Canadian and Russian Grand Prix extended

Tony DiZinno

In the second race extension this week, the Canadian Grand Prix has been confirmed for an extension through to 2029, thus keeping the popular event at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on the Formula 1 calendar for more than a decade to come. The Russian Grand Prix was confirmed earlier this week to continue through to 2025.

The race’s most recent extension was announced in 2014, when Montreal mayor Denis Coderre announced a 10-year extension through to 2024 (via GlobalNews.ca). The municipality ponied up to keep the race and the city announced plans for investments at the track itself.

Today’s extension comes from race promoter Francois Dumontier, who’s on site at this week’s first test of the Formula 1 season at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. Via Sportsnet.ca, the extension was all but a formality after Coderre said in January that Montreal planned to extend with Formula One Management.

Lance Stroll joins the grid this year with Williams Martini Racing as Canada’s first active driver in F1 since Jacques Villeneuve raced in 2006. The younger Villeneuve won races and the 1997 World Championship with Williams, before his own F1 career tailed off from those stratospheric levels.

The Russian Grand Prix at Sochi will continue to feature on future Formula 1 calendars, with event organizers confirming a long-term extension.

With the race already secure through 2020 following a past deal between then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and then-F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, that end date has now been extended by five years through to 2025, according to Russia’s deputy prime minister Dimitry Kozak.

“We held negotiations and the contract for holding FIA Formula One racing Grand Prix in Russia has been extended till 2025,” Kozak told Russian news outlet TASS.

Sochi first appeared on the F1 calendar in 2014 and will hold its fourth race this year from April 28 to 30.