.

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