Louder than an anti-Putin protest: that's the sound level that will be coming out of the Russian resort city of Sochi in 2014, when Formula 1 comes to town.
Yes, the Black Sea city of Sochi will give Russia's own Vitaly Petrov a chance to win on home soil for six years running, as the deal lasts until 2020. The "Vyborg Rocket" has won four events in his home country, after all.
Da, zoom zoom.
It's not the first attempt to get Russia into the Formula 1 game. The powers that be have tried to bring events to Moscow and St. Petersburg, without success. (The historians among the capital city must have been flinching to see the fast-moving autos racing around a temporary oval next to the walls of the Kremlin.)
But Sochi is a different story. The city was the scene for a demonstration event earlier this year (one that brought in huge crowds of the curious and the petrolhead varieties), and it is the site of the next Winter Olympic Games. Of course, officials have promised to postpone the first Formula 1 race until 2015 if it takes any fans away from the Olympics. How sweet.
Russia is, after all, growing in Western influence by the year. Too bad the World Football League is defunct.
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