2021 Formula One French Grand Prix

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Which team will score the most points in France?


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Welcome to the 2021 Formula One French Grand Prix from Paul Ricard.

The French Grand Prix has been held at 16 different venues since the inaugural event took place well over a century ago in 1906. This weekend Formula One returns to France for the 89th edition of the event.

Paul Ricard was of course originally built as a test circuit, rather than for Grand Prix racing, and is renowned for having as many as 167 track configurations. (Of course very few of these are actually suitable for Grand Prix racing.) The track is not one of the most popular on the calendar amongst fans, but a close championship thus far will no doubt make the weekend that little bit more important, and hopefully more exciting.

What will be interesting to see is how the teams fare, with the last two races being held at street circuits, and perhaps less representative of everyone's true pace. It will be a big weekend for title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who both failed to score points in Baku. The former after a tyre failure while the Dutch driver led the race, and caused a red flag. The latter after a mistake into turn one when the race was restarted.

The weather this weekend is forecast to be hot and cloudy, but with a small chance of rain on race day. Mercedes have historically been very strong at Paul Ricard, but strong performances from Red Bull make them contenders this weekend. We also shouldn't rule out a surprise on Saturday, with Charles Leclerc having taken pole at the last two weekends, albeit in unusual circumstances.

The favourites will be the usual faces from this season in Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Sergio Perez will no doubt be looking to keep up the good form he found in Baku, taking his first race victory for Red Bull, and impressively becoming the first driver to win for multiple teams in the hybrid era. Valtteri Bottas will look to make the most of a new chassis this weekend, as he hopes to end the spell of bad luck that has plagued his start to the season. Interestingly chassis number six is the one that Lewis Hamilton drove to victory in Bahrain, Portugal and Spain.

Let us know what you're looking forward to about this weekend, and don't forget to vote in this week's poll!
About author
Charlie Lockwood
23. Motorsport and Sim Racing enthusiast.

Comments

I found the race entertaining. I don't understand how the long straights cant get a good pass thogh. I and many fans and drivers with something could be done about the paint on the track. It looks crazy on TV and i am shore it messes with drivers concentration. It should be suttl'e like large areas of a coulour and less artistic. But that is modern art for you, i just never understood it.:ninja:
 
I am sad for Valeteri he has no where to go in F1 and needs to retire. He can lead a Williams or HASS team but why do it. Be like Kimi Raikkonen doing for the love of the sport. He had to give his chassis from practice to Lewis (Lewis was scared he might out qualify him. Or dare say it out race him) Hes not as strong as he pretends to be. But the team bend over backwards for Lewis and Bottas has to live with it. We all know Valeteri can beat Lewis if he where on another team like in a Red Bull or a Ferrari. But he cant go there so hes boxed out. Valeteri is on his way out so he will make Lewis life difficult if he can. The team can put someone else in the car and dump him but it will give Red Bull the constructors tittle. So Botas is important to the team he just dose not act up like Lewis.:ninja:
 
I live in France, and what I can say about this circuit is that it is ugly, uninteresting, I do not understand why we made it the circuit for F1. There are several other circuits that could be upgraded to meet safety and other requirements as demanded by current Formula 1. It is the uglier of the European circuits.
 
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I live in France, and what I can say about this circuit is that it is ugly, uninteresting, I do not understand why we made it the circuit for F1. There are several other circuits that could be upgraded to meet safety and other requirements as demanded by current Formula 1. It is the uglier of the European circuits.
I agree, from a sim racing perspective I hate this track too.
 
Bad strategy by Mercedes.
They should have reacted to RBR's late call with Max by pitting Bottas for new tires.
He had the gap and it would have given him a fighting chance to keep Max behind for longer.
This was a massive cock-up on the part of the strategist.
They cannot afford to do this too many times this season or it will end quickly.
Honda brought a powerplant capable of usurping Mercedes' this year.
It also seems capable of bringing out the best in the handling package.
That’s not all. When the Mercs can’t overtake the RedBull’s even with DRS, they lack SPEED.
 
Yep, it was a fun race... But, sorry to go off topic a little bit: if this website is called "Racedepartement", there should be a news item about Indycar. Did anybody watch the Indycar race at Road America? Now, THAT'S racing. A proper track, instead of that eyesore that's the modern version of Paul Ricard. No need for track limits: you go off in the grass and you're almost sure to spin out. And if it's paved, you can race on it. Simple as that. Each restart was just crazy, with drivers passing each other on the track, without DRS, the old fashioned way: by outbraking the other car in a corner. I love F1, but for me, right now, the best show on four wheels is Indycar, by a mile. And in two weeks, they're racing at Mid-Ohio, another great old school track.

By the way, Kevin Magnussen did very well in his Indycar debut, he even led the race for a while. Grosjean has adapted extremely well too. Jimmy Johnson, however, should call it a day. He's simply embarrassing to watch.
 
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I found the race entertaining. I don't understand how the long straights cant get a good pass thogh. I and many fans and drivers with something could be done about the paint on the track. It looks crazy on TV and i am shore it messes with drivers concentration. It should be suttl'e like large areas of a coulour and less artistic. But that is modern art for you, i just never understood it.:ninja:
From a drivers point of view you can't really see any of the painted lines when your in the car, it's not really an issue.
The reason Merc couldn't over take red bull is because of the setups, Merc went high downforce and it killed their straight line speed. Max was clearly putting everything into his exits coming onto the straights and it was just enough.

It was a classic racing chess match of two different setups with different strengths and who could make theirs work.

I thought it was a fantastic race, everyone did a great job, all the way down the field everyone was performing well. All the cars seemed pretty competitive.
 
This was the best F1 race since I started to watch it again in 2014.

Still hate that track though.....get rid of the concrete and put a grassline next to the tracks, followed by big gravel fields.
 
This was the best F1 race since I started to watch it again in 2014.

Still hate that track though.....get rid of the concrete and put a grassline next to the tracks, followed by big gravel fields.
Grass won't grow there. It's Var, not Yorkshire. :roflmao:
 
Poor Bottas, taking all the blame for Hamilton's defeat today. I don't get it, he couldn't stand Verstappen, Hamilton didn't stand either. Why do people blame only Bottas if Hamilton also failed to resist and was so easily overtaken?
Bad strategy by Mercedes but....
Smart decision by Lewis and Peter.
He knew with old worn tires he'd be no match for Max.
Letting him pass easily was the right decision in a 'long' game.
Why risk getting embroiled in a fight thereby slowing both of them down and allowing Checo to come into play.
He was no match for Checo's Redbull either at that stage but he had track position.
No sense in losing more points.
 
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That was a really good race! Surprised there isn't more chatter about it here on RD, but maybe there just isn't much to complain about for once!

My hopes for a legitimate championship battle are sky high right now. Yes, Mercedes made a hash of the strategy, but I think that RB is right there in terms of pace. In the early season, I was nervous that it was just Max squeezing every tenth out of an inferior car but, now that Checo is getting his legs under him, I think we're seeing that's a very quick car. Checo is a good driver that I have a lot of respect for but, let's face it, he's not a Max-level talent.

I hope the competitiveness continues, it would be like a breath of fresh air. Unless you are a Hamilton super fan, the last 7 seasons have been a serious test of patience. I know they have been for me. We've gotten a couple glimpses of competition from Ferrari but it seems they were likely cheating with the power unit and now have decided to punt and go all in on the new spec (a decision I support...well, the going all in on the new spec, not the cheating part!)

I am a big IndyCar fan too, it's funny how my "F1 or Indy?" preference sort of ebbs and flows year to year. Through most of the hybrid era, Indy has typically held my attention better. This year? I dunno, the Max/Lewis on track action has been pretty compelling! Indy on the other hand has felt like a roulette wheel! That can be fun too, but I confess it's somewhat lacking in personality. Feels almost too random at times, whereas, in F1, you're tuning in to see which of the two contenders is going to come out on top. Very compelling!
 
Austria today - now THIS is a race track, after the recent garbage ones.

Looking at the practicing - it could be close; regardless of why that is -- it might be a race to watch :cool:
 
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