After Sebastian Vettel cruised to a dominant 50^th career victory at the Canadian Grand Prix and reclaimed top spot in the Driver’s Championship, round eight of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to France after a 10-year hiatus from the sport at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France for the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2018. This is the first time that the event returns to the Circuit Paul Ricard after it last hosted the race in 1990. It is the 87^th running of the French Grand Prix and the 58^th time that the event has been part of the FIA Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950.

 

 

A look at the Circuit Paul Ricard

 

 

The Circuit Paul Ricard is a permanent motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, near Marseille in France.

 

The circuit opened on April 1970 with its innovative facilities making the French track one of the most safest racing circuits in the world at the time of it’s opening with the first event being a 2-litre sports car race.

 

The circuit had three track layout variations, a large industrial park and an airstrip. The combination of modern facilities, mild winter weather and an airstrip made it a favourite among the racing teams in all different categories for testing during the off-season.

 

The circuit’s character is very hard on engines as they run on full revs for long spells. Engine failures were common at Paul Ricard, such as Ayrton Senna’s huge crash during the 1985 event after his Renault engine blew in his 97t Lotus, as the Brazilian went backwards on his own oil at Signes and crashed heavily, luckily escaped with minor bruising. Nigel Mansell also crashed at the same spot during practice, suffering a concussion which kept him out of the race. The Briton’s crash came from a left rear tyre puncture exploding after flying over 320kph, which detached his Honda-powered FW10’s rear wing.

 

The Honda-powered FW10 Williams holds the fastest lap on the original circuit with 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg setting a 1:39.914 during the 1985 French Grand Prix. The quickest top speed at the circuit came from Swiss driver Marc Surer flying down the famous Mistral Straight with his 1000bhp Brabham-BMW BT54 hitting 338kph.

 

The Circuit Paul Ricard developed some of the best drivers during the 1970’s and 80’s with four-time World Champion Alain Prost winning the French Grand Prix at the circuit four times (1983, 1988, 1989 and 1990).

 

The circuit was also used for testing, especially for Formula One. In 1986, Brabham’s Elio De Angelis was killed during a testing accident at the fast first corner after his BT55’s rear wing broke off. Although the circuit itself was not the cause of the crash, they modified it to make it safer.

 

The French Grand Prix will be run on the modified longer circuit formerly used, including a chicane halfway down the long 1.8-kilometre Mistral Straight.

 

Built on a plateau, one of the tests the drivers and teams face this weekend is the Mistral wind. This longer configuration provides a range of challenges across the three sectors.

 

The circuit features two long high-speed straights, some heavy braking zones but also technical slow speed corners, while the famous Signes corner at the end of the Mistral Straight will be one of the fastest corners on the F1 calendar. This could give the teams the possibility of exploring different directions on car setup, with the Friday practice sessions set to be very busy as they test a wide range of downforce levels.

 

Paul Ricard has hosted the French Grand Prix on 14 occasions from 1971-1990 with the Long Circuit (without the Mistral Chicane) being used from 1971-1985 and the shorter Club Circuit from 1986-1990.

 

The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 5.842km (3.630 mi) in length with 15 corners.

 

The race distance is 309.626km (192.393 mi) with 53 laps in total.

 

Michael Schumacher holds the record for most victories at the French Grand Prix with eight.

 

Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful constructor at the French Grand Prix with seventeen victories to their name.

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2008: Felipe Massa, Scuderia Ferrari (Magny Cours). 2007: Kimi Raikkonen, Scuderia Ferrari (Magny Cours). 2006: Michael Schumacher, Scuderia Ferrari (Magny Cours). 2005: Fernando Alonso, Mild Seven Renault F1 Team (Magny Cours). 2004: Michael Schumacher, Scuderia Ferrari (Magny Cours).

 

Tyres

 

 

Sole tyre-supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to Le Castellet, the purple-marked Ultrasofts, the red-branded Supersofts and the yellow marked Soft compounds along with the green-branded Intermediates and blue side-walled Full Wets in case of rain.

 

Red Bull have opted for a more conservative approach than its rival competitors at the returning French Grand Prix.

 

The Milton Keynes-based squad have been easier on softer rubber compared to Ferrari and Mercedes but has selected the fewest sets of ultras than any other team.

 

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen will have seven sets of the ultrasofts each along with three sets of supersofts and softs.

 

Both Ferrari and Mercedes have split their drivers tyre allocations for the weekend.

 

New championship leader Sebastian Vettel has gone with nine sets of ultrasofts, three sets of supersofts and one sets of softs, the same as Lewis Hamilton.

 

Their respective team-mates Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas also have nine sets of ultras but two sets of supersofts and soft compounds available.

 

Williams Martini Racing were the most aggressive with their tyre choices, selecting 10 sets of ultras each for both Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll, and Stroll having two sets of supersofts and one set of soft rubber while Sirotkin has one set of supers and two sets of softs.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen, Renault’s Carlos Sainz, Sauber’s Charles Leclerc and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly will all have one set of the yellow side-walled soft tyres.

 

Their team-mates have all opted for an extra set of softs instead of the supersofts.

 

McLaren is the only team to have split it’s ultrasoft tyre selection for both their drivers.

 

Fernando Alonso will have eight sets of the faster ultrasoft compounds while team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne will have nine sets of ultras but the Spaniard an extra set of softs compared to the Belgian.

 

DRS Zones

 

There will be two DRS Zones at the Circuit Paul Ricard, the first detection point is 75 metres before turn seven with the activation zone 170 metres after turn seven. The second DRS detection point is at turn 14 with the activation zone 115 metres after turn 15.

 

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI: Canadian GP Rewind – Vettel reigns supreme in Montreal

 

 

Sebastian Vettel cruised to a comfortable 50^th career victory at the Canadian Grand Prix and reclaimed top spot in the Driver’s Championship by a single point over Lewis Hamilton who had a difficult day.

 

Vettel lead the 70-lap race from start to finish building a solid gap from Valtteri Bottas and controlled the proceedings from there.

 

A dramatic part of Vettel’s race was the chequered flag being waved more than a lap earlier with the German well aware of the error to finish the full race distance at the end of the 70th and final lap, the race result was then based on the end of lap 68.

 

“Perfect is a good way to describe,” explained Vettel after breaking Ferrari’s winless drought at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which was last won by Michael Schumacher 14 years ago in 2004. “I said yesterday how much this place means for Ferrari. To have a race like we had today was unbelievable. After a long stretch that Ferrari didn’t win here, I looked around and the people were happy.”

 

“There’s still a long way to go so I’m not too bothered. It’s a good side-effect.” Vettel concluded as well as summing up a little tribute to the legendary Canadian Gilles Villeneuve who last won at the Ile Notre Dame circuit for the Scuderia 40 years ago in 1978.

 

Bottas’ challenge from behind came at the beginning of the race when a lightning-starting Red Bull RB14 racer of Max Verstappen pulled alongside the Finn into turn one, but Bottas held the line into the second corner and forced the Dutchman to back off.

 

After that moment, the Milton Keynes-based squad praised Verstappen for avoiding getting caught up in an incident with the Mercedes, but the Dutchman was unable to attempt another attack.

 

Bottas had a scary moment with 15 laps remaining when he ran wide at turn one overlapping Carlos Sainz’ Renault into turn one before taking an excursion onto the grass at turn two, dropping briefly behind the RS18.

 

The other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo came home in fourth place and ahead of fifth-placed Lewis Hamilton who encountered difficulties earlier to jump the Silver Arrow in the pitstop window.

 

Whilst the Red Bull duo pitted earlier due to starting on the faster pink-walled hypersoft tyres compared to their leading rivals who began on ultras, Hamilton stopped at the same time despite running the purple-branded rubber that could have been ran much longer.

 

But the Briton was forced to stop early due to an engine problem, which the Mercedes team attempted to fix after Hamilton reported power drop outs in the early stages of the race.

 

After dropping behind Ricciardo during the pitstops, Hamilton was under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari but also got ahead of him when the Finn stopped later on in the Grand Prix, but Hamilton held onto fifth place as Raikkonen returned from the pits just behind him at turn two.

 

Despite having fresh rubber 16 laps younger than Hamilton’s, Raikkonen was unable to charge at Hamilton and slowly fell back from the Mercedes.

 

The Brackley-based squad reported to Hamilton that he could turn the engine down but declined as the Briton put Ricciardo’s Red Bull under pressure and got within a second of the Australian.

 

Hamilton got close to the RB14 at the hairpin with four laps remaining but was unable to pass the Red Bull down the long straight after sliding in the middle of the corner and lost more time on the next lap behind Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams.

 

Behind the leaders, Renault were best of the rest with Nico Hulkenberg and Sainz finishing seventh and eighth respectively.

 

Force India’s Esteban Ocon who was ahead of both RS18 racers earlier on in the race, was the first car to stop and lost out to the Renaults after holding them up before suffering a slow pitstop, which dropped him to ninth.

 

Ocon charged back at the Renaults in the final stages of the race, with the Enstone-based French squad prompting Hulkenberg over the radio to push harder to prevent Sainz from being put under attack.

 

The last point on offer went to Sauber’s Charles Leclerc who grabbed 10^th when Fernando Alonso was forced to retire his MCL33 with an exhaust issue.

 

The Monegasque youngster kept Alonso behind early in the race before losing out to the Spaniard in the pitstops, only to reclaim the position when Alonso pitted again to retire.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and in-front of the Haas pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen who came home in 12^th and 13^th respectively.

 

The other Force India of Sergio Perez ended the race 14^th and ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Sirotkin’s Williams who were all two laps down.

 

The other two drivers who did not finish were Kiwi Brendon Hartley and hometown hero Lance Stroll, who both suffered a crazy crash into turn five on the opening lap.

 

Stroll went out of shape oversteering through the fast-right-hand kink into Hartley who was squeezed into the wall on the left-hand side between the barrier and launched the Toro Rosso momentarily into the air.

 

After being examined at the nearby medical centre, Hartley was taken to hospital for more checks but was cleared.

 

The Situation

 

 

Sebastian Vettel heads to Le Castellet sitting on top of the Driver’s Championship with 121 points and just one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton who is second on 120 points and Valtteri Bottas is a further 35 points behind the German in third place on 86 points.

 

Mercedes comes to France on top of the Constructors Championship with 206 points, and 17 clear of nearest rival Ferrari who are second on 189 points and Red Bull Racing are a further 72 points behind the Silver Arrows in third place on 134 points.

 

The current Formula 1 grid now features three drivers that have won the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso (who won the race alongside former F1 drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi last weekend for Toyota), Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley (won last year’s event with Porsche alongside Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard), and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (won in 2015 for Porsche alongside Nick Tandy and Bamber).

 

2018 Formula 1 World Drivers Championship Standings

1. Sebastian Vettel – 121 Points.
2. Lewis Hamilton – 120 Points.
3. Valtteri Bottas – 86 Points.
4. Daniel Ricciardo – 84 Points.
5. Kimi Raikkonen – 68 Points.
6. Max Verstappen – 50 Points.
7. Fernando Alonso – 32 Points.
8. Nico Hulkenberg – 32 Points.
9. Carlos Sainz – 24 Points.
10. Kevin Magnussen – 19 Points.

 

2018 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 206 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 189 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing – 134 Points.
4. Renault Sport F1 Team – 56 Points.
5. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 40 Points.
6. Sahara Force India F1 Team – 28 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso – 19 Points.
8. Haas F1 Team – 19 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team – 12 Points.
10. Williams Martini Racing – 4 Points.

The Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2018 weekend begins Friday June 22 with Free Practice One and Two, then Free Practice Three and Qualifying Saturday June 23 and the 53 lap French Grand Prix Sunday June 24.