How the French GP was revived
After a decade away, one of the most historic motorsport events is back on the Formula 1 calendar. Autosport explains how ahead of this weekend’s race
When the Formula 1 paddock was packed up after the 2008 French Grand Prix at Magny-cours, uncertainty surrounded the future of the race.
But the event was on the following year’s draft calendar, and few then seriously believed that
10 years would pass before there was another French GP.
Motorsport was born in France, and it thrived there during its infancy. Irrespective of which competing definition of the first real motor race you favour, it was held in France. The first race to carry the title ‘Grand Prix’ was staged in the south-western town of Pau in 1901, and five years later Ferenc Szisz won the French Grand
Prix at Le Mans, recognised as the first true grand prix, driving a Michelin-shod Renault. Since then France has produced some of motor racing’s greatest champions and most famous marques, and is home of governing body the FIA. So how can it have taken so long for a national GP to return?
The race always had something of a peripatetic existence. Seven different circuits – Reims, Rouen, Clermont-ferrand, Le Mans (Bugatti circuit), Dijon, Paul Ricard and Magny-cours – have staged the race in the world championship era. And in the pre-war years, it moved on close to an annual basis, with the Montlhery track just outside Paris the closest thing to a consistent home.
The move from Paul Ricard to Magny-cours in the Nevers region was controversial. The French government invested heavily – to the tune of around Ff250million – to transform Magny-cours into what then passed for a leading grand prix facility ahead of it taking over the race in 1991. This wasn’t popular, particularly with Maurice Arreckx, president of the Var department in which Paul Ricard sits. He described it at the time as “a scandal”.
But come 2008 the landscape was very different. In ’03 the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile (FFSA) had to take over the promotion of the race to ensure it continued. In ’07 and ’08 the grand prix lost around ¤2m – on top of which it needed to find the ¤40m investment to fund the so-called ‘Magny-cours 2’ redevelopment project. The seven-figure losses were not sustainable.
A multitude of other contenders arose, and six venues, Magnycours included, were interested in bringing the race back in 2010. The other five required new circuits, the most credible of which was Disneyland Paris Val d’europe, but none of these came off.
Attempts to bring back the French GP continued over the years. Paul Ricard, which was bought by Bernie Ecclestone’s Excelis company in 1999, had been reborn as a testing facility and
gradually racing returned. In December 2016 it was confirmed that the circuit would host the revived French GP in ’18, this time with investment from regional government. Ex-formula 3 racer Christian Estrosi has been a key player in his role as president of the Alps and Cote d’azur province; his role has been crucial in corralling local and regional authorities to stump up the cash needed to ensure that the race could take place.
The result is a five-year deal for the French GP, with a crowd of more than 60,000 expected for this weekend, as event managing director Gilles Dufeigneux explains. “For the first edition, we hope we will welcome around 65,000 people,” he says. “The circuit is able to welcome 100,000, but for the first edition we want to do it nice and controlled. We have to learn again.”
The cautious approach is sensible. Paul Ricard is infamously difficult to access, so plunging straight in with a bigger event would have been a mistake. When Magny-cours hosted its first grand prix, 100,000 turned up and there were massive traffic jams. The event never really recovered and had a reputation as an unpopular venue that it never shifted, despite a challenging track configuration that had a great overtaking opportunity at the Adelaide Hairpin.
The hope is that the return of the race to Paul Ricard will be a success and momentum will build as a result. The timing is certainly good. France’s interest in F1 is on the rise again, with Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Romain Grosjean all on the grid, plus the recent return of the Renault works team. This has played a part in organisers being able to raise the investment to get the race up and running at the track – which, it should be noted, is supplied by Ecclestone’s company on a commercial basis.
“We’ve got three drivers, which is incredible if you take into account the past 20 years,” says Dufeigneux. “Three and a half, if you count [Monegasque] Charles Leclerc. And we have Renault as a team, not only an engine provider. So there’s strong interest in the competition coming back. There’s a new focus of the French public on this grand prix. It’s a major element, the attractiveness of F1. To have drivers, a team and a grand prix is very important. Renault improving a lot as a team is important because it’s part of the story.”
France is certainly engaging, and this is good news for the whole industry. Mercedes-contracted Ocon grew up in racing while the French GP was off the calendar, and was only 11 when Magny-cours held its last grand prix. So it’s a big deal for him.
“It’s a dream come true to be racing at home,” he says. “I’ve been waiting for it since I was a kid – I didn’t understand
“WE’VE GOT THREE FRENCH DRIVERS IN F1. THREE AND A HALF, IF YOU COUNT CHARLES LECLERC”
then why there was no French Grand Prix. The first grand prix
I saw was Magny-cours in 2006 and now I have the privilege to race in front of my home crowd.
“It’s very important. During that period France lost a bit of interest. We still have the hardcore fans, but we need to reach more people. To be French with so little coverage [climbing the ladder] was very hard; hopefully that’s going to change.”
Amid all the optimism surrounding the event, the race is also in an interesting position in an evolving grand prix landscape.
It’s the first ‘new’ race to be staged in the era of Liberty Media ownership and, while there’s a desire for the event to continue beyond 2022 at the end of its contract, already there’s talk of a need for a different financial model.
The French GP promoters are understood to have paid more than $20m up front this year simply to run the event. With
Liberty opening a can of worms through its willingness to have a Miami race on the calendar that doesn’t require such an up-front payment, already there are mutterings about the need for a profitshare model, in which Liberty doesn’t get paid ahead of the event and F1 effectively has a stake in the success of the race. This is a model that Paul Ricard is very keen on, along with many members of the Formula One Promoters’ Association.
“We have to make the model change or be a bit more realistic, especially in Europe as we have the same type of constraints and the same type of grands prix,” says Dufeigneux. “Monaco is different, but the others share a lot of qualities. From the talks we have with promoters renegotiating their contracts with Liberty, there is a need to change the model a bit.
“First of all, we have to make the product grow, and to grow is to invest. We’re not able to invest in marketing and new products if we’ve got a strong financial constraint with the fees. We need smaller fees and we need to share the product, maybe to co-invest with Liberty. We’re ready to invest, but we want our part of the revenues. The level of fees is a very big issue because the fees are around two thirds of the budget, and after paying the fees you don’t have a lot of money left to invest in the new products.”
This brings us back to the very reason the French GP failed in the first place – the sheer cost of holding an F1 race. With the British GP at Silverstone activating the break clause in its contract last year (meaning its last race is scheduled for 2019) and being among those seeking a more workable deal, these are interesting times for race promoters. And with the teams concerned about the threat to a model that guarantees part of their income (the two primary streams of revenue for F1 are race-promoter fees and broadcast rights), Liberty faces a delicate balancing act.
And connected to that is the future of a race that’s back where it belongs on the calendar, but already faces an uncertain future. France, like Britain, needs to be part of F1 given the depth of its motorsport history. Collectively, they will play a big part in dictating whether or not races can be run on a more sustainable financial model in the long term.