RaceDepartment Historic Grand Prix Season 7 – Round 5
Welcome to back to Round 5 (and now, I suppose, the second half) of RDHGP S7.
Round 4 at Singapore was always going to be fairly attritional – as street circuits always tend to be – but it wasn’t too bad for us. Also, as I said previously, a quiet time for me post-race is always a good thing, and generally those are the best races. I personally had a great scrap with about 5 or 6 different people at various stages.
My initial exhilaration over that scrap soon abated when I reviewed some of the replay footage, in both Quali & Race sessions. I saw some awful, pre-meditated cuts from people, and some overly aggressive and deliberate “hip & shoulder” passing, basically levering people off the apex. I found it very, very disappointing – but worse than that, I couldn’t honestly convince myself that it was wholly unexpected.
By my own rules, no report = no review, and if the people bumped off by, closed up on or pulled away from due to these tactics haven’t complained, I can’t really change my stance. Before you start asking questions, I’m not going to elaborate on this, or clarify details any further.
Similarly, with regard to the rules – they are there to be applied equally to everyone. The allocation rules apply to everyone, every time – that’s why there is a “2 no-show” rule before removal becomes mandatory, so 1 unaviodable no-show isn’t cause to kick people out.
We go from the almost claustrophobic setting of Singapore in Round 4 to the relatively wide open space of our venue for Round 5.
Round 5 takes us over 6,500 miles North West, and the 1975 layout of the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.
Circuit Notes
Built in 1969 with finance provided by Paul Ricard, head of the family owned drinks company of the same name, Circuit Paul Ricard is situated in Le Castellet, near Marseille in the South of France. It has hosted the French Grand Prix 14 times in total, 9 times on the Full layout. It, like Singapore, is not hilly, but there are some contours to be aware of.
Ricard has something in common with its French cousins from around the same time, Le Mans, Rouen Les Essarts and (to a slightly lesser extent) Dijon-Prenois, in that all the tracks contain very long straights as a high percentage of the overall lap length, which dominate all the car setups to maximise speed, almost to the detriment of the rest of the adjustments.
On Paul Ricard, the 1.8km Mistral Straight is the elephant in the room, and it is a proven car breaker – Senna’s Lotus-Renault engine failing and sending him backwards off the track and into the wall; Mansell’s rear Goodyear exploding under the stress, destroying his rear wing, resulting in a heavy impact and a race preventing concussion. The circuit was shortened after Elio De Angelis was killed in a testing accident at the fast first sweeping turns.
The purchase of the circuit by Bernie Ecclestone’s Excelis turned it into the HTTT (High Tech Test Track), and restored it to it’s full length, but the mighty Mistral was broken up by some Esses, and the following turn (Signes) was shallowed to allow a less dramatic, and there fore safer turn in.
We will be driving the Senna and Mansell brutalising Full Circuit for this event.
A lap of Ricard 75 starts with some hard acceleration from low speed out of the last corner and onto the long S/F straight, and across the line, the demands of the Mistral mean that you won’t be near full speed as you approach T1aL & T1bR – Verriere.
A high speed Esses, Verriere is all about balance and poise. Depending on your car, T1aL will mean a breathe of the throttle in top in the 4 gear cars, or maybe a drop down to 4[SUP]th[/SUP] in the 5 gear equipped cars, as being too greedy through the first part of the Ess will compromise the more important second part and exit in T1bR. Getting this right, on the gas hard and early, all the cars will just get a little power drift on across the second apex before settling on the left hand side of the track.
Still flat on the accelerator after the exit of Verriere, there’s a decent length straight before braking hard & early for T2aR & T2bL – Chicane. Braking early is definitely the preferred course of action, as:- i) T2aR is deceptively tight, exaggerated by the high speeds you’ve been doing to this point, and ii) the outside of T2aR has some very slippery gravel which - won’t slow you down at all – followed by a hard tyre wall – which will slow you down far too quickly and not in the manner you’d hoped for. T2bL is fairly shallow but too eager acceleration can cause issues, as it’s followed by T3R – Saint-Beaume.
Saint-Beaume starts very tightly, and gradually open out, slowly widening the radius so you can begin to attack the exit – it’s just that judging the actual exit point is a bit of a movable feast depending on the car you’re driving, the heat in your tyres and how much wear you’ve put on them to this point. Once you do manage to to get your car settled and get on the gas properly, you are confronted with T4L – L’Ecole.
Get the nose in early, and be as firm as you can safely be with the turn in for L’Ecole, clipping the inside apex nicely, and you’ll be flat on the accelerator as you burst onto what looks like the never ending Mistral Straight.
The Mistral is over a mile long, and averaging 120mph still means >30 sec of straight, so make sure you keep concentration at the end of it, because as you pass under the timing bridges you plunge straight into the braking zone for T5R – Signes.
Signes is not a hugely tight corner, but you will be carrying a lot of speed into the approach from Mistral, and that 30 sec of high speed will have cooled your brakes significantly, so caution is paramount. The gravel on the outside of Signes is not very grippy, so if you lose it on the outside here, you will struggle to avoid a heavy impact.
Exiting Signes, it’s another short blast before the extremely tricky T6R – Beausset. This is the “Anti-Saint-Baume” starting off relatively wide-radiused and gentle, before suddenly shrinking the radius into a very tight corner just as you’d want to be squeezing the throttle for exit.
Out of Beausset, you go under the Timing Bridge and over a very slight crest, one that both disguises and complicates the braking zone for T7L – Bendor.
Bendor is an awkward double apex corner, going in too fast will hurt your exit, but going in too slow and tight will open you up to vulnerability from people taking the opposite lines.
Finally getting on the power after Bendor, there’s a right handed sweep – T8R Village – in the middle of the acceleration zone. This can be negotiated at full throttle, just made slightly more difficult by the stand obscuring the exit. Another short blast takes you in sight of the Pits, main grandstand and S/F line, but before you can get to them, Ricard has one last Ace up it’s sleeve.
T9L – Tour – is a difficult to gauge turn, not a true 90, but not a gentle sweep either. There are several ways to negotiate Tour, but all of them need to be aware of the lurking final turn - T10R – Virage du Pont.
Knowing that this is the last corner of the lap, and that long, high speed section all the way down to Chicane means that T10R is vital for a decent lap time. It’s a tight 90 degree corner, guarded on the inside and outside by bumpy kerbs. These are guaranteed to upset people who go across them under full acceleration, so again, while it’s vital to be good through here, it’s a real risk/reward proposition.
Hard on the Hammer out of Virage du Pont trying to keep the tail in check and the nose pointing in roughly the right direction, you’re ready to cross the S/F line and begin another lap of Circuit Paul Ricard 1975.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
T2aR – Chicane – Be aware of the hazards on the outside that await drivers who don’t respect this turn. It is slippery and car damaging in equal measure, which is not a great combination.
T3R – Saint-Beaume – This is the most likely place for drivers to spin out under acceleration. The lure of a good entry through L’Ecole onto Mistral can make normally prudent drivers chance their arms. If you are following someone closely, be ready to avoid if they look like they might be getting into trouble.
T5R – Signes – High speed entry, cold brakes and slippery run offs on the outside make this an error-magnet. If you go off here, be careful about how you enter the track. People on the track are not under any obligation to let you back on, so don’t assume they will (or even can) swerve around under high speeds to accommodate you.
T10R – Virage du Pont – Like Saint-Beaume, the lure of the high speed section following Virage du Pont can make people be over eager or careless – so beware of over eager power-induced spins. Unlike Saint-Beaume, however, there is a lot of tarmac around Virage du Pont, especially outside the let hand kerbs. This is NOT fair game – 2 wheels must be inside the white lines at all times through this corner.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round4.
4 drivers incurred “No-Show” infractions:
Peter Duivelaar has since resigned from the League, but after the no-show was incurred.
Daniel Pettit also resigned from the League, but before the allocation deadline.
Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.)
Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored. Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
Welcome to back to Round 5 (and now, I suppose, the second half) of RDHGP S7.
Round 4 at Singapore was always going to be fairly attritional – as street circuits always tend to be – but it wasn’t too bad for us. Also, as I said previously, a quiet time for me post-race is always a good thing, and generally those are the best races. I personally had a great scrap with about 5 or 6 different people at various stages.
My initial exhilaration over that scrap soon abated when I reviewed some of the replay footage, in both Quali & Race sessions. I saw some awful, pre-meditated cuts from people, and some overly aggressive and deliberate “hip & shoulder” passing, basically levering people off the apex. I found it very, very disappointing – but worse than that, I couldn’t honestly convince myself that it was wholly unexpected.
By my own rules, no report = no review, and if the people bumped off by, closed up on or pulled away from due to these tactics haven’t complained, I can’t really change my stance. Before you start asking questions, I’m not going to elaborate on this, or clarify details any further.
Similarly, with regard to the rules – they are there to be applied equally to everyone. The allocation rules apply to everyone, every time – that’s why there is a “2 no-show” rule before removal becomes mandatory, so 1 unaviodable no-show isn’t cause to kick people out.
We go from the almost claustrophobic setting of Singapore in Round 4 to the relatively wide open space of our venue for Round 5.
Round 5 takes us over 6,500 miles North West, and the 1975 layout of the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.
Circuit NotesBuilt in 1969 with finance provided by Paul Ricard, head of the family owned drinks company of the same name, Circuit Paul Ricard is situated in Le Castellet, near Marseille in the South of France. It has hosted the French Grand Prix 14 times in total, 9 times on the Full layout. It, like Singapore, is not hilly, but there are some contours to be aware of.
Ricard has something in common with its French cousins from around the same time, Le Mans, Rouen Les Essarts and (to a slightly lesser extent) Dijon-Prenois, in that all the tracks contain very long straights as a high percentage of the overall lap length, which dominate all the car setups to maximise speed, almost to the detriment of the rest of the adjustments.
On Paul Ricard, the 1.8km Mistral Straight is the elephant in the room, and it is a proven car breaker – Senna’s Lotus-Renault engine failing and sending him backwards off the track and into the wall; Mansell’s rear Goodyear exploding under the stress, destroying his rear wing, resulting in a heavy impact and a race preventing concussion. The circuit was shortened after Elio De Angelis was killed in a testing accident at the fast first sweeping turns.
The purchase of the circuit by Bernie Ecclestone’s Excelis turned it into the HTTT (High Tech Test Track), and restored it to it’s full length, but the mighty Mistral was broken up by some Esses, and the following turn (Signes) was shallowed to allow a less dramatic, and there fore safer turn in.
We will be driving the Senna and Mansell brutalising Full Circuit for this event.
A lap of Ricard 75 starts with some hard acceleration from low speed out of the last corner and onto the long S/F straight, and across the line, the demands of the Mistral mean that you won’t be near full speed as you approach T1aL & T1bR – Verriere.
A high speed Esses, Verriere is all about balance and poise. Depending on your car, T1aL will mean a breathe of the throttle in top in the 4 gear cars, or maybe a drop down to 4[SUP]th[/SUP] in the 5 gear equipped cars, as being too greedy through the first part of the Ess will compromise the more important second part and exit in T1bR. Getting this right, on the gas hard and early, all the cars will just get a little power drift on across the second apex before settling on the left hand side of the track.
Still flat on the accelerator after the exit of Verriere, there’s a decent length straight before braking hard & early for T2aR & T2bL – Chicane. Braking early is definitely the preferred course of action, as:- i) T2aR is deceptively tight, exaggerated by the high speeds you’ve been doing to this point, and ii) the outside of T2aR has some very slippery gravel which - won’t slow you down at all – followed by a hard tyre wall – which will slow you down far too quickly and not in the manner you’d hoped for. T2bL is fairly shallow but too eager acceleration can cause issues, as it’s followed by T3R – Saint-Beaume.
Saint-Beaume starts very tightly, and gradually open out, slowly widening the radius so you can begin to attack the exit – it’s just that judging the actual exit point is a bit of a movable feast depending on the car you’re driving, the heat in your tyres and how much wear you’ve put on them to this point. Once you do manage to to get your car settled and get on the gas properly, you are confronted with T4L – L’Ecole.
Get the nose in early, and be as firm as you can safely be with the turn in for L’Ecole, clipping the inside apex nicely, and you’ll be flat on the accelerator as you burst onto what looks like the never ending Mistral Straight.
The Mistral is over a mile long, and averaging 120mph still means >30 sec of straight, so make sure you keep concentration at the end of it, because as you pass under the timing bridges you plunge straight into the braking zone for T5R – Signes.
Signes is not a hugely tight corner, but you will be carrying a lot of speed into the approach from Mistral, and that 30 sec of high speed will have cooled your brakes significantly, so caution is paramount. The gravel on the outside of Signes is not very grippy, so if you lose it on the outside here, you will struggle to avoid a heavy impact.
Exiting Signes, it’s another short blast before the extremely tricky T6R – Beausset. This is the “Anti-Saint-Baume” starting off relatively wide-radiused and gentle, before suddenly shrinking the radius into a very tight corner just as you’d want to be squeezing the throttle for exit.
Out of Beausset, you go under the Timing Bridge and over a very slight crest, one that both disguises and complicates the braking zone for T7L – Bendor.
Bendor is an awkward double apex corner, going in too fast will hurt your exit, but going in too slow and tight will open you up to vulnerability from people taking the opposite lines.
Finally getting on the power after Bendor, there’s a right handed sweep – T8R Village – in the middle of the acceleration zone. This can be negotiated at full throttle, just made slightly more difficult by the stand obscuring the exit. Another short blast takes you in sight of the Pits, main grandstand and S/F line, but before you can get to them, Ricard has one last Ace up it’s sleeve.
T9L – Tour – is a difficult to gauge turn, not a true 90, but not a gentle sweep either. There are several ways to negotiate Tour, but all of them need to be aware of the lurking final turn - T10R – Virage du Pont.
Knowing that this is the last corner of the lap, and that long, high speed section all the way down to Chicane means that T10R is vital for a decent lap time. It’s a tight 90 degree corner, guarded on the inside and outside by bumpy kerbs. These are guaranteed to upset people who go across them under full acceleration, so again, while it’s vital to be good through here, it’s a real risk/reward proposition.
Hard on the Hammer out of Virage du Pont trying to keep the tail in check and the nose pointing in roughly the right direction, you’re ready to cross the S/F line and begin another lap of Circuit Paul Ricard 1975.
The Race Director has some notes for drivers. Please see the track map above for location of Race Direction note:-
All Corners Without Exception – The kerbs are not deemed as track, therefore 2 wheels must be within the white lines, on the tarmac, At All Times. Again, there are NO exceptions to this rule at any point on the circuit. Any exception to this rule is deemed illegal, any advantage gained by this method must be ceded immediately. Report people deliberately and excessively cutting.
Racing Room must be given to all drivers – and this works both ways. Divebombing into and across a corner denies people the chance to make the corner correctly just as much as someone obliviously (or deliberately) cutting the nose off of another driver who has achieved partial overlap fairly.
Regain the track safely - If you leave the track, you must rejoin the track safely. If that means losing another couple of places – so be it.
T2aR – Chicane – Be aware of the hazards on the outside that await drivers who don’t respect this turn. It is slippery and car damaging in equal measure, which is not a great combination.
T3R – Saint-Beaume – This is the most likely place for drivers to spin out under acceleration. The lure of a good entry through L’Ecole onto Mistral can make normally prudent drivers chance their arms. If you are following someone closely, be ready to avoid if they look like they might be getting into trouble.
T5R – Signes – High speed entry, cold brakes and slippery run offs on the outside make this an error-magnet. If you go off here, be careful about how you enter the track. People on the track are not under any obligation to let you back on, so don’t assume they will (or even can) swerve around under high speeds to accommodate you.
T10R – Virage du Pont – Like Saint-Beaume, the lure of the high speed section following Virage du Pont can make people be over eager or careless – so beware of over eager power-induced spins. Unlike Saint-Beaume, however, there is a lot of tarmac around Virage du Pont, especially outside the let hand kerbs. This is NOT fair game – 2 wheels must be inside the white lines at all times through this corner.
All points on the track – General Items
No lights are to be flashed at any stage, under any circumstances, during the race.
No Chat during the Quali or Race except by Race Control for information.
Car damage must be assessed realistically to know if it is possible to make the pits or not.
Incidents, Investigations and Penalties
There were no reported racing incidents arising from Round4.
4 drivers incurred “No-Show” infractions:
- Amir Margalit
- Neil Tasker
- Peter Duivelaar
- Wayne Reed
Peter Duivelaar has since resigned from the League, but after the no-show was incurred.
Daniel Pettit also resigned from the League, but before the allocation deadline.
Please remember, the League staff will only review incidents if they are reported to them.
No report = no review.
Please try and remember the incident reporting guidelines: review, cool off, review again. Only after following the above process, and if you are convinced you still need to report it, should you let the League staff know. Please give as much information as possible during the report (time of incident, drivers involved etc.)
Accident reports made within 24 hours of race completion will be ignored. Any accusations or complaints aired in the Chat during or after a race will mean a penalty levied on the person complaining or making the accusations, even if a subsequent official complaint gets found in their favour. I simply will NOT tolerate any post race finger pointing.
Liveries
You have chosen your car and livery already, and you must only drive your chosen car at any time during an RDHGP event. Every driver has a unique livery in this season of RDHGP.
Scoring System
Points are scored down to P20 (75% distance completion required) so people can fight for some points no matter where they are on the track, and hopefully have a season long battle with people around them in the League.
The Distribution is as follows for 100km events :
P1 - 25 pts
P2 - 22
P3 - 20
P4 - 18
P5 - 16
P6 - 15
P7 - 14
P8 - 13
P9 - 12
P10 - 11
P11 - 10
P12 - 9
P13 - 8
P14 - 7
P15 - 6
P16 - 5
P17 - 4
P18 - 3
P19 - 2
P20 - 1
1 point for fastest race lap
1 point for qualifying on Pole
