Ecclestone wants French Grand Prix in Paris from 2009

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Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed what many people were saying last year, that he wants to move the French Grand Prix from Magny-Cours to Paris in 2009. I wouldn’t be sorry to see the back of the Circuit Nevers – it’s too flat and featureless for my liking.

Presumably Ecclestone wants another new street circuit in addition to Valencia and Singapore (new this year) and Abu Dhabi (new next year).

With that in mind, I’ve designed a possible track for him:

Starting alongside the Eiffel Tower the cars race along the Seine before turning left and crossing the river. After a few more left turns they head down the other side of the Seine, past the Palais de Chaillot before picking up a long straight back over the river again.

The sharp hairpin at the end provides an overtaking opportunity, followed by some technical turns as the cars return to the start/finish line and pits.

If you want you can try your hand at designing a French Grand Prix track using Quikmaps – here are some instructions and post links to your tracks below.

Photo copyright: Williams / LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Ecclestone wants French Grand Prix in Paris from 2009”

  1. Looks like a fairly interesting track.

    On a tanget, I’m worried Bernie is going to dilute the relative uniqueness of the street track by having too many. 3 might be just about right, but 5 would be too many…

  2. TommyBellingham
    29th February 2008, 19:29

    Anyone ever play “Jacques Villenueves racing vision” game that was released about 8 or 9 years ago. It was ment to be a future F1 game and it had a race round the streets of paris across all the main places like the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Trionph.

  3. Call me old fashion, but I would love an effort to bring Linas-Montlhery revitalized and used for at least a Grand Prix or two. It would be a great nod to one of the birthplaces of grand prix racing. It near enough to Paris to make Bernie happy and it is just laying there wasting away.

    On the other hand…your Paris course doesn’t look half bad…

  4. A sexy track man, with eiffel and river.. I’d buy tix if this is made one circuit…

  5. Nico Savidge
    1st March 2008, 9:19

    How about a time trial through the route in Claude Lelouche’s “C’etait un Rendez-vous”?

  6. if one track is there one day it will not be in paris but near it and it will be a track circuit.

  7. So is the old sod going to get an F1 race in london if Ken the cars pal is voted back in? – as from his mouth F1 loses money for those who have the franchises another way to maximise exposure for the advertisers and if so is the american grand prix going to surface in new york,los angeles across some of their huge freeways? – when is the new race the worlds cities xbox/pc game to be launched -maybe have some shoot and kill sections for the kids- it might give us a clue as TommyBellingham has recollected – never heard of the game myself though take his word it was around

  8. I’m just surprised it has taken this long for the topic of a street race in Paris to come up. It’s such a great place to have a race.

  9. I quite like the track you’ve designed. A more realistic possibility for a race in Paris however is the “Bois de Boulogne”, a parc only minutes away from downtown Paris, with a lot of roads running through it. If they would manage to turn it into a racetrack, it could resemble Albert Park of even Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. There may be 1 problem with this location, though: at night, it’s a breeding place for transsexuals and transvestites …

  10. I thought the ‘Paris’ race was supposed to be happening in Versailles. I know Versailles isn’t Paris but there was supposed to be some discussions with the local mayor etc.

  11. Very good work on the possible layout design. I haven’t seen much of Magny-Cours yet, but i’ve heard numerous complaints about it from longtime fans. Having the race in Paris would certainly provide easier logistics compared with the rural location, but would Paris cooperate with having many major streets closed down for that long?

  12. In terms of the number of street races per season I would be fine with 5 a year, assuming a 20 race calendar.

    Looks like a pretty good circuit but the smart money may be on a circuit based near Euro Disney.

  13. If London doesn’t grab an incalculably valuable opportunity for exposure, Paris should. Here’s a perhaps more obvious and optimally photogenic route for a Paris GP:

    http://www.quikmaps.com/show/67303

    Start/ finish should probably be on the Champs Elysee, and the route would take in (go under?) the Arc de Triomphe, by the Eiffel Tower, along the river (north or south) crossing a bridge or two including the Pont Neuf, past Notre Dame (Sacre Bleu!), the town hall, Pompidou Centre, and back along the Tuileries to the bottom of the Champs Elysee. Pity that Sacre Coeur is too far to the north but you’ve got to stop somewhere.

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