Formula One Track Considered for London Olympic Stadium

It has been revealed today that one of the bidders for the Olympic stadium includes a Formula One race-track, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The application to turn the stadium and the Olympic Park into an F1 circuit is now being considered by the London Legacy Development Corporation.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the unlikely-sounding plan is one of four bids under consideration by the agency, although local football club West Ham is still the favourite to take over the ground.

“The bid was tabled by a company based in Wanstead, east London, which discussed its plans with Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone before finalising its bid,” said the paper. “Ecclestone confirmed that he had been approached and that he had expressed an interest in staging the race if the bid was successful.”

The Telegraph explains that the plan involves cars racing along “a track running into the stadium and then around the Olympic Park, which has considerable wide-open spaces, though is designed for pedestrians rather than 700 horsepower F1 cars”.

Turning the Olympic Park into an F1 circuit would present major engineering and environmental challenges and would not sit easily alongside London 2012’s green image. It was also hoped that the area would become an “urban quarter” after the Games rather than a race track.

Although the plans sound far-fetched it is not entirely beyond the realms of possibility. It notes that 2014 Winter Olympic host city Sochi plans to stage a Russian Grand Prix around the new stadium, and points out that F1 ringleader Ecclestone “has long harboured ambitions of a London Grand Prix”.

West Ham remain the favourites to take over the stadium, but there have also been bids from University of East London in collaboration with Essex County Cricket Club, which could play some games there, and the University College of Football Business, which specialises in football qualifications.