NOVEMBER 27, 2003

Formula 1 and Paul Ricard

There are rumors doing that rounds that Formula 1 could be going back to Paul Ricard because of the problems of the French GP at Magny Cours. These are predictable given that one of Bernie Ecclestone's companies owns the circuit. The track hosted a Grand Prix between 1971 and 1990, usually alternating with another French track, but lost the race to Magny-Cours in 1991. The track has since been completely rebuilt as a testing facility and there is nothing on site for spectators. There are also very serious problems with access roads as and previous GPs at Ricard were famous for their Silverstone-style traffic jams. These are, apparently, not acceptable in F1 these days although it will be interesting to see if such things will be tolerated at an Ecclestone-owned track.

The other problem of the French GP at Ricard was that the event never really attracted big crowds as the local preferred to spend their Sunday afternoons at the beach...