Christian Estrosi: “The 2018 French Grand Prix was a real success!”

The return of Formula 1 to France at the Circuit Paul Ricard was a real success according to Christian Estrosi, President of the organizing GIP. With a total of 160,000 people visiting the Circuit over the 4 days, from Thursday to Sunday, with a peak of 65,000 people on the final day, the expected economic impact could reach 60 million euros for an initial investment by the involved communities amounting to 14 million euros.

But beyond the financial aspect, Christian Estrosi wanted above all to emphasize the popular success of the event, which was watched by more than 400 million viewers worldwide: The French Grand Prix was a real success. We are in year zero, it’s not insignificant, and we are judged in year zero as Spa or Monza are judged in their 50th or 60th year, and we would not have been forgiven for doing less well than them! Which was not the case. We will conduct a debrief, check off all the boxes where we need to see how to go one step higher for next year. We will go further to do even better next year, that is our commitment. There is so little soul in a number of Grand Prix. We had the soul of France and Paul Ricard.

This success even incites the GIP’s desire to engage more sustainably over time in Formula 1: « We have signed a 5-year contract, but we believe we need to establish a presence beyond the 4 years we have left. We will meet with Chase Carey in the coming weeks to discuss this. »

The General Director of the Circuit Paul Ricard, Stéphane Clair, also congratulates himself on the strong choices made in advance to best host Formula 1: Two or three years ago, people thought we were dreaming a little too big, but in the end, the bet has rather paid off. Rather, because in the first year, you can’t do everything 100% right, so we have corrections to make. There were still many questions until Sunday morning about the quality of the asphalt, the interest of the race, the choice of the layout, and I must say that the person who came up with the idea of this chicane is not the worst, considering the number of incredible overtakes today [Sunday], and all the spectators who were there told us: Well done! because it was one of the key points of the race.

The only downside to this organization was the traffic difficulties encountered by the public over the weekend and the parking problems that often frustrated the audience present, particularly on Friday. We will communicate in the coming weeks because we are very concerned about it. However, we had to manage with the existing road network, which is, by the way, far superior to that surrounding Magny-Cours. We will take stock of all these problems and take action. We have the responsibility to start working on this tomorrow morning to do much better next year.

This does not stop the organizers from thinking even bigger for 2019: « The car and motorsport represent sustainable development, technological advancement, innovation, the clean cars of tomorrow… France loves motorsport. I think we will need to increase the capacity next year. » concludes Christian Estrosi.

From our special correspondent in Le Castellet