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Post by René on Jun 16, 2021 11:47:07 GMT
France, the country where it all began with the Paris-Rouen rally in 1894 ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prix_motor_racing). Always good to be back in France for a race but unfortunately the venue is not what it used to be. Le Castellet-Paul Ricard in the south of France was ruined years ago by huge runoffs painted in hallucinatory patterns. I re-read some of the French Grand Prix posts of 2018 and 2019 and we were not very positive then. Not about the track and not about the races.  The track has not changed since then but at least we can hope the race itself will be better. Mercedes is certainly not as dominant as they were back then so we may expect a closer battle with Red Bull and who knows, maybe Ferrari and/or McLaren have something to say too. And expect Alpine to give it their all at their home race, vive la France! _
The other day I was going through some old magazines and found a little souvenir of my visit to this place in 1988. Just a small hand-out with the starting grid and a circuit map but still nice. Brings back memories.  And look at that gird, 26 cars! And names like Oscar Larrauri or Luis Perez-Sala, remember them?
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Post by charleselan on Jun 16, 2021 13:16:38 GMT
Always like little bits of memorabilia like this René, wonderful to revisit and think back about those times.
Ricard was never hailed as great track even when it was introduced, along with places like Nivelles; Zolder and Jarama it was not rated by journalists of the day. Little wonder when you compare them to the great road circuits they were often replacing.
Originally Ricard had that long Mistral Straight followed by the challenging Signes Corner, the latter probably out of step with the rest of the track which was pretty ordinary. Also set on the arid plain which had nothing of the majesty of Clermont or Rouen, even Reims had an impressive quality.
The garish painted run offs are just plain horrible and do nothing for the place in my opinion and René's opening picture is very apt.
Have a feeling that Mercedes Benz power might prevail here, but we will then hear how very hard it all was and that the Fizzy specials were better.
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Post by Carl on Jun 16, 2021 18:43:45 GMT
The other day I was going through some old magazines and found a little souvenir of my visit to this place in 1988. Just a small hand-out with the starting grid and a circuit map but still nice. Brings back memories. And look at that gird, 26 cars! And names like Oscar Larrauri or Luis Perez-Sala, remember them?
Prost and Senna at the front in beautifully proportioned cars! Those were the days!
The message at the bottom translates mysteriously as: "Final starting grid. Too bad, you should still go to the Marlboro stands indicated on the back." What does this really mean?
The message above it reads "Open quickly! See if you have the marlboro logo."
It's amazing how blatant Marlboro was in its attempts to indoctrinate young spectators to seek the Marlboro logo!
René,
What do you remember most about the race? McLaren dominated then much as Mercedes does today, but a Ferrari on the podium must have been nice and a Ferrari 1-2 this year would be even nicer! 
Cheers, Carl
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Post by robmarsh on Jun 17, 2021 6:54:33 GMT
Normal heart bet for It is I, Leclerc. I think Mercedes will prevail against the insurmountable odds of them having the best car and being only two against 20. I think both the Red Bull and the Ferrari will be too draggy down the long back straight, chicane notwithstanding. Maybe it will be very hot and the Mercs will be tyre limited but I doubt it.
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Post by René on Jun 17, 2021 10:49:06 GMT
Always like little bits of memorabilia like this René, wonderful to revisit and think back about those times. Ricard was never hailed as great track even when it was introduced, along with places like Nivelles; Zolder and Jarama it was not rated by journalists of the day. Little wonder when you compare them to the great road circuits they were often replacing. Originally Ricard had that long Mistral Straight followed by the challenging Signes Corner, the latter probably out of step with the rest of the track which was pretty ordinary. Also set on the arid plain which had nothing of the majesty of Clermont or Rouen, even Reims had an impressive quality. The garish painted run offs are just plain horrible and do nothing for the place in my opinion and René's opening picture is very apt. Have a feeling that Mercedes Benz power might prevail here, but we will then hear how very hard it all was and that the Fizzy specials were better.
Yes I know Paul Ricard was never 'a great' track in the old tradition but it had a certain mediterranean atmosphere that was still quite nice. The new look with the painted run-offs just look terrible as we all agree on. Maybe fine for a test track but not for televised races.
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Post by René on Jun 17, 2021 11:17:13 GMT
The other day I was going through some old magazines and found a little souvenir of my visit to this place in 1988. Just a small hand-out with the starting grid and a circuit map but still nice. Brings back memories. And look at that gird, 26 cars! And names like Oscar Larrauri or Luis Perez-Sala, remember them?
Prost and Senna at the front in beautifully proportioned cars! Those were the days! The message at the bottom translates mysteriously as: "Final starting grid. Too bad, you should still go to the Marlboro stands indicated on the back." What does this really mean?
The message above it reads "Open quickly! See if you have the marlboro logo."
It's amazing how blatant Marlboro was in its attempts to indoctrinate young spectators to seek the Marlboro logo! René,
What do you remember most about the race? McLaren dominated then much as Mercedes does today, but a Ferrari on the podium must have been nice and a Ferrari 1-2 this year would be even nicer! Cheers, Carl
Carl, when you unfold the flyer you first read "Open quickly! See if you have the marlboro logo." Some flyers had an extra Marlboro sticker inside. If you had this sticker you won a Marlboro cap and shirt if I remember correctly. We did walk by the Marlboro stands in the morning where they sold fags of course. The Marlboro girls were nice though.  But we smoked Gitanes. Much cooler.
Eventually we found a spot along the Mistral straight where we watched the race. First I remember it was scorching hot that day! And yes, McLaren was very dominant but not seven years in a row! I do remember the McLarens were visibly faster than the rest though. And after some laps it was two McLarens, then a gap and then two Ferraris and then another gap and then the rest of the field. But there was still excitement with Prost chasing Senna hard and eventually passing him to great joy of the French fans of course. And I was happy with Michele in third. I didn't have a good camera then but I did make some pictures but they were not very good. The cars were also going very fast where we were. Let's see if I can find some of the pictures...
It was years later that I saw the complete race on video tape. No big screens back then around the circuit.
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Post by charleselan on Jun 17, 2021 16:05:32 GMT
Funny how the rear wings on the McLaren MP4/4 looks so big and high. I know the car was very low as it followed some of Murray's principles with the unsuccessful Brabham BT55, but even so.
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Post by René on Jun 17, 2021 17:10:09 GMT
Completely against my expectations I found the pictures of my Paul Ricard visit quite easily. They're all stored in a large box but I remembered the sleeve they were in.
They are actually not as bad as I remembered and give a good impression of our spot on the Mistral straight. You can see it was a hot day. A few impressions.
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Post by chrisb on Jun 18, 2021 5:50:42 GMT
Brilliant pictures Rene thank you
Just looking at the poster and some of the drivers who were talented and yet never really got the chance to prove it on the GP circuits but did so elsewhere
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Post by René on Jun 18, 2021 15:52:34 GMT
Brilliant pictures Rene thank you Just looking at the poster and some of the drivers who were talented and yet never really got the chance to prove it on the GP circuits but did so elsewhere Thanks Chris. Brings you back to those days, not? |
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Post by René on Jun 18, 2021 16:00:50 GMT
Not a lot of excitement so far in France (did anyone expect that?  ). We're 'back to normal' again with Red Bull and Mercedes battling for the top spots. Nice to see Alpine going strong with Alonso as best of the rest in 4th and Ocon in 6th split by Leclerc in 5th. Maybe some teams can make a step for tomorrow but I don't expect any big surprises... |
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Post by charleselan on Jun 18, 2021 20:45:35 GMT
Looks like Alpine have got some extra horses this weekend but good job from Teflonso but will they sustain that into tomorrow? I am going for Max to win, just hope that the Fizzy boys can keep the tyre pressures up  . Bottas has his usual Friday speed which will disappear on Saturday I suspect, mind you he must feel a little burned knowing George is about to take his seat next year. Other than that a pretty dismal place to be honest, only brightened by the sunshine and the garish paint work that would be a credit to Bridget Riley. |
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Post by René on Jun 19, 2021 18:10:33 GMT
Strong qualy from Max beating Mercedes like this. It could be a close battle between the Bulls and the Mercs.
Charles was not happy with his car but Carlos saved the day for Ferrari and looked stronger all weekend. Good qualy also from Pierre Gasly in his home race. McLaren and Alpine both falling back a little.
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Post by robmarsh on Jun 21, 2021 8:09:00 GMT
I enjoyed that race and nice to see Red Bull get one over Merc strategically this time. I thought LH came across very well in the post race interviews and Valteri is not hiding his displeasure at the Merc strategy. Perez is doing the job he was employed for and Merc will not find it easy going forward, especially if they have stopped development on their 2021 car as mentioned by Tonto a while back. Red Bull and Merc are providing fascinating viewing and as they are not my two favourite teams, I can just sit back and really enjoy the racing and strategy calls.
Ferrari were very disappointing in the race though I do think they will be more competitive in Austria. Another superb performance from Lando and it looks like the toothsome aussie is getting to grips with his car at last. Excellent race drives by Seb and Lance and George Russell had another excellent outing. Yuki Tsunoda must have had a brilliant opening few laps, he just needs to calm down a bit in quali and realise that less is sometimes more.
The F3 support races were good to watch but how the field is littered with offspring of former racers. It is almost becoming like the management trainee program of large corporations where senior staffs' children have the inside track.
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Post by chrisb on Jun 21, 2021 9:31:37 GMT
it really does bring back some wonderful memories thanks Rene,
I tried to watch the highlights on yutub with the sound of I hasten to add and failed
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But we smoked Gitanes. Much cooler. 
). We're 'back to normal' again with Red Bull and Mercedes battling for the top spots. Nice to see Alpine going strong with Alonso as best of the rest in 4th and Ocon in 6th split by Leclerc in 5th. Maybe some teams can make a step for tomorrow but I don't expect any big surprises... 
. Bottas has his usual Friday speed which will disappear on Saturday I suspect, mind you he must feel a little burned knowing George is about to take his seat next year.