French Grand Prix axed

[Metar]

And I think the track particularities wouldn't please everyone. Because such a lenghty layout means the GP is run in something like 23 laps, so, wherever they are, viewers attending the GP would only see the cars past 'em 23 times, against some 78 times at Monaco, to take the other extreme exemple.
Also, there would be no room for different strategies. Everyone would pit the exact same lap, for fuel and tyres, because you 'd need enormous margin to make only one lap more...

Same reason that prevents a modernized Nurburgring (lets forget about public outrage should the German road-service TRY to repave it), or the old Charade and Pescara circuits, from hosting another GP, despite the fact that Pescara held record amounts of spectators, according to Wikipedia. And it's a shame, because a single race like this on the calendar would force teams to rethink their cars completely. From very low-drag arrows for the straights, over to higher, sturdier cars for the bumpy tracks, or the ones with all kinds of debris off the line.

[Ciro Pabón]

What does the Monthlery track look like these days?

I understand it's been out of racing shape for a long time though..

I have Linas-Montlhéry track at my database. Here is how it looks these days (banked track only):



The whole track used to be much larger, here is the map as it appears in the Wiki article:



The original track, as designed by Renè Jamin:



There is an association of friends of the track, that includes people like Hubert Auriol, Henri Pescarolo, Patrick Tambay, Patrick Delage, Jean Claude Andruet, Jean François Balde and Jean Pierre Beltoise, here:

http://asalm.free.fr/

[Ogami musashi]

damn memory...i just heard new about french GP with 3 possible places but just recall 2...

there's disneyland, the former Melun airbase and another near paris but don't recall where...

all for 2010, 2009 seems really out of the window.

[zac510]

That's the one Ciro!

The original circuit doesn't look long enough for F1. In any case it looks like it would need new pits, new stands, etc etc etc to be brought up to F1 standard.. Odd that a street circuit should be easier in that regard.

I understand it's quite close to Paris but vyselegend will need to confirm that for us.

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.montlhery.com/autodrom_eng.htm

it is 24 km from Paris

aparently it is the only existing banked oval in Europe. some people travel it with historic car of the twenties.


it was specified for cars of up to 1000kg of weight. the surface was never really fit for racing it says.

It woulod be a shame if they wrecked the historical monument for a modern track. Disney would be better suited due to the existing hotel capacity.

[Ciro Pabón]

Yes, Linas-Montlhéry is quite close. Here you can see it in Wikimapia, just in case:

http://wikimapia.org/#y=48622187&x=2235 ... =autodrome

I tried to use a scale large enough to show that the original road track (the large one showed in the previous drawing) still survives. The pits are not exactly suited to the standards of today:



Btw, at its inaugural race, in the banked track, Antonio Ascari died. He had just won the first Spa race, in 1925.

About the possible sites, at L'Equipe I read an interview with Ecclestone where he mentioned to have talked with François Fillon, the french Prime Minister (which, btw, is a candidate to replace Mosley).

The interview says something like (sorry for the translation) "After Fillon and Ecclestone met last year, the prime minister's office said three locations - the towns of Versailles and Evry and a site near Disneyland Paris east of the capital - were being considered as replacement venues."

Ciro, please don't mention the two Paris layout from GT4! They were horrible! It would be a real pain to concretize such slow, narrow, inspiration-lacking tracks, just for the sake of having one or two famous monuments in the background...

Yes, vyselegend, I agree. I was joking. If it were for monuments, which I doubt, I would do it around the tower Eiffel and the Île de la Cité.

[trinlico]

I used to like the Paul Ricard track - is there any scope at all for it to become a racetrack again?

Last I remember Bernie had ripped down the grandstands and made the track totally configurable like a huge Scalextric set for testing.

Didn't A1GP do a race there? I reckon F1 would still work there

[Ciro Pabón]

I used to like the Paul Ricard track - is there any scope at all for it to become a racetrack again?

Last I remember Bernie had ripped down the grandstands and made the track totally configurable like a huge Scalextric set for testing.

Didn't A1GP do a race there? I reckon F1 would still work there

F1 use the track for testing. For example, the lights they will use this year for night races were tested there.

Paul Ricard is famous for the number of configurations it has, but that's a little exaggerated.

AFAIK it has 40 different configurations, called 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B ... 18A, 18B, 19A, 20A, 21A and 22A.

The difference between the A and B versions for all the layouts is just that the corner at Signes can be "curved" or "straight". Besides, the difference between many of the layouts is just the existence of a chicane (there are two chicanes) in the main straight.

[rkn]

The problem is there are no grandstands at Paul Ricard. Well there is one with room for 3000 people. But there are no plans to build any more, I can recall plans about having a race at Paul Ricard for exclusively for VIPs. They tried it with FIA GT, but it turned out to be a tense at and akward experience for the viewers, since there virtualy was no one there. So Bernie turned to Paris instead. I hope they can build a nice track there with long straits and a few hairpins and chicanes, IMO that is the best recipe for F1 tracks. I feel that in recent years the best racing has been in Montreal, where this recipe is followed.

[Metar]

I hope they can build a nice track there with long straits and a few hairpins and chicanes, IMO that is the best recipe for F1 tracks. I feel that in recent years the best racing has been in Montreal, where this recipe is followed.

It's probably the best configuration for overtaking - drafting-possibilities, not much following dirty air, etc - and on top of it, it forces teams to use less downforce. On the other hand, it's rather dull, watching those races. I find a hotlap around Suzuka far more interesting than a hotlap around Bahrain.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, the grandaddy of all Tilkodromes (tight curves, long straights) is precisely Magny Cours.

[zac510]

Magny Cours used to be an excellent circuit - there have been some great races there in the past. And to my knowledge it's not a Tilke circuit.

For some reason they messed with the final corner. Was it to do with safety of the pit entry?

[Ogami musashi]

sports.fr report than Rouen is the new candidate for the next french GP.

Three options are envisaged, a street circuit, a port circuit and a track near the airport.

Living right there i can say that the port one could be cool but it would be narrow.

The street one would be a monaco like, finally the airport one is the most likely as the airport is in fact build on the previous one and the former runway serves as access road/motorbike driving school slalom track (the former runway is split in its width).

For the moment the mayor has said nobody did request the support from the city.

I'm a little bit disappointed les essarts is not considered, it was such a magnificent track and the layout is still almost intact (it serves as a road).
The facilities are not here anymore but anyway would have needed a rebuilt.


Rouen has the advantage of being only 1 hour in train from paris and you end directly in the center of the city.

[WhiteBlue]

This is all BS. Magny has a fine track and they are prepared to build a new press facility and pit building. Officially the problem is the lack of hotels but it is just a question of money like always. Since Schumacher retired there were fewer Germans visiting the French GP creating a bigger deficit. But finding the money for the deficit is a lot easier than build a brand new circuit. that would only make sense if it was in Paris. Paris having a huge population and an Eurostar link to London could over time justify the huge expenses. any other location makes no sense considering that you have a complete infrastructure in Magny Cours. A french GP will always have the problem that it will compete with Monaco that is also considered to be French.

[guy_smiley]

A french GP will always have the problem that it will compete with Monaco that is also considered to be French.

This kinda reminds of something I've wanted to see with the European GP. I'd like it to rotate every year. I realize there are complications with trying it, but here's what I was thinking:

French GP: wherever they end up placing it in 2010
Spanish GP: Valencia Street Circuit
British GP: Silverstone
German GP: Nurburgring
And all the other Euro races stay where they are (Italy, Belgium, Hungary etc).

So then you could rotate the European GP to places like Mugello, Jerez, Donington, A-1 Ring, Barcelona, Estoril, Magny-Cours, Hockenheim, Zandvoort etc...

I know there are tons of problems (like the money it would take to refurbish all the tracks and if people of a given country would even go to 2 GPs), but hey all I'm saying is that it'd be cool!