Russia to replace France’s Magny Cours?
The news agency 'Agence France-Presse' says the north western city of St. Petersburg has made a proposition to the F1 supremo about a future race.
"We have good contacts with him," sports minister Viatcheslav Fetissov is quoted as saying.
Ecclestone is understood to have targeted St. Petersburg or Moscow as ideal locations for a Russian GP in 2005, after making at least two visits to the country.
"It won't take forever (to organize) because I won't be around for ever," he said at the time, "and I want to see it!"
76-year-old Ecclestone is also quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo this week as saying that his sport has entered a "new era".
"We need places like China, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi," he insisted, "which have something to offer. At places like Imola or Magny Cours, we don't know what we can offer our guests."