AS IT stands, the Canadian Grand Prix on June 14th is set for the unexpected honour as the first Formula One race of the season.
With eight of the opening GPs either scrapped or postponed, all eyes look to Montreal to see if they will get the go ahead.
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The French Grand Prix takes place at the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of FranceCredit: Getty Images
This year’s French Grand Prix is scheduled for June 28
However, with the coronavirus situation in North America escalating, if F1 are serious about getting one race underway during the coronavirus crisis, they should forget Canada and focus on France.
The Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France has a number of crucial factors that mean that F1 could get, not only one race done, but there is potential for two or three.
Let me explain.
The track is situated next to Le Castellet airport, a modest but well-equipped airport usually ferrying people in private jets.
However, it does have the option of catering for larger aircraft, making it less of a headache for teams to ensure they can fly in all essential staff to operate their cars.
Naturally, given the social distancing, this would make sense to be a behind-closed-doors race.
No fans, mass media, limited, if any, catering staff. It should only be those required to get the cars going, as other operational staff can work remotely at their team’s factory.
As for the drivers themselves, aside from private jets, it is around 45 minutes in a helicopter from Monaco, where the majority live.
Where will they all stay? For the drivers and team bosses, there are two hotels virtually opposite the track, other than that, the media and hospitality areas will be vacant and could make temporary accommodation.
So, assuming of course they are permitted to travel, that’s the personnel logistics all sorted.
As for the cars themselves? They’d need to be flown from their respective countries to either Marseille or Toulon, the latter being the closest, and then transported by road to the circuit.
And the race itself? Before it returned to the F1 calendar as the home for the French GP, the circuit was a test track.
It was once called the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track and boasts an incredible 167 possible configurations.
Lewis Hamilton won last year’s French Grand Prix
Sure, it might not be ideal but, for argument’s sake, it would be possible to run different versions to create different races.
Do away with three practice sessions. Have one for an hour, one qualifying session and one race.
Do it on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday and there are your three races.
Sure, the drivers won’t like it, neither will the fans and the French GP would raise concerns about lost revenues.
However, these are testing times. F1 is desperate for one race to get the go ahead and, for the meantime at least, this seems a viable option.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
