French GP return? [Merged]

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u408379965

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Jan 25, 2011
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From Joe Saward's blog:

The paddock was buzzing on Saturday morning in Montreal with a few juicy rumours knocking about, including stories about attempts to revive the French Grand Prix. The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has asked for a meeting with Renault F1 boss Eric Boullier following some fairly trenchant remarks about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government’s failure to support France’s motorsport industry.

Boullier has been asked to submit a report on what needs to be done and the government will then decide whether it can help. The first element in the plan would be to get a French driver into one of the better cars and on the back of that there is then a chance to revive the French GP itself, perhaps in alternation with the Belgian GP, which is struggling financially (as always). This in turn will help to build up more media and TV interest in the sport and help to encourage French companies to support the industry and use its global reach for their own ends. France has dozens of major multinationals which could be involved in the sport, but most have shied away from F1 because of the way some of them were treated by the last generation of French team owners, who did not leave a great impression in the business world. Boullier hopes that in time France can once again have a team, perhaps built around the Enstone operation. There has been some speculation that this might also involve Nicolas Todt, who runs the ART operation in GP2 and other championships.
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I don't see why it has to be in tandem with Belgian (frankly Bernie should be paying Spa to hold a race, not the other way around), but I'd love to see a return to Magny Cours. Personally I'd like to see Valencia and Bahrain dropped in favour of Magny Cours and the A1 ring.

Could this also mean a return for Romain Grosjean, who's currently heading the GP2 standings after being harshly dumped by Renault a couple of years ago? If the French government can give him the financial backing to match his talent it could pave his way back into the sport.
 
This story did the rounds last week. Interesting that you've linked it to the possible return to F1 of Grosjean as there are rumours of him replacing Heidfeld before the end of the season. I didn't know Boullier had been asked to report on it by the French government.

I agree about Bahrain/Valencia vs. Magny Cours/Red Bull Ring but Spa has various problems hosting F1, doesn't it? Spiralling costs and complaints about noise, etc. I'd rather see good circuits alternate than be lost.
 
Already heard about this a few days ago, but Spa belongs on the calendar and no other Grand Prix should take it's places.

While I would like to see the return of Magny-Cours, I will not accept it at the expense of losing Spa every other year. I would prefer other circuits to alternate with it, never Spa.
 
I quite liked Magny-Cours, but not enough to want to ditch Spa every 2 years. That'd be disapppinting. I think Valencia is the only realistic race that could be changed, and make France alternate with the "A1" ring (I'm not calling it the Red Bull Ring), as the European grand prix? Or maybe Turkey would get replaced, which'd be a great shame. Either way, I can't see any Middle East races being dropped, as they bring in too much money to the sport.
 
BLS
I don't see why it has to be in tandem with Belgian (frankly Bernie should be paying Spa to hold a race, not the other way around), but I'd love to see a return to Magny Cours. Personally I'd like to see Valencia and Bahrain dropped in favour of Magny Cours and the A1 ring.
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Said it for me right there. 
 
I think it would be harsh to drop Heidfeld, but I'd like to see Grosjean get some more race time. They should give him a few FP1s rather than chuck him straight in at the deep end mid season again. For the record, on average Grosjean was 0.538s off Alonso, which isn't a disaster. He was only given seven races and we saw how much Fisi struggled when he moved to Ferrari, so I think it's unfair to judge. We also saw how much the rookies struggled to match their teammates early on last season as well. Grosjean deserves another shot at it for me.
 
complaints about noise, why the **** did they move near to spa then? as to france GP, why Magney cours? why not Paul Ricard?
 
Hi all. This is my first post!

I really hope they do not alter Magney-Cours with Spa, you cannot have a F1 calendar without Spa!! Yeah Magney-Cours is an ok circuit, used to be better with Lycee pin as the final corner but it will not produce the exciting races that Spa can!
Does anyone know why they dont race at the A1 ring anymore, that circuit was amazing? In my opinion, instead of adding these new circuits to the calendar bring back the old classics like A1 ring and Magney-Cours!
 
I do like Magny Cours, but it was notorious for throwing up a dull race. Now the Paul Ricard circuit i would like to see.

It has over 100 different track layout configurations. They could change the layout every lap! Imagine that !!!!
 
Gwew said:
Hi all. This is my first post!

I really hope they do not alter Magney-Cours with Spa, you cannot have a F1 calendar without Spa!! Yeah Magney-Cours is an ok circuit, used to be better with Lycee pin as the final corner but it will not produce the exciting races that Spa can!
Does anyone know why they dont race at the A1 ring anymore, that circuit was amazing? In my opinion, instead of adding these new circuits to the calendar bring back the old classics like A1 ring and Magney-Cours!
Click to expand...

A1-ring was ripped up, the land bought by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and re made to a slightly different layout and renamed the Red Bull Ring.

Edit: welcome to the forum<ok>
 
Jacky_Ickx said:
I do like Magny Cours, but it was notorious for throwing up a dull race. Now the Paul Ricard circuit i would like to see.

It has over 100 different track layout configurations. They could change the layout every lap! Imagine that !!!!
Click to expand...

It has a corner call Bendor. :emoticon-0136-giggl
 
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