In the round-up: Romain Grosjean is hoping F1 will soon return to France, where it last raced in 2008.
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Grosjean wants French Grand Prix return (F1i)
"I think it was really great (in 2015) to see Mexico was a very warm welcome from all the fans, it was an awesome weekend. I would like to see Magny Cours back on the calendar, it would be the French Grand Prix, unique for me. Paris? The traffic is not so good. I would like a French Grand Prix."
Grosjean hopes to return to Renault (Autosport)
"Maybe in three or four years' time, they produce a world championship winning car and they call me and say let's win together."
Max Verstappen says titles, not teams, at centre of his F1 ambitions (Sky)
"My ultimate dream is just to become world champion. And not only once. So that's my dream and it doesn't matter with which team it is."
F1's double diffuser affair a Mosley 'lesson' for McLaren and Ferrari (Motorsport)
"There was a debate over the double diffuser obviously because ultimately whether the double diffuser was legal or not was not actually a technical decision."
"Happy to announce that the video on demand version of (Alex Zanardi film) No Limits will be out on 1st of February - worldwide and in English and German language - on Vimeo. This will be a 4K stream!"
Sport in 2016: 12 names to watch (The Guardian)
"It would be easy to plump for Max Verstappen, who so thrilled us in 2015. But the driver I’m most looking forward to seeing is new, and British, and he’s Palmer, who will be lining up with Pastor Maldonado for Renault-Lotus."
Social media
Bring it on 2016 !!! 👍🏆😊 @HaasF1Team @f1 #f1 #2016 #newcolor pic.twitter.com/s1BdrqJMGs
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) January 1, 2016
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
Janet54321 had some Aussie Grit for Christmas. Have you received any F1-related gifts?
Great Christmas prezzie of Webber’s book. Couldn’t put it down. Some honest revelations in there, but Vettel is still my fave. It shows what a burning desire he has to win by any means possible, and has done so. Anyone who could fall out with a great guy like Mark must have razor blades under his hat, but all’s fair in love and war, and sport is a war.
Janet54321
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hunocsi (@hunocsi)
2nd January 2016, 0:03
Dijon would be even better.
mfreire
2nd January 2016, 0:42
The French GP has been off the calendar too long. Dijon would be great if it was longer; even in 1984 F1 cars were lapping in the 1 min 2 sec area in qualifying, and that track is still the same
as it was then. If the French GP comes back, I seriously hope it doesn’t go back to Magny-Cours… that track and its location stank and everyone knows it. I think if the French GP came back, it should be either at Ricard or at the Charade circuit with updated facilities, or an alternation between the two. But quite honestly, if I could pick any track, I would say the Montlhery circuit just outside Paris- a slightly revised version of the existing road circuit west of the concrete banking- the concrete banking obviously could not be used. This new Montlhery Autodrome would come with a brand new pits and paddock complex and updated safety facilities. Ah, it’s nice to dream…
Carlitox (@carlitox)
2nd January 2016, 3:39
I don’t get the hate for Magny-Cours. To me, it’s a heck of a track, fast and challenging, and a way better place for a so called “European GP” than this Baku track that looks an awful lot like the Phoenix street circuit and was scheduled to annoy the ACO. Dijon is lovely, but as pointed out, too short. Paul Ricard would be awesome too.
RaceProUK (@)
2nd January 2016, 4:13
The scheduling of Baku was not done to annoy the ACO. F1 has clashed with Le Mans at least half a dozen times in the last twenty years, and no-one made that baseless accusation then; the truth is, it just happens.
Sven (@crammond)
2nd January 2016, 5:12
Back when Magny-Cours was on the calendar, it was typically attributed as generic, bland, and difficult to overtake. There are probably two reasons why this view may have changed:
-The other tracks that came to F1 since the last race at Magny Cours
-Nostalgia
It´s just a generally flat and boring track, apart from one chicane with artificially created undulation (Imola) and a small technically challenging part (Nürburgring to 180°) it´s not even interesting driving yourself on any simgame. In modern F1 we would furthermore have a DRS-zone before the Adelaide-hairpin, and as we have seen when the straight is longer than the DRS-zone should be, the DRS-zone ends up being too long.
Don´t get me wrong, I´m all for a French-GP, but Magny Cours isn´t more exciting than the average Tilke. Unfortunately, the much more interesting tracks at Dijon and Clermont-Ferrand are unsuitable to F1s safety standards.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd January 2016, 5:55
@carlitox
Just by looking at the circuit layout alone, I can tell that Baku will probably be a better circuit for overtaking than Magny-Cours.
Can we at least wait until we see a race around Baku before we start labelling/judging it as awful and boring? The only thing that one can be critical about is the location, the track itself is a complete mystery.
Unlike Baku, we have already seen races around Magny-Cours. Generally, they were awful.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
2nd January 2016, 14:24
Magny-Cours was never the most exciting of races, and probably wouldn’t be even if re-introduced (the average track quality seems to have deteriorated, but not that much, and it can’t even take advantage of the DRS effect because its idea of a straight is distinctly curvy!) It would be great for France to be back on the calender, but sadly there is no obvious good choice (especially not when it would also be necessary to take Bernie fees into account).
Baku isn’t exactly getting me excited, since I know I will miss it due to Le Mans and I think it’s been set up to fail by the powers-that-be (when Canada used to clash with Le Mans, they at least waited until the Le Mans finished before attempting to start; Baku would have to start at 8 pm local time to manage the same feat and it’s not had any night-race status confirmed yet…) However, none of that is Baku’s fault; it is simply the FOM and FIA messing things up again.
I do have a soft spot for Magny-Cours though, because it was the 1993 edition of that race that got me interested in F1…
Carlitox (@carlitox)
2nd January 2016, 17:46
Okay I might have gotten a bit carried away with the ACO thing, but well, it’s hard not to think something’s up after Hulk’s victory and subsequent interest from current F1 drivers to do Le Mans.
Yeah, Baku could shut me up but I strongly doubt it. However I do like Marina Bay and that’s twisty as heck so it could be fun, hopefully.
But all in all, I seem to be the only person fond of Magny-Cours, and the only one reckoning that the current cars could work fine there. We used to think Hungaroring produced boring races, yet now it has two highly ranked editions here (though with some helpful drizzle). Even Valencia, the pinnacle of boredom, produced a fantastic race in 2012.
And I’ve been sim-driving Magny-Cours from GP2 all the way to rFactor. I find it fun :)
RaceProUK (@)
2nd January 2016, 18:34
If you really think Hulk’s victory has anything to do with Baku’s scheduling (which will have been in planning for two to three years in advance), then I have a bridge to sell you…
anon
2nd January 2016, 21:06
@carlitox, to a certain extent, I do have to wonder if some figures have been milking the story a little for headlines.
It is now apparent that, even if any of the current drivers in F1 might have wanted to compete at Le Mans, none of the manufacturer entrants would have offered them a seat (Audi and Porsche have cut back to two cars on cost grounds, Toyota has traditionally not had the funding to run a third car and Nissan has walked out altogether).
For all the talk, it doesn’t look as if the scheduling clash is actually going to have that much, if any, perceptible impact – but complaining about the decision does seem to be a good way of publicising yourself.
mfreire
3rd January 2016, 2:45
I for one am against any international activity in Azerbaijan- but quite honestly I am enticed by that 1.4 mile flat out section with the pits next to it. Even Baku looks better than Phoenix did- which is probably has the dullest circuit layout ever in F1- but there was some good racing there and overtaking at Phoenix was possible- Abu Dhabi cannot lay a claim to ever having that. If a French GP existed- most French circuits historically always have had a long straight somewhere- Ricard being a good example.
Arnold Triyudho Wardono (@ernietheracefan)
2nd January 2016, 9:39
If someone other than Tilke doing the renovations.
ACx
2nd January 2016, 17:36
Yawn………
Slagging of Tilke is like so 1990’s
Bradley Downton (@bradley13)
2nd January 2016, 0:25
Now, I hope Palmer does well, and I will be backing him to do well because he’s British, I’m British, and it’d be nice to see another strong British driver, however I can’t see it (I’m anxiously hoping I’ll be surprised!) and frankly he’s shown nothing so far to suggest he’s going to be special. The author of said article is either bigging him up for the very nationalistic reason I mention above, or he’s been living under a rock and has never seen Palmer before in his life, or checked out his previous results. Winning any series at any point is impressive; heck – I doubt I or many others on here could do it – especially GP2, but after four seasons the shine is somewhat lost. And to choose him as your one to watch over Max Verstappen – who admittedly I am a big fan of, although I note some people aren’t (but you can’t deny he looks like a future talent and was definitely one of the more exciting drivers to watch in 2015, if a little dangerous at times) – is just absurd, the author needs their head examined!
Jules Winfield (@jules-winfield)
2nd January 2016, 12:55
Paul Weaver, who writes the majority of the F1 articles for the Guardian newspaper, is terribly myopic and chauvinistic. He seems to suffer from tunnel vision when it comes to drivers, and British ones in particular. Yes, he’s British and so is the Guardian, but it would be nice to read something about some of the other drivers once in a while.
evered7 (@evered7)
2nd January 2016, 0:44
Grosjean should concentrate on having a seat for next season. He has to comprehensively beat Guti and hope he gets a Ferrari nod.
Else it is going to be a quick spiral towards oblivion like Di Grassi. French GP can wait.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
2nd January 2016, 8:23
@evered7 If Grosjean drives at 50% all season he will still be on top of GUT every single session…
Atticus (@atticus-2)
2nd January 2016, 12:01
@xtwl @evered7 Yep, I agree.
Jules Winfield (@jules-winfield)
2nd January 2016, 12:56
Alex Yoong would have a strong chance of beating Gutierrez. I don’t think that Grosjean has much to worry about.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
2nd January 2016, 4:02
Magny-Cours was absolutely dreadful; every single race apart from 1999 and perhaps 2002 were forgettable and it seriously lacked proper wheel to wheel racing.
Part of this might have been because the early to late 2000’s cars were unable to follow closely through the long Turn 3, but the cars from 2009-2014 were much better in that respect, so perhaps then we’d see more overtaking at the hairpin.
Nevertheless, I’d still much rather have circuits like Istanbul park (despite its location) back instead.
anon
2nd January 2016, 9:29
@kingshark, even before that, it was considered a dull and uninspiring venue that was really only used because of pressure from the French government to use that venue – the races throughout the 1990’s were generally fairly bland.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
2nd January 2016, 18:14
Bakc then, Hungaroring was also considered dull. Times change, contemporary F1 could be great on Magny Cours.
q85
2nd January 2016, 19:32
so true
Jlr
2nd January 2016, 8:17
Isn’t Grosjean’s shirt printed backwards? Not the best start to the year.
RaceProUK (@)
2nd January 2016, 9:05
Or maybe, just maybe, he’s stood in front of a mirror?
Alexander (@)
2nd January 2016, 12:48
Mobilephone selfies work like mirrors
matt90
2nd January 2016, 14:01
Only if they’re taken via a mirror.
Philip (@philipgb)
2nd January 2016, 9:44
Toilet selfie. Either that or HAAS has let slip a loophole they’ve found that involves everything being mirrored.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
2nd January 2016, 12:23
The problem with Magny-Cours (Or Magny-Bores as fans dubbed it) was that it was always one of the hardest circuits of the schedule in terms of been able to follow another car because the fast, flowing corners that it was made up of are the most aero dependent where the turbulent air has the biggest effect on any car behind.
Its the same problem you see at Circuit De Catalunya, The nature of the corners makes following/overtaking exceptionally difficult & even some of the changes to try & help which were made over the years failed to really help.
Magny-Cours is a great circuit to drive & was always popular with drivers but in an era where fans & F1 in general are even more critical of dull races than they were when Magny-Cours was initially introduced going there above somewhere like Paul Ricard (The full circuit would likely be pretty good for racing) isn’t the right thing to do.
RaceProUK (@)
2nd January 2016, 12:45
Having driven both Magny-Cours and Paul Ricard in cars ranging from Swedish touring cars to GT3 and Formula Master (virtually of course ;) ), I’d much prefer Magny-Cours to Paul Ricard for two reasons:
1. Magny-Cours has a better flow to it, and is a lot more enjoyable to drive
2. Paul Ricard is almost all tarmac run-off; if you think track limit abuse is bad at current F1 tracks, it’ll be that much worse at Paul Ricard
mfreire
3rd January 2016, 20:02
It depends what version of Ricard you’ve driven. If you drove any of the short tracks with the chicanes in the straight, then those circuits aren’t too great. If you’ve driven the full circuit with the unbroken 1.1 mile straight, now that is a pretty good challenge, and good for passing. Magny-Cours is just annoying: sure it has that fast first section but nothing else about it is noteworthy. It’s
just repetitive.
RaceProUK (@)
3rd January 2016, 22:45
You’re forgetting the two fast chicanes in sectors 2 and 3. And if I remember right, there were a fair few overtakes going into the final complex.
anon
2nd January 2016, 14:46
@gt-racer, the circuit has always been a circuit where it has been difficult to overtake, irrespective of the era – people may say that it is hard to follow now, but it was no better in the 1990’s either when they first went there. I would agree that the bigger issue is the circuit layout itself, because drivers from multiple racing series have commented that it is fundamentally tough to overtake there.
With so many of the corners around the circuit comprising of fast, long radius sweeping curves, diverging from the optimum racing line, which the attacking driver would normally have to do in order to pass the leading driver, puts them at a significant disadvantage given they now need to cover a significantly greater distance, therefore requiring a far higher speed advantage in the corners than at most other circuits.
Jerejj
2nd January 2016, 20:08
I’d rather bring Istanbul Park or Buddh International Circuit back to the race calendar, and I’d also switch the Spanish GP venue from Circuit de Catalunya to Jerez for a change.
mfreire
3rd January 2016, 20:03
+1
RaceProUK (@)
3rd January 2016, 22:49
Just reading up on Jerez; it was banned from hosting a GP in ’98 because in ’97 the wrong person handed out a trophy on the podium.
I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
3rd January 2016, 0:47
I support this.