Magny-Cours says that it has been overlooked in the recent negotiations about the French Grand Prix. This is true but only, according to French Prime Minister François Fillon, because the Formula One group does not want to go back to the Nievre circuit, believing it is too far out in the wilds to be right for an F1 event. The Fédération Française du Sport Automobile ran the event for several years at Magny-Cours before throwing in the towel when it became impossible to fund it any longer. Now Serge Saulnier, the former race team owner who is the managing director of the company that runs the circuit, says that the facility should be considered for a race.
“We are candidates for the French GP,” he told L’Equipe. “I am surprised that the ministerial group in charge of this project considers Paul Ricard to be the only option. In fact we have never been taken into consideration, never been listened to or met with.”
Saulnier says that the circuit has F1 homologation for the next three years, granted by the FIA in February.
Since early 2010 the circuit has been run by a private Société Anonyme d’Economie Mixte Sportive, which is co-owned by the local Conseil Général de la Nièvre and by private investors. It is part-owned by former F1 team owner Guy Ligier, who is believed to own 25 percent of the firm. Now 82, Ligier was an F1 driver in the 1960s and then became a team owner in the 1970s an 1980s before selling the business to Cyril de Rouvre in 1992. The team then went on to be owned by Flavio Briatore before ebing sold in its entirety to Alain Prost in 1997. Prost Grand Prix shut down in 2002.
Ligier made his first fortune in civil engineering, building many of France’s autoroutes. He also runs a road car business building microcars and since leaving F1 has made another fortune from natural fertiliser. He also owns the Automobiles Martini competition car business, which he acquired in 2005. This continues to build sports cars with the latest product being the JS53 which is used in the Speed Euroseries.
The circuit is run by racers. In addition to Saulnier, the board of directors includes former F1 engineer Gilles Alégoët.
The Nievre departement is famously socialist. President François Mitterrand was elected a deputy for the departement as long ago as 1946 and later represented the region as a senator, the president of the Conseil Général from 1964-1981 and the mayor of Château-Chinon from 1959-1981. Pierre Beregovoy, who served as Mitterand’s Prime Minister, was mayor of Nevers from 1983 onwards and deputy of the département three years later. Marcel Charmant, who was president of the Conseil Général after Mitterand retired only last year after 10 years in office. Together Mitterand and Beregovoy organised funding for the sleepy Magny-Cours race track to be converted into an F1 standard facility in the early 1990s, which resulted in the French GP being switched from Paul Ricard to the Nievre, a move that was considered scandalous at the time. It was never a popular F1 venue because of the lack of access and poor accommodation, but the French GP was held there between 1991 and 2008. Mitterand left office in 1995 and since then France has been run by right wing Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicholas Sarkozy. They have done little to aid Magny-Cours, indeed the A77 motorway that was due to run to the gates of the circuit, planned back in 1991, was not completed until last year. Although the journey time has now been reduced it is still a trip of around three hours from Paris.
Patrice Joly, the new president of the Conseil Général de la Nièvre, has been talking about building a mobility and transport theme park at the circuit, with the goal being to attract between 350,000 and 400,000 visitors each year. This would cost the region around $60 million as most of the required infrastructure is already in place at the circuit and the authorities own the landed needed. Joly believes that the park would generate more hotel rooms and that these would help to make Magny-Cours a more attractive F1 venue. There are also plans for a new high speed train route from Paris to Lyon, which could include a major station close to the circuit. This would reduce journey times from Paris to just one hour. In recent days the Commission Nationale du Debat Public has revealed that the preferred route by a long way is one that will include the stop near Nevers. The final decision will be taken in June. If the line is built, however, it will not be operational before 2025.
A socialist president would probably help any project for a race in Magny-Cours once again, but that may take some time to develop. It is worth noting also that the rising star of the French socialist party is Arnaud Montebourg, who was born in the Nievre and represents the neighbouring Saone et Loire departement.
Please, please no. Magny Cours is a diabolically awful track that produces tedious races.
I Would have though that a modified version of the bugatti circuit at lemans would be the second choice after paul ricard and that magny cours would be a distant 4th after the long touted eurodisney option.
throw your hat in, its got to be worth a go. If the access road is better than why not, also if they can provide better accommodation its got to be a winner.
Happy Easter Joe, I fondly remember the French GP’s @ Magny-Cours and have often wondered why they would want to race anywhere else up until I learned through you of course that Ricard is owned by B.E. If a new political regime where to be elected in France do you think they would spite Bernie just as a way to try and show who is “really” in charrge in France?
Magny-Cours? No thanks. Nice try, Serge, but you’re way out in the boonies. Personally, I’d like to go to Ricard again. Bernie can get the race sponsored by one of those anti-migraine tablet makers, so when we all get headaches because of the gaudy striping on the track surface we’ll have a ready source of pain relief to hand.
Maybe we could revive Clermont-Ferrand or Rouen, or even Rheims…
Happy Easter to all.
I was thinking the same thing some time back but failed in searches to find Rheims. I now feel better that even DT spelt “Reims” that way too.
It’s that the stripes give one headaches; it’s also that they make every corner look identical.
Interesting circuit, but those stripes… those stripes…
Wasn’t quite sure what this comment meant. Then I looked at Google maps. http://g.co/maps/9ac2f Oh boy.
Interestingly, I believe the stripes are supposedly quite abrasive. Their job is to deliberately scrub speed off should a car go off line.
It helps to avoid any unnecessary damage should a car go off during testing, but in racing it actually hinders drivers that go off track.
Off topic, but great article in F-1 RACING about Bahrain. Thanks to you and Joe for your great work.
I don’t understand why people are so critical about the Magny-Cours circuit. It has a pretty decent layout for racing i.e. the Adelaide hairpin provides good overtaking opportunities, Nurburgring and Imola are challenging corners and the Lycee to Estoril section of the lap is more or less unique in comparison to other F1 circuits. It is Paul Ricard that is featureless and has dull racing.
Magny Cours always struck me as being designed to prevent passing. Many were the mighty passing moves into the hairpin whose success was prevented by that little kink on the exit. The mickey mouse last turn. The whole first part with one line.
I often wondered what it’d be like – and how much better it could be – if run anti-clockwise.
DT: The accommodation problems were most keenly felt by teams, sponsors and media, I think, because therace consistently got crowds of 70,000 to 80,000, presumably because it was within travelling distance of the Paris area. Ricard got much smaller crowds, among other things because of the rival attractions of the Riviera coast.
And I’m sure you remember accommodation problems there, too, because there was very little in the immediate area. I used a small “love hotel” not too far away a couple of times. Tyrrell one year was in a mega-basic hotel in an industrial zone half way to Marseilles – with no aircon in a heatwave.
Otherwise you were down on the coast, often quite a distance away – Toulon for example – Bandol if you were lucky, and the traffic was quite horrendous. No reason to think that would be any better now, either.
Yes, Magny-Cours could be boring (and the most boring paddock I ever saw), but I suggest it is a better financial bet for the French than Ricard. After all, at least it has grandstands …
I phisically hate Magny Cours, it’s a godawful boring circuit that makes some Tilke-designed circuits look good. I’ve always wondered about why Paul Ricard was not the home of the french GP and, now that I know, I not only hate it even more but also can’t help but wonder if the fact that the race was held there alone played a major role in the cancellation of the event altogether.
As a person shamefully ignorant of European politics, someday I ‘d like to hear an easy to understand explanation of the differences between you “socialism” and other governmental leanings.
They should talk to the former lease holders of the Nurburgring before planning a mobility “theme park”. Didn’t work to well for them, did it?
Friend of me went to Magny-Cours from Germany, got stuck in the Traffic jam and missed one third of the race. Add the dull track and area and you might understand that MC is a no-go zone for me. This is a grave for french taxpayers money thanks to people like Ligier. Hope sincerely ist will be Le Castellet.