The French Grand Prix makes its first appearance on the Formula 1 calendar since 2008 this weekend. It will be staged at the Circuit Paul Ricard close to Marseille and Toulon on the French Mediterranean coast. This will also be the first time Formula 1 has been staged at this venue since Alain Prost was victorious in 1990. Between 1991 and 2008 the race was staged at Magny-Cours.
The Circuit Paul Ricard features a long lap, 3.6 miles (5.8km) in circumference. Resultantly Sunday’s race will be just 53 laps in distance, but there is no saying if this will be Mercedes or Ferrari territory. The track temperature is sure to be hot but teams will have little or no data on tyre demands.
Both Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull were given upgraded engines in Montreal while Mercedes continued to use the power-units that had started the season. It was a factor as Sebastian Vettel dominated, winning ahead of Bottas, and Hamilton struggled, but extended his record run in the points to 32 outings, by finishing fourth (confirm).
Scuderia Ferrari German driver and new world championship leader Sebastian Vettel said that he is confident ahead of the first French grand prix in a decade. Having captured the lead in the drivers’ title standings by a single point in Canada, the four-time Formula One world champion says his 2018 Ferrari “works wherever we go”.
As for the Paul Ricard circuit, he admitted he has “absolutely no idea” what to expect of the returning Formula 1 venue, but the German driver is at least not overly worried about the thinner Pirelli tyres: “We found what made us so uncompetitive in Spain. The problem was not the new tyre, but how we prepared our car for them. We were wrong. That makes me confident that when we use these stiffer tyres again, we’ll know what to do.” – Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel explained, as reported by the Italian media earlier today.
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