ISTANBUL , TURKEY , June 30, 2005 – Turkey will unveil its new purpose-built Formula 1 race track when Ferraris, Mercedes, BMWs and other contenders speed through its 5.333 km track on Sunday, August 21, beginning at 3:00 p.m. While making its Formula 1 debut with this year’s 2005 calendar of “the world’s most expensive sport”, Turkey’s is slated to become one of racing’s most challenging and interesting courses with 14 curves (6 right and 8 left) and counter clockwise construction, one of only three for 2005. The track’s uneven surface punctuated by dangerous slopes with a theoretical maximum speed of 320.58 km will prove an unprecedented site for Formula 1’s energetic fans perched above in the venue’s state of the art 130,000 seats.

Formula 1 has long had a following of dedicated enthusiasts traversing countries and continents alike to watch the highest class of single-seat, open-wheel Supercars go through their high-speed races. Many are hailing the highly anticipated, much talked about new venue on the Asian side of Istanbul as one of the most important developments in racing in some time. The Istanbul Otodrom Track, a nearly 97 million dollar project in construction since September 2003, will offer an excitement unlike any other in the world – the virgin ride. Herman Tilke, the famed German architect who designed the track, who is also responsible for the circuits at Sepang, Bahrain and Shanghai, aimed to create one that truly added to the sport of Formula 1 racing, with a wide variety of corners, 15 m at the sharpest turn, and sixteen down curves, 8.145% as the highest slope.     

The Istanbul circuit will prove a challenge for McLaren-Mercedes, Williams-BMW and other teams trying to surpass the usually front running Ferrari car with Michael Schumacher at the helm, because there will be fewer obvious overtaking opportunities compared to the long straits and tight hairpin characteristics of many courses. The track itself is built on four different ground levels with rising and descending grades. The spectacular facility will also rival other newcomers, like those of Bahrain and China , with its extravagant seating capacity and amenities, dominated by the two separate seven-floor VIP towers, erected at each end of the paddock.

The Friday Practice Race will begin at 11:00 a.m. on August 19, with qualifying to follow on Saturday at 1:00 pm and the official start of the first ever Formula 1 Turkish Grand Prix** on Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 3:00 p.m.  For more information or to order tickets, visit www.msoistanbul.com or call (+90) 212 522 4155. 

For information about travel to Turkey, call 1-877-FOR-TURKEY 
or contact the Turkish Culture and Tourism Offices in New York at 212-687-2194 
or in Washington D.C. at 202-612-6800 or in Los Angeles at 323-937-8066
and visit www.tourismturkey.org 
or www.kulturturizm.gov.tr