Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] The Future Of The French Grand Prix

Source: 
grandprix.com
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns06679.html
THE French Grand Prix is due to continue at Magny-Cours until the end of
2004. That was announced as long ago as October 1999 so as to "avoid
further speculation following the sale of the Ricard circuit".
Magny-Cours is now facing up to the fact that it must bid again for the
race and this time Paul Ricard is up and running and ready to go
following a massive rebuilding program. For the last few years
Magny-Cours has been run by a local socialist politician Roland Hodel but
with the defeat of the socialists in the recent elections (although they
won in the Nievre departement around Nevers as usual) the government may
prefer to move the race elsewhere.
The link with Magny-Cours is a left-over from the old socialist leaders
President Francois Mitterand and Pierre Beregovoy but switching the race
to Paul Ricard may have no real political value to the new government as
the area around Paul Ricard is a stronghold of the extreme right wing
Front National party.
Magny-Cours remains the least popular - and most remote - on the F1
calendar with insufficient hotel accommodation and rampant exploitation
of the F1 visitors by the locals. The local authorities have been
promising improvement for years but little has changed and now there are
complaints that the pitlane is too narrow and the facilities too small.
Hodel has now unveiled plans to completely rebuild the circuit from the
Chateau d'Eau corner down to the finish line. This is a major undertaking
as it will involve a completely new section of track, the relocation of
the cars parks and the rerouting of an access road beside the track. On
the other hand the new section will increase the crowd capacity by
another 20,000 seats, taking the track capacity to around 150,000. It
will also change the nature of the circuit which has been rather dull in
recent years as overtaking has become incredibly hard. This is being
achieved with a completely new Chateau d'Eau corner, which will be
shorter and faster than the existing turn. The run from there down to the
last corner will be ditched and a new high-speed left-hander will be
built which will lead the cars down to a 90-degree right-hander in a new
"stadium" area. This will see the cars braking from 180mph down to 50mph
and should create an overtaking place. There will then be a short burst
back to a right-left chicane, which will also feature the pitlane entry
road. This will feed the track back to the current finish line.
The new section will be largely visible from the main grandstands.
However Magny-Cours has its work cut out to keep the Grand Prix and it
was no accident that FIA President Max Mosley visited the new Paul Ricard
and made highly favorable noises about the facility.
"This is much more impressive than anything I could have ever imagined,"
said Mosley. "One truly has the feeling of entering into the future,
where everything is guided by technology. This test track will be an
asset for the world of motor sports. With the construction of two hotels
and the renovation of the airport at close proximity, the teams will
definitely have everything necessary to carry out tests in the best
conditions.
"This new tool will and must become the reference and model for the motor
sports race tracks in the world."
Whether this means that Paul Ricard will make a bid for the race or
whether Ricard will be used to pressure Magny-Cours into change remains
to be seen...
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 further speculation following the sale of the Ricard circuit".
Mi sembra una "sparatona" quella riguardo al Paul Ricard. E' stato da
poco ristrutturato senza NESSUNA tribuna per fare posto ad enormi
spazi di fuga apposta per i test... il contrario di quello che sarebbe
servito per attirare gli sponsor ed il pubblico della Formula 1.
Ciao.
Mauro

 servito per attirare gli sponsor ed il pubblico della Formula 1.
Tra l'altro la proprieta' in una recente intervista su AS ha detto che non 
sono interessati ad organizzare eventi, ma solo ad ospitare test, che pare 
sia una formula molto piu' redditizia.
-- 
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 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:ahkhi4$tpaj3$1...@ID-36374.news.dfncis.de...

Infatti, è stato pubblicato un servizio apposito su AS l'altra settimana.
Col Paul Ricard è stata seguita una nuova strada, quello di circuito
esclusivamente studiato per i test, perchè questo risulta economicamente più
proficuo per la proprietà (molto meglio diversi giorni di prove private
all'anno, pagate salatamente dai team, che un gp di F1 che rischia sempre di
finire in perdita, viste le pretese economiche di Ecclestone)
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P#R