What a future for France
As the iconic weekend in Monaco approaches, the missing from the calendar a French GP. The Principality stage has become a second ‘adoptive’ home race for the drivers and the transalpine team after the exclusion of the Paul Ricard circuit from the calendarwhich F1 last raced on in 2022.
However, there is no shortage of projects, at least theoretical, to try to bring the queen category of motorsport back to France. Speaking to the newspaper The Team The mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi underlined how the future of F1 in France is very linked to the political will of the country: “Is it possible to host a competition again? Yes. We have the structures, the resources and the know-how. It’s just a matter of will. We have seen in previous years that significant resources, support from local authorities and essential and constant commitment from the State are needed“.
Hypotheses and contraindications
Estrosi knows the subject matter well as he has been there in the past involved in the promotion of the Paul Ricard event. The Circus would be interested in two locations in particular in France: the Ile-de-France, that is, the region that includes the capital Paris, and precisely Nice. However, the city has already expressed itself negatively in the recent past regarding the possibility of hosting an F1 GP. “At the end of 2023 there was talk of a project for a non-permanent circuit, but these communities did not want to continue – explained Estrosi – Nice had all the necessary resources, especially since we have experience of large international events“.
However, a further point against Nice would be the geographical proximity to the Monaco GP, which could make it less convenient to organize a race in one of the symbolic cities of the French Riviera. In the end therefore, the best card risks being the ‘usual’ Paul Ricard once again. In a recent feasibility report drawn up for the government, Estrosi explicitly reported that at the moment the best possibility for a future French GP is the historic Le Castellet circuit.
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