#Formula1 @Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2019 Preview – #F1 #FrenchGP

After Sebastian Vettel was handed a controversial five-second penalty, which gifted Lewis Hamilton the victory in Canada to keep the Silver Arrow’s 100%-win record in 2019 intact, round eight of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to France at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France for the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2019. This is the second time that the event returns to the Circuit Paul Ricard after it last hosted the race in 1990. It is the 88^th running of the French Grand Prix and the 59^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 racetrack 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.

 

Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest lap record at the Circuit Paul Ricard with a 1:34.225 set at last year’s event in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W09 EQ Power+.

 

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.

 

Onboard Lap of the Circuit Paul Ricard

 

 

Here is a last year’s pole position lap of the Circuit Paul Ricard with Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton. The reigning champion and defending French Grand Prix posted a 1:30.029 of the Le Castellet track. You can watch it here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D_uhuf3UkI

 

The Last Five Winners

 

 

2018: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 (Circuit Paul Ricard). 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).

 

Tyres

 

 

Sole tyre-supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to Le Castellet, the white side-walled C2 Hard rubber, the yellow-marked C3 Medium compounds and the red side-coloured C4 Soft tyres along with the green-branded Intermediates and blue side-marked Full Wets in case of rain.

 

Mercedes and Ferrari have all gone with the same choices of tyres for their respective drivers, which includes nine sets of the Pirelli red-branded C4 soft compounds.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly also opted for the same allocations at the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers while team-mate Max Verstappen has eight sets of the softer rubber and four sets of the Pirelli mediums available.

 

Alfa Romeo, Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso went aggressive with their tyre choices, selecting 10 sets of the soft tyres for each of their drivers.

 

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 penalty gifts Hamilton controversial Canadian GP victory

 

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was denied of his first victory of the season after a five-second time penalty gifted Lewis Hamilton the Canadian GP win.

 

Vettel lead most of the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but was relegated to second by the penalty given after running wide at the first chicane due to a snap of oversteer and almost colliding with Hamilton as he rejoined the track.

 

This gave Hamilton his fifth victory of the season and kept Mercedes 100% record after seven Grands Prix.

 

Vettel had enough advantage to hold second as his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three.

 

The Scuderia were in contention to end its winless start to their 2019 campaign after Vettel held a comfortable gap to Hamilton throughout the initial stint, then came under intense pressure from the Briton in the second half.

 

Hamilton fell to almost five seconds behind Vettel by extending his first stint by a couple of laps, as the Briton had stronger pace on the C3 white-marked harder compounds and rapidly caught the Ferrari.

 

In nine laps he evaporated Vettel’s lead and got within DRS range, then momentarily fell out of it again after locking up at the hairpin.

 

On lap 48, Hamilton was closer to Vettel once again as the battle re-intensified and the latter tripped into the grass at the first chicane after losing the rear of his SF90 racer on corner entry.

 

Vettel travelled over the grass and emerged just in-front of Hamilton as the Briton attempted to squeeze into the gap between the Ferrari and the wall on corner exit.

 

Hamilton backed off to avoid a collision and Vettel held the lead but was punished after a long investigation from the stewards.

 

Vettel was unable to break into a five-second plus gap from Hamilton to cancel out the penalty and complained over the radio that the officials were “stealing the race” from the Scuderia.

 

Hamilton finished 1.4 seconds behind Vettel at the finish line, which became a 3.658 second winning margin and extended his Driver’s Championship lead to 29 points – after a pre-race scare when his team quickly replaced his hydraulics system.

 

Leclerc ended up one second behind his team-mate in the classification, with Ferrari’s first double podium of the season a minimal consolation for the Maranello-based outfit.

 

The other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas settled in a distant fourth as the Finn finished off the podium for the first time this campaign.

 

Bottas qualified in sixth place on the grid and fell behind Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg on the opening lap, then struggled to push forward on his medium rubber with his rivals around him on softs.

 

The Finn eventually made his way up to fourth and also scored the fastest lap bonus point after building up enough gap for a free pit-stop.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen recovered from ninth to complete the top five after running a long first stint on the harder compounds before passing the two Renault R.S.19 racers of Daniel Ricciardo and Hulkenberg by putting on the medium tyres at the end.

 

Ricciardo withstood a late charge from his Renault team-mate Hulkenberg to finish sixth, with Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly taking eighth despite starting in fifth – after losing places in traffic from his early pit-stop.

 

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll fought hard to finish ninth to score two points at his home Grand Prix, despite his RP19 racer being fit with an older powertrain after a fiery failure in practice.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top ten and finished ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz who was 11^th and the other Racing Point of Sergio Perez who took 12^th.

 

The two Alfa Romeo Racing C38’s of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen ended up 13^th and 15^th respectively with Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean sandwiched in-between in 14^th.

 

Both ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica wound up in 16^th and 18^th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen splitting the duo in 17^th.

 

Despite a hot day in Montreal, the drivers and teams dealt with major braking and temperature problems, but there was only two retirements.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the first to end his day after suffering a bizarre failure after eight laps that left his MCL34 on three wheels, while Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon – who encountered front wing damage at the start of the race and retired eleven laps later from the finish.

 

The Situation

 

 

It’s been a great season so far for Lewis Hamilton, but his latest victory at the Canadian Grand Prix came with some drama.

 

The Briton crossed the line behind Sebastian Vettel but was awarded the win after a five-second time penalty was given to the latter and his emotions said it all post-race.

 

Despite the controversial penalty, it was a solid weekend for Vettel and Ferrari, which gives some hope for the Scuderia.

 

Vettel’s team-mate Charles Leclerc came home third and made it the first time that both Ferrari drivers were on the podium this season.

 

Hamilton’s third victory in a row was the 78^th of his career – and was also Mercedes’ ninth consecutive win. This means the Silver Arrows are now just two victories short of reaching the all-time record for back-to-back wins.

 

It was Valtteri Bottas’ first race without finishing on the podium in Montreal, but the Finn scored the fastest lap bonus point.

 

Hamilton returns to France at the top of the Driver’s Championship with 162 points and a 29-point lead over Mercedes team-mate Bottas who is second on 133 points while Vettel is third and a further 62 points behind the Briton on 100 points.

 

Can Mercedes continue their run of dominance at Circuit Paul Ricard or will Ferrari and Red Bull spoil the Silver Arrows party?

 

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 162 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 133 Points.
3. Sebastian Vettel – 100 Points.
4. Max Verstappen – 88 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 72 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 36 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 18 Points.
8. Daniel Ricciardo – 16 Points.
9. Kevin Magnussen – 14 Points.
10. Sergio Perez – 13 Points.

 

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 295 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 172 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 124 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 30 Points.
5. Renault F1 Team – 28 Points.
6. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 19 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 17 Points.
8. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 16 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Racing – 13 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

 

The Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France 2019 weekend begins Friday June 21 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday June 22 and the 53 lap Race Sunday June 23.