Official 2021 French Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[TheDeuce]

kiseca said:

TheDeuce said:

thegreenhell said:

Eric Mc said:

Magny-Cours wasn't great, I have to admit.

I'd love to see a race at the old Rheims circuit.

Some of the old road has been reclaimed by farmers' fields, and they'd have to negotiate a couple of extra roundabouts too.

Rouen-les-Essarts has had an Autoroute built over the top of it, destroying part of the circuit, but it's still driveable largely as it was apart from that. Even the old cobbled hairpin was still there last time I went.

Clermont Ferrand is still mostly intact, with the modern Charade circuit utilising some of it, and most of the old roads outside still there, but there's an extra roundabout at the new circuit entrance and new road junction where they built a road to bypass the circuit. If they removed a fence and some concrete Jersey barriers then you could drive the whole old circuit pretty much unchanged from period, apart from that roundabout.

None of these old circuits would be suitable for the modern cars, of course.

They need a new purpose built circuit. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask of a country with such deep roots in motorsport - they then need to resist the temptation to paint the entire circuit in the colours of their flag..

Seriously though, the French GP should be a highlight - something we look forwards to at a unique and genuinely impressive venue. Not the tut we have now at a hastily re-purposed vehicle testing facility.

Paul Ricard looks like it's just a massive block of tarmac. It can't be too difficult to paint an outline of a decent circuit on it.... compared to creating something new at least. Of course you can't do anything to make that hilly, and hilly seems to help make circuits interesting, but maybe the shape isn't the problem, maybe it actually is just too much tarmac so none of the corners are really challenging because if you mess it up you just go off road line a little. So the drivers can defend easier because they have an escape route and they aren't trying to avoid kerbs or barriers or bumps, and when an overtake fails, for us viewers it's unexciting because the car just runs wide, carries on at close to full pace and rejoins maybe a place or two back. Maybe it's boring because it's too forgiving?

Plus, all those blue stripes just look terrible.

Edited by kiseca on Monday 14th June 16:24

Flat, endless run offs, ugly. No soul, no fun.

They could definitely do better. Not sure how, that's for them to figure out. But what they have today is definitely not acceptable

[thegreenhell]

I'd like to see them do something at Le Mans. The ACO will never let F1 use the full 24H circuit, and the Bugatti Circuit is a bit too small for F1, but they could perhaps build a new section from the first Mulsanne chicane across towards the Porsche curves so they use half the full course. There's probably a good reason why they can't or don't want to do that, though.

[kiseca]

thegreenhell said:

I'd like to see them do something at Le Mans. The ACO will never let F1 use the full 24H circuit, and the Bugatti Circuit is a bit too small for F1, but they could perhaps build a new section from the first Mulsanne chicane across towards the Porsche curves so they use half the full course. There's probably a good reason why they can't or don't want to do that, though.

Le Mans was fun in the Formula GT cars on Gran Turismo 4.... except for the AI drivers that seemed to have a habit of dropping it at the first chicane on the Mulsanne once every two laps for some reason. However, I definitely wouldn't want to crash a Formula 1 car just about anywhere on that track. The road sections didn't have a lot of room and I reckon if you went off in one of those sections you'd still be spinning when you went through the pearly gates.

[M5-911]

TheDeuce said:

They need a new purpose built circuit. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask of a country with such deep roots in motorsport - they then need to resist the temptation to paint the entire circuit in the colours of their flag..

Seriously though, the French GP should be a highlight - something we look forwards to at a unique and genuinely impressive venue. Not the tut we have now at a hastily re-purposed vehicle testing facility.

Motorsports is considered a dirty word in France these days appart from rallying which is still the dominating force as maybe it is not considered an "expensive" form of racing.

[Schermerhorn]

The long and sweeping turns should suit the more downforce friendly Red Bull.

Then again, Mercedes still beat them in Spain quite comfortably on a track that has similar aero requirements....

[Mr Pointy]

TheDeuce said:

thegreenhell said:

HustleRussell said:

TheDeuce said:

HustleRussell said:

TheDeuce said:

I suppose there must be a French equivalent of this forum - I wonder what they think about this disgrace of a circuit..?

As a nation, between Paul Ricard and Renault, F1 hasn't served them very well in recent years

First French driver to win a race since ‘96 last year

Fair enough..

Not much for quarter of a century but admittedly better than nothing.

Eight championship wins powered by Renault since and including ‘96, two of which were for the Renault works team

But apart from all that, what have the French ever done for F1?

They, and specifically Renault have of course done great things for and in F1.

That doesn't change the fact that this era, the combination of a Renault team that under performed and cost a fortune combined with a the French GP being the least popular on the calendar isn't exactly much to celebrate. We don't have to take anything away from their important history in F1 and GP to acknowledge things in recent years have been a bit crap.

Woosh parrot to the F1 thread?

[TheDeuce]

M5-911 said:

TheDeuce said:

They need a new purpose built circuit. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask of a country with such deep roots in motorsport - they then need to resist the temptation to paint the entire circuit in the colours of their flag..

Seriously though, the French GP should be a highlight - something we look forwards to at a unique and genuinely impressive venue. Not the tut we have now at a hastily re-purposed vehicle testing facility.

Motorsports is considered a dirty word in France these days appart from rallying which is still the dominating force as maybe it is not considered an "expensive" form of racing.

How can that be true though, when their car industry is part state owned and they continue to support participation in F1 and other motorsport series?

The politicians must think it's making voters happy on some level

[M5-911]

TheDeuce said:

M5-911 said:

TheDeuce said:

They need a new purpose built circuit. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask of a country with such deep roots in motorsport - they then need to resist the temptation to paint the entire circuit in the colours of their flag..

Seriously though, the French GP should be a highlight - something we look forwards to at a unique and genuinely impressive venue. Not the tut we have now at a hastily re-purposed vehicle testing facility.

Motorsports is considered a dirty word in France these days appart from rallying which is still the dominating force as maybe it is not considered an "expensive" form of racing.

How can that be true though, when their car industry is part state owned and they continue to support participation in F1 and other motorsport series?

The politicians must think it's making voters happy on some level

If you follow French politic, voters a far from being happy...

Renault changing name to Alpine is as well part of the politics. People are fed up of seeing their money going to waist. Using Alpine name doesn't sound as bad as using Renault and their under paid work force.

[anonymous-user]

TheDeuce said:

Don't wish to jinx it but...

Newly surfaced track and hotter track temps than usual.. pirelli might have another bad weekend here and subsequently screw up the proper order.

Tyre wear was normal and much less than 2 years ago for us this week. Track temps were 53 degrees C and we saw no tyre issues. They shouldn't have problems. 2 years ago the tyres were torn apart, whatever they did to fix the track, it worked.

Nice panoramic for you.



I hope this years race is a great success, because the people working at Paul Ricard are really nice and couldn't have done more to put on a good event this weekend, despite all the Covid protocols.

[TheDeuce]

M5-911 said:

TheDeuce said:

M5-911 said:

TheDeuce said:

They need a new purpose built circuit. Doesn't seem like a lot to ask of a country with such deep roots in motorsport - they then need to resist the temptation to paint the entire circuit in the colours of their flag..

Seriously though, the French GP should be a highlight - something we look forwards to at a unique and genuinely impressive venue. Not the tut we have now at a hastily re-purposed vehicle testing facility.

Motorsports is considered a dirty word in France these days appart from rallying which is still the dominating force as maybe it is not considered an "expensive" form of racing.

How can that be true though, when their car industry is part state owned and they continue to support participation in F1 and other motorsport series?

The politicians must think it's making voters happy on some level

If you follow French politic, voters a far from being happy...

Renault changing name to Alpine is as well part of the politics. People are fed up of seeing their money going to waist. Using Alpine name doesn't sound as bad as using Renault and their under paid work force.

Fair enough.

So... why are the politicians so willing to continue to support the groups involvement in F1 - via whichever brand? Either the politicians believe a decent number of voters want to country to remain 'in F1' or the bosses at Renault have done a good job convincing them that on some level the cost is worth it from a marketing perspective - hard to believe on either count but who knows. Someone is clearly making an argument that's convincing enough to keep the millions flowing each season.

If you follow French politics I assume you know a fair few natives - do they like Paul Ricard?

[TheDeuce]

jsf said:

TheDeuce said:

Don't wish to jinx it but...

Newly surfaced track and hotter track temps than usual.. pirelli might have another bad weekend here and subsequently screw up the proper order.

Tyre wear was normal and much less than 2 years ago for us this week. Track temps were 53 degrees C and we saw no tyre issues. They shouldn't have problems. 2 years ago the tyres were torn apart, whatever they did to fix the track, it worked.

Nice panoramic for you.



I hope this years race is a great success, because the people working at Paul Ricard are really nice and couldn't have done more to put on a good event this weekend, despite all the Covid protocols.

Thanks JSF.

I assume the cars you were running didn't use the modern tyres though?

[anonymous-user]

TheDeuce said:

Thanks JSF.

I assume the cars you were running didn't use the modern tyres though?

You assume wrongly. I was running a modern GT3 Ferrari and a late 60's Le Mans car. Next door were running modern LMP cars, so a full spread of tyre and car types and low and high downforce. The tyres were mint.

[TheDeuce]

jsf said:

TheDeuce said:

Thanks JSF.

I assume the cars you were running didn't use the modern tyres though?

You assume wrongly. I was running a modern GT3 Ferrari and a late 60's Le Mans car. Next door were running modern LMP cars, so a full spread of tyre and car types and low and high downforce. The tyres were mint.

I meant modern, as in current F1 pirelli rubber. Obviously not.

[anonymous-user]

TheDeuce said:

I meant modern, as in current F1 pirelli rubber. Obviously not.

Why even ask the question then? You know the only cars running that rubber are the current teams with 2021 cars.

[TheDeuce]

jsf said:

TheDeuce said:

I meant modern, as in current F1 pirelli rubber. Obviously not.

Why even ask the question then? You know the only cars running that rubber are the current teams with 2021 cars.

Well I thought that must be the case but you had me wondering when you started talking about tyres not being an issue at Ricard anymore based on your running - but running with totally different tyres..?

I'm not saying there won't be any correlation but the F1 tyres are very different.

[anonymous-user]

Why do i bother

[TheDeuce]

jsf said:

Why do i bother

I genuinely don't know. A comment made about flakey F1 tyres perhaps struggling on a fast circuit in the heat and you say that some other tyres are fine.

Fair enough.. but why is that relevant? Is there an aspect of wear you saw on the same tyres there two years ago that mirrored what we saw from the F1 tyres at the time?

I'm genuinely interested.

[Ian974]

Well no-one other than the teams can run the current pirellis, so obviously it was meant as generally the tyres wear a lot less in general than they did two years ago. Some interesting background info rather than a direct fact that max isn't going to get spat into the barriers again

[TheDeuce]

Ian974 said:

Well no-one other than the teams can run the current pirellis, so obviously it was meant as generally the tyres wear a lot less in general than they did two years ago. Some interesting background info rather than a direct fact that max isn't going to get spat into the barriers again

Granted - but the F1 Pirelli's seem particularly temperamental in the heat, to a far greater extent than 'normal' track rubber.

[exelero]

Will it be a sleepfest again?