Construction of the circuit was announced following Russia's successful bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, with the Russian government allocating US$195.4 million for its construction in October 2011. The facility represented the culmination of a thirty-year pursuit of a Russian Grand Prix, with aspirations for a "Grand Prix of the Soviet Union" dating back to at least 1983, a goal that had been repeatedly frustrated by political and bureaucratic obstacles across the intervening decades.
The circuit was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke, who shaped the layout around the Olympic Park's footprint. The International Olympic Committee was given the power to delay the first race until 2015 if preparations interfered with the Winter Games, but no such delay proved necessary. The FIA granted the circuit its final approval in August 2014, shortly before the inaugural Grand Prix.
The original grand prix circuit measured 5.848 km (3.634 mi), making it the fifth-longest circuit on the 2021 Formula One calendar, behind Spa-Francorchamps, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the Baku City Circuit, and Silverstone. The track ran anti-clockwise, beginning on the northern edge of the Olympic Park near the railway station before sweeping southwest toward the Black Sea coast. It circled the central Sochi Medals Plaza — the podium used for Olympic medal ceremonies — counterclockwise and then looped around the Bolshoy Ice Dome through a series of tight corners before returning north past the Adler Arena Skating Center, the skating and curling centres, and back to the pit paddock.
The long sweeping Turn 3 drew comparisons to the legendary Turn 8 at Istanbul Park. The track surface was not laid until after the Closing Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics had concluded.
The circuit hosted the Russian Grand Prix continuously from 2014 to 2021, a run of eight editions. The event became an established fixture on the Formula One calendar and drew large crowds, with the Olympic Park infrastructure providing a distinctive backdrop unavailable at any other circuit on the calendar.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Formula One suspended the Russian Grand Prix on 24 February and formally cancelled it on 1 March 2022. The contract was terminated, and no subsequent Formula One race has been held in Russia.
With international championships departing Russia, the full 5.848 km grand prix circuit was dismantled. A shorter 2.313 km layout was retained by connecting Turn 1 directly to Turn 13 of the original circuit. The final race on the old grand prix layout, the Russian Endurance Cup, took place on 4 November 2023; the grand prix circuit closed on 6 November of that year, and the shorter layout became the facility's primary configuration from 15 December 2023.
On 1 April 2024, the facility was renamed the Sirius Autodrom, taking the name of the adjacent Sirius settlement that had been established near the Olympic Park in 2020.
Beyond Formula One, the circuit hosted a broad range of championships during its operational years. The TCR International Series raced at Sochi in 2015 and 2016, the FIA Formula 2 Championship held rounds there from 2018 to 2021, and the FIA Formula 3 Championship visited in 2019 and 2021. The GP2 Series and GP3 Series also supported the Russian Grand Prix in its early years. The FIA World Touring Car Cup held the Race of Russia at the circuit in 2021. Ferrari Challenge Europe appeared in 2016. Domestic categories including the SMP F4 Championship and the Russian Circuit Racing Series used the facility across multiple seasons throughout the 2010s and into the early 2020s.
The Sochi Autodrom closed a chapter in Russian motorsport that had been sought for three decades. Its eight-year run as an F1 venue made it one of the more productive investments in Russia's motorsport infrastructure, even if the geopolitical events of 2022 ended that chapter abruptly. The Olympic Park setting gave the circuit a visual identity unlike any other on the grand prix circuit, and the long front straight enabled top speeds that made it a favourite among drivers looking for overtaking opportunities.