London 2012 Olympics: plan to hold Formula One race in and around Olympic Stadium on bid shortlist On Wednesday Telegraph Sport revealed that the bid, tabled by Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, was among the shortlist of four bids accepted by the LLDC in March. According to the formal bid documentation, the bid is listed as being "on behalf of Formula One," though Ecclestone said on Thursday he "had not put his name to it." The plan is thought to propose running the cars on 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. Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd was founded last year by three businessmen from the south-east, two of them civil engineers and a transport consultant. Its headquarters are listed as being in Wanstead, east London. There is considerable scepticism within the LLDC about the feasibility of the plan, which would entail major engineering and environmental challenges for the stadium and the surrounding Park. The Olympic Park has been envisaged as a new urban quarter with new residential and commercial areas, rather than a race track. While the bid was accepted on to the shortlist of four candidates, headed by West Ham, the LLDC has since reopened the bidding and extended the process until July 12. Sources have indicated that it is premature to assume that the F1 bid will be accepted in the new process. There is a precedent for the plans however, with 2014 Winter Olympic host Sochi planning to stage a Russian Grand Prix in and around their new stadium though plans have been delayed as the city focuses on delivering its Olympic commitments. Ecclestone has long harboured ambitions of a London Grand Prix but has always come up against insurmountable logistical and financial hurdles. In 2004, after an estimated 400,000 people turned up to watch Nigel Mansell drive a Jordan F1 car up Regent Street, he revealed he was in talks with then London mayor Ken Livingstone who was proposing a circuit in and around Hyde Park. At the time it was speculated that Ecclestone may have been trying to put pressure on Silverstone, which was in the process of renegotiating its deal to stage the British Grand Prix and with whom Ecclestone enjoyed a long-running feud. But there have been other false starts since then and the 81 year-old remains keen to make it happen. In 2009 Anthony Spencer, a consultant behind Arsenal football club's move to the Emirates stadium, met the ODA to propose a race week in the Olympic Park but at the time it was not believed to fit the legacy concept. Seemingly by coincidence, a Santander-sponsored event is planned at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall next Thursday at which McLaren's two British world champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, are to imagine a "virtual" race around the streets of the capital through the use of CGI. The event is timed to raise awareness of the British GP on July 8. Ecclestone insisted the event was "nothing to do with" the bid for the Olympic Stadium, but the use of the Olympic Park would get around the huge logistical problems with staging a race in the West End and still provide the backdrop of the City's skyscrapers, much as next year's inaugural New Jersey Grand Prix on the banks of the Hudson River will use Manhattan - another longstanding Ecclestone dream - as a backdrop. Ecclestone said the Pall Mall event, sponsored by Santander, was not linked to the Olympic Stadium plan. The F1 bid comes after the LLDC reopened the bidding for the stadium after the original process, won by West Ham, collapsed under legal challenge from their defeated rival Tottenham. Under the new process the LLDC is seeking a number of tenants for the stadium, which will retain an athletics track. West Ham are the favourites to become the anchor tenants, but the Formula One-based bid is the most striking and apparently unlikely candidate to come forwards. The other candidates, along with West Ham, are bids from two universities. The first is from the University of East London, which is proposing educational uses and an academy affiliated to Essex County Cricket Club. Essex may also consider playing Twenty20 cricket in the stadium, but are sceptical because of the difficulty they have selling out their home ground at Chelmsford. The final bid lodged so far is from the University College of Football Business, an affiliate of Bucks New University. The college offers university degrees and executive education in the football business, Currently based at Burnley's Turf Moor, former FA chief executive Brian Barwick and Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell are members of its advisory board. However, Leyton Orient are also expected to lodge a bid under the new process.