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."
Facts and Stats about France
There is no Grand Prix as old as the French. This will be the 86th French Grand Prix, although some of the earlier versions were called the ACF Grand Prix. ACF stood for Automobile Club de France. Indeed, it was that body which organised the very first Grand Prix which was held at Le Mans in 1906, a two day marathon run over 1236 kms (766 miles)! How times have changed. The ACF continued as the organiser of the French Grand Prix until 1967.
That first Grand Prix was won by Renault, but it was 73 years and three days until the French manufacturer won again, at Dijon in 1979 when Jean-Pierre Jabouille recorded the first win for a turbocharged car. It was in that same race that Rene Arnoux, in the second Renault, and Ferrari's Gilles Villeneuve fought their heroic duel for second place. Turbocharging isn't the only innovation to have found success in France: Peugeot introduced twin overhead camshafts and won in 1912; Jimmy Murphy's Duesenberg had hydraulic brakes which helped him to success in 1921; Fiat introduced supercharging in 1923 and set fastest lap before retirement; and Jacky Ickx's Ferrari 312 had a small rear wing which helped it to victory in 1968.
Now how about this: in 1926, the smallest ever field contested a Grand Prix - just three Bugattis after all the other constructors boycotted the race at Miramas. The winning margin of 15 laps was a record too.
Since the World Championship began in 1950, France has organised 49 Grands Prix out of a potential 50; they missed just one in 1955 after the Le Mans tragedy. However, it might be said that they made up for that by hosting the Swiss Grand Prix at Dijon in 1982.
Perhaps the surprising thing is that the French Grand Prix has visited seven different circuits in its history. Only the American Grand Prix has been to more. The French started off at Reims, then went to Rouen for the first time two years later. Clermont-Ferrand hosted its first race in 1965; the race returned to Le Mans in 1967 for a single event; then it went to Le Castellet, or Circuit Paul Ricard as it is also known, in 1971; to Dijon in 1974 and finally to Magny Cours for the first time in 1991.
Ferrari won the French Grand Prix no less than eleven times while Lotus and Williams has won seven times. McLaren, meanwhile, has won just four times, and the last was in 1989. The star in France is really Alain Prost: no less than six wins, including three in succession. In 1989 he led from start to finish; in 1988 he had led home Ayrton Senna in a Marlboro McLaren one-two. Juan-Manuel Fangio, Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher have all won the race four times.
While Alain Prost is obviously one of the French Grand Prix heroes, so too is Fangio although he needed Luigi Fagioli's help to win in 1951. The Italian thus became the oldest ever winner of a Grand Prix, at 53 years and 22 days. Fangio then led home Karl Kling by just 0.1s at Reims on Mercedes' World Championship debut in 1954; they'd started from pole too. Rather more hard-fought, however, was Giancarlo Baghetti's brilliant Grand Prix debut for Ferrari when he won by a similar margin over Dan Gurney at the same circuit in 1961.
Although Ferrari was the last to score a one-two, with Schumacher and Irvine in 1998, Williams had a similar result with Hill and Villeneuve in 1996, Prost and Hill in 1993 and Mansell and Patrese in 1992. McLaren's last one-two was that one in 1988 while Cooper did rather better by occupying the first four places in 1960. Williams occupied the front row from 1992-1994 while it was McLaren in 1988 and 1989, but Ferrari's last all-front row was back in 1961, in the race won by Baghetti, with three cars: Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips and Richie Ginther.
Weekend Milestones: this will be Pedro Diniz's 90th Grand Prix; Michael Schumacher could equal Ayrton Senna's record of 41 wins - the Ferrari driver currently stands on 40. He also has 41 fastest laps - as many as Alain Prost and one more would move him into the all-time lead. Johnny Herbert has just turned 36 years young, while Ralf Schumacher will be 25 on the Friday.
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