Red tape "is snarling up the application process for Russia’s first Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi in 2014, but the country still has time to make it onto next year’s calendar," according to R-SPORT. Although "bureaucratic problems leave a question mark hanging over the event with a little over 14 months until lights-out," motorsports governing body FIA said that "they may not prove fatal to the race’s future." A FIA spokesperson said, "The calendar is approved at the end of September." The spokesperson "refused to comment on the case of the Russian Grand Prix specifically, citing confidentiality, but confirmed that a failure to apply more than a year in advance would not necessarily damage an event’s chances of being admitted." The issue at hand "is a spat between the Russian Automobile Federation and the race promoter Omega Center, which is also building the 5.9km track around the coastal Olympic Park." The RAF "is refusing to file a race application with the FIA until Omega, which is tied to the Krasnodar region government, agrees to bear the cost of training the 700-800 personnel required to staff the race such as marshals and security" (R-SPORT, 7/31).
