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!
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!
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