ATLAS F1 Volume 6, Issue 26 | Email to Friend Printable Version | ||
A Lap of Magny Cours | |||
Fastest race lap: 1:17.070 (N.Mansell, Willians, 1992); Fastest Qualifying Lap: 1:13.864 (N.Mansell, Willians, 1992)
The pits are superb, the circuit is smooth and the run off areas are immense. Even the weather is invariably hot, so why don't the drivers like Magny-Cours?
It all comes down to the shape of the circuit itself. There are some good medium-to-fast corners, but there are also a couple of tight hairpins that have no place on a modern race track. So what's a fast lap like then?
As the cars cross the start/finish line, the drivers check their pit boards before screaming into the flat out left-hander, Grande Courbe. The course then eases right into a long, fast hairpin, usually taken in fourth, known as the Estoril Bend. The drivers then speed down the main straight and pass through the flat out Golf Course kink before slamming on the brakes for the slowest hairpin on the course, Adelaide.
The entry to this corner offers one of the few overtaking manoeuvres, but the actual hairpin can only really be taken in single file. It's flat out down the next straight, however, and the drivers chase each other through the fast Nurburgring bend before attempting to outbrake each other into the next slow hairpin.
The cars then accelerate off again and head towards the fast Imola Bend - a superbly challenging corner that dips down, right, then up and left again. There is no respite for the drivers, though, as they have to slam on the brakes once more to negotiate the long right hander, Chateau d'Eau. The cars pass through another chicane, before negotiating the tight Lycee hairpin and begin another lap.
A Lap of Magny Cours with Giancarlo Fisichella:
"Magny Cours is unusual in that it is probably the only circuit where you cross the start/finish line in first gear accelerating up towards the first left hand corner which is taken at full throttle in fifth gear at around 275 km/h.
"Leaving this corner, I remain in 5th gear reaching over 280 km/h before a very light touch on the brakes into turn 2. This is a very long right hand corner taken in fourth gear at around 190 km/h. It is very important to balance the car here as it will tend to understeer as the corner progresses. It is also a very important corner as it leads on to the long straight down to the hairpin.
"On this straight, I accelerate up to over 300 km/h before braking hard for the first gear hairpin which is taken at just under 60 km/h. From this hairpin, traction is important as you accelerate up to 5th gear at around 285 km/h before entering the first of the fast chicanes taken in 4th gear at over 200 km/h.
"A short acceleration up to 250 km/h leads into the braking area for the left-hand hairpin which is taken in 2nd gear at just under 80 km/h. Again, traction is important out of this corner as it leads into the next fast chicane taken in 4th gear at around 205 km/h.
"Very shortly after leaving this chicane, I'll brake very hard down into second gear for the long right-hand corner taken at around 95 km/h. This is the corner where the cars tend to oversteer a lot on exit and it is necessary to control the wheelspin very carefully.
"A short 4th gear straight where the cars will reach 260 km/h leads into the final relatively difficult chicane taken in second gear at 125 km/h for the first part and then down to 110 km/h for the second. Finally, I enter the last corner, which is a very tight 1st gear corner taken at around 65 km/h, which leads straight on to the start/finish line."
The official French GP web site
The 1999 Atlas F1 French GP Review Issue
The 1998 Atlas F1 French GP Review Issue
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