Magny-Cours linked to F1 race return

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: The French government is looking into holding a race at Magny-Cours or Paul Ricard.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

France puts Magny-Cours back in F1 Frame (Reutera)

“The French Federation (FFSA) said on Friday that Sports Minister Valerie Fourneyron had asked for a report on the technical, financial and legal conditions that would allow a Prix to be organised at Magny Cours or Le Castellet.”

Schumi: I lost concentration (Sky)

“I simply slid off track because I lost a little concentration: we were talking on the radio and I was altering some settings at the same time. But that’s all part of the game.”

Formula One left floating as IPO on hold (FT, registration required)

“The money behind F1’s growth may yet override these hurdles – revenues of $1.5bn in 2011 generated $451m of operating profit. F1’s global reach and its nine months a year racing calendar also gives it a physical landscape and a continuity that most other sports can only envy. Even if any of these hurdles put off some investors, it seems all too probable that others will be more than happy to take their place.”

McLaren concerned about wet pace (BBC)

Lewis Hamilton: “In the wet, we need to do a bit of an improvement on the wet tyres trying to get them switching on.”

Jenson Button Q&A: McLaren updates a big step forward (F1)

“We’ve been able to collect a bag full of information as it was paramount for us to get our updates working in connection with the tyres. It is still something of a struggle to get them to temperature, but once we do the pace is good. I think we should be happy with most of the new parts that we’ve put on as they are working correctly, so believe me it is nice to see these improvements.”

We Couldn’t Judge New Parts, Says Vettel (Speed)

“We’re always pushing and having little bits here and there, no major upgrade, I think, nothing you can see. I would have loved to have dry conditions just to see how the car works, how it feels, and that’s the only chance you get to get consistent laps and try whatever you want to test.”

New hards won’t return before Japan (Autosport)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “We’ll have to think of doing something later in the season. Ideally I’ll like to take it to Suzuka and have a go there if we can get them rebuilt in time. Or failing that, certainly Brazil, or something at the end of the year.”

Tost refuses to confirm Ascanelli departure (Adam Cooper)

“A sheepish team principal Franz Tost said today: ‘I can only tell you that Giorgio Ascanelli is on holiday and there’s confidentiality between the two parties. That’s all that I can say to this.'”

McLaren: German GP Sidepods (Scarbs F1)

“Unlike Red Bull’s solution, the exhaust flow finds its own way to the diffuser and isn’t lead all the way by a ramped section of bodywork. This may make the flow a little less predictable, but does allow the airflow around the sidepod to reach the diffuser.”

Ian Parkes via Twitter

“[Jenson Button] asked about lights on back of car. Told journo testing new reversing lights. Journo fell for it until JB came clean, part of aero scan.”

German GP – Conference 2 (FIA)

Franz Tost: “We were discussing this for a long time and as John just mentioned before, one of the main arguments against Abu Dhabi for some teams was that the mechanics would have been out for five weeks and then we decided, OK, to split the test with Silverstone, because teams which are situated in England wanted to do the test at Silverstone and OK, now a third race track, Magny-Cours, has come into the plan and normally we should say OK, let’s do the test altogether, three days at the end of the season, but you know we are in a democratic world and therefore it was decided to split it.”

Comment of the day

Girts isn’t too disappointed about the rain:

The best thing about today’s rain was that it once again shattered Pirelli’s plans to test the more conservative tyres.

Moreover, tomorrow it might rain again so the teams will have [almost] no clue how the tyres will behave in the dry race conditions on Sunday.

And I will most likely score around three points in the predictions championship again. Yippee!
Girts

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Michael Schumacher won the 2002 French Grand Prix – held, appropriately enough, at Magny-Cours.

In doing so equalled Juan Manuel Fangio’s record for five world championship victories. It was also the earliest the world championship has ever been won.

Kimi Raikkonen finished second, having led before running wide on oil with four laps to go. His McLaren team mate David Coulthard was third.

Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo

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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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28 comments on “Magny-Cours linked to F1 race return”

  1. And I will most likely score around three points in the predictions championship again. Yippee!

    I do that even if it’s a processional dry race :( !

  2. Ah yes, the tyres, sorry Girts I can’t agree with you although it would seem that Pirelli do, now that rain has washed out the chance to test the new Xtra Hard tyre further testing will be postponed till Japan or Brazil, no chance of it raining at those tracks !!!

    Seriously though folks, I thought the hard tyre used at Silverstone worked well allowing drivers to do some hard racing and make several long attempts to pass without “falling of the cliff” sadly the same could not be said for the options which are clearly the worst tyre in the range and the prime for this weekend.

  3. Magny-Cours?? Please not. Awful, dull track.

    1. I believe Magny-Cours is in an area of France that has traditionally voted in favour of the French Socialist Party. Paul Ricard, the only other circuit capable of hosting the race, is in a seat that is much more marginal.

      1. FlyingLobster27
        21st July 2012, 10:53

        Living in France, I was about to disprove that; as the Nièvre département is very rural, I was expecting more Conservative votes.
        But no, au contraire, I’ve looked up the results and confirm your point – Nièvre was one of the few (9/96 in Metropolitan France) départements in which Lionel Jospin was placed 1st in the first round of 2002 (Jospin was famously knocked out by Nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen), and for the last three Parliamentary elections, all their MPs have been Socialist…
        Le Castellet on the other hand is indeed in a far-right area – more often that not, the second round of the Parliamentary elections have been Conservative v Nationalist.

  4. Magny-Cours is a wonderful argument to the Tilke-bashers about all their nostalgia being mostly misplaced.

    1. Magny-Cours is not a traditional circuit, it is a modern circuit, I don’t know who designed it but Tilke probably studied it as a possible model. IMO it’s no worse than any of the typical modern tracks.

      1. It was built in 1960 by Jean Bernigaud.

        Tilk has actually done some work on it in the past, though. When Magny-Cours first held a race in 1991, the final sector was dominated by a horrid little chicane at the very end of the lap. Tilke reprofiled the corner for the 2003 race, first tightening Chateaux d’Eau, and then fixing Lycee and shifting the chicane so that the drivers had a little more space to try and overtake with. He also shortened the pit lane considerably, which totally changed the strategic appraoch to pit stops at the circuit.

      2. I agree with this.

        But if you take today’s field and seat them in a grid of cars from 1988, you would have just as much passing on today’s modern Tilke tracks then.

        But not for the reasons you’d expect – the cars would be drastically spread out competitively even if not aero-dependent. Most anti-Tilke arguments drip of recent Moss-like tirades against safety.

        1. Everyone else’s opinion must be tyrannical right?

          1. Hell yeah! Otherwise opinions are no fun.

          2. A true student of Balstere.

    2. But as we saw in Valencia, pretty much any track can provide good races with these current rules. I think even Hungaroring might be great this year.

      But Magny-Cours is certainly dull, and the last sector is still horrible, the pre-2003 modifications one was much better. Having said that, it would be a nice change to see a 4.4km circuit on the calendar, rather than the 5.5km standard.

  5. If what I read in the forum about McLaren having a narrow range for their optimum setup is correct, I’d posit we may not see them at the front again until they get some proper, dry, data friendly test sessions.

    1. lol at HAM and ROS…

    2. HAM: “We work real well together”
      ROS: “Don’t touch me”

    3. Omg, that’s somewhat embarrassing… lol

    4. Haha great! :D

    5. @aka_robyn Great pics, thanks for sharing :)

  6. Schumacher used to be well known for being able to talk on the radio and do multiple things at a time with his lap time hardly being affected. Looks like age is getting the better of him ;)

    1. At least he admits his mistakes and speaks the truth. Mind you there is a lot more things to fiddle with in the car now days.

      1. I struggle with my tv remote just sitting on the couch. Would hate to see how I go using it at 200kph.

    2. Yeah, in the old days when he went off during FP you knew that he just was negotiating with God about where the limit was.
      And then get pole position, come qualifying time.

      1. I still hope he can pull that one off again here today @verstappen!

  7. Told journo testing new reversing lights. Journo fell for it

    I dont belive it, it is hilarious, but how could a man be so dumb?

  8. I guess its good that this Magny Cours information shows that the idea of bringing back the French GP did not completely fall through with the change in government in France.

  9. Sounds good regarding a French GP but I always worry about what circuits we will lose.

    I was gonna go looking for a Scarbs post on the McLaren sidepod so thanks for the link. Looks like a great little sweeping motion into the diffuser but it’s just a shame that we can’t see it in dry conditions against the Red Bull and Ferrari.

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