Will the Kremlin echo to the sound of F1 engines?

There is a long, hard road between the desire and agreement to build a new Grand Prix circuit and the event actually appearing on the F1 calendar.

This is something that Ecclestone hinted at even while seeming to talk up the project at a press conference in Russia.

"As soon as the circuit is ready, we'll be here," he said.

But the chances of that being in 2003, the date mentioned in the news conference, must be slim.

Building a Grand Prix circuit takes time and expertise.

The involvement of the English TWR outfit run by Arrows team owner Tom Walkinshaw may give the build programme added impetus.

Problems in China

But it is unlikely that the Russians, with their bitter winter, will be able to make this happen within 18 months.

Ecclestone is uncompromising when it comes to ensuring that any new venue fits his requirements in every way.

China has discovered this the hard way in recent years. It already has an F1-standard race track at Zhuhai near Hong Kong, but logistical problems have kept it off the calendar since it was completed in the mid-1990s.

Moscow, by contrast, has yet even to raise the $100m that will be required to build the track.

Beirut is one of several other sites after a Grand Prix

It aims to do that through a joint stock company which has been set up to finance and manage the construction.

But private investment in such projects can be a fickle thing, and it remains to be seen whether that money can be raised.

And funding the construction of the track is just the start of the expense. After that, they have to pay F1 for the right to hold the race - and that can cost as much as �10m a year.

A Russian Grand Prix would enhance the impression that F1 is a truly worldwide event - but getting the USA on board last year was far more important in that respect.

And Moscow also faces serious competition from other venues for a vacant place on the 17-race calendar that as yet does not even exist.

The Middle East has two contenders in Beirut and Dubai.

Portugal and South Africa both have upgraded F1 circuits and are keen to get back on to the calendar after slipping off it in the 1990s. And China has not given up either.

Long contracts

Speculation about which race might be chopped to make way for the next new event has already started.

This will probably be one of the European races, as F1's governing body, the FIA, is keen to even out the balance between that continent and the rest of the world.

Attention has fallen on Italy and Germany, which both have two races. But these are popular events both inside and outside the sport, and it could easily be somewhere else, like Hungary or France.

All Grands Prix, though, have multi-year contracts which can only be cut if organisers default on their payments.

All in all, many people in F1 will be very surprised if Russia does make it on to the calendar as soon as 2003 - whatever Ecclestone might have said in Moscow.