2018 French Grand Prix - Le Castellet - Paul Ricard Circuit

[wibble cb]

Surely the real reason it’s back is due to a certain Mr Eccelstone owning it.....

[HustleRussell]

8V085 said:

We have another one. Calling it Fisher Price has nothing to do with elitism or Brexit. It's a matter of good taste. But since you persist, if Brexit means that we won't have such mickey mouse circuits in the future I'm glad we decided in favour of it.

'the colour of the runoff areas at this circuit aren't tasteful'... get a grip, it's a racing circuit- if it wasn't painted red or blue or whatever it'd all be various shades of beige and grey.

Lets for now be grateful that France has a Grand Prix again (because for obvious reasons it's important) and reserve judgment on how 'mickey mouse' the circuit is until we've actually seen some racing on it.

[mike80]

F1GTRUeno said:

Calling it a Fisher Price circuit for children to enjoy is elitist as they come. This place is full of stereotypical old grumps, no wonder Brexit was mentioned.

It's fine and it's unique. The coloured parts served a purpose because they were there to test asphalt run off areas to replace gravel traps.

The actual track has always been pretty poor, made worse currently only because they won't allow them to run the whole of the Mistral straight without the chicane in the middle. I believe someone went off and died at the Signes curve at the end of the straight back in the 70's or 80's and it's not been allowed since. Can you imagine a 2017 onwards car flying through that turn after such a long straight? Would be absolutely mega.

I don't know what it will be like for f1 but I've certainly seen cars testing there recently without using the chicane.

I like going there, was there a month ago and back in the summer as well. It's a nice drive up a winding road up to the circuit which feels like it is in the middle of nowhere.

Can't really recommend a place to stay, I've always been booked into one of the circuit hotels but I imagine they will be at a premium! Most of the bigger towns are about 30 minutes away.

[Norfolkit]

wibble cb said:

Surely the real reason it’s back is due to a certain Mr Eccelstone owning it.....

Not sure Bernie has any power or influence these days does he? More likely to be targeting the European audience and/or a hedge against losing one of the current European races (Germany maybe).

[Kev_Mk3]

I was thinking about going to the race, week after the Le Mans 24hrs, cruise down have a few days somewhere else then off to the F1 and home.

Since decided not this year

[bobbo89]

This Tilke bloke seems to be on to a right easy number! Suspect he got paid a fairly substantial amount of money to add a corner or two and colour it in!

[anonymous-user]

Have they built a new pits complex for next year? The current garages in those pictures are crap and very small.

I hope they have updated the road system too, it was very middle of nowhere small roads that would struggle with large spectator numbers last time i was there.

Are there any new hotels? There weren't that many of those in the area either.