His first Formula 1 race Popov saw in 1988 in Belgium - his grandfather worked in the Trade Mission of the USSR.
Later he wrote many books, including, magazine Formula +, Autosport, Grand Prix, F1Life, the newspaper Soviet Sport.
[1] In the same year he became a member of the company Samipa (Monaco), which owned the television rights to broadcast Formula 1 races in the former USSR.
At that time, he was commenting CART and NASCAR races on the French TV channel AB Moteurs.
[5] He speaks many European languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and others, in varying degrees.