Turkish government says Formula 1 is returning next season on 5-year deal

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Turkish government says Formula 1 is to return to the country next season for the first time since 2021, on a five-year agreement.

The government said the agreement was due to be announced Friday at an event featuring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

Erdogan said the deal would be for “at least five years”.

The Istanbul Park circuit first hosted F1 from 2005 through 2011, and next year’s race would be the first since Turkey returned to the calendar in 2020 and 2021 during disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Valtteri Bottas won the most recent race for Mercedes.

Hosting F1 would “demonstrate to the world that our country is the safe haven of its region,” Erdogan said.

There was no immediate confirmation from F1 or the FIA.

The news comes after the Iran war caused widespread disruption to sports in the region and forced F1 to call off races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled for this month.

That left a large gap in this year’s schedule. The Miami Grand Prix next week will be the first F1 race since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29.

F1’s return to Istanbul had been widely expected since Domenicali said in February that it was a candidate to return.

He added venues like Istanbul Park and the Portimão circuit, which will host the returning Portuguese Grand Prix next year, show F1 is not focusing too much on street races in glamorous locations.

Those can be some of F1’s most lucrative events, like the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but are generally less popular with drivers than purpose-built race tracks.

“Turkey is not 100% confirmed. Stay tuned on Turkey, let me put it this way,” Domenicali said at the time. “This is also to answer to the people that were saying there were too many street races. The new ones that are coming are tracks, not street races.”

The Istanbul Park track was generally popular with drivers and its long, high-speed turn eight was often ranked as one of the most challenging corners in the world.

Felipe Massa is the most successful driver at the Turkish Grand Prix with three wins in a row for Ferrari from 2006 through 2008, while Lewis Hamilton has won the race twice.

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