For the third race in a row we are traveling to races that were not on the 2020 Formula 1 calendar.
The French Grand Prix was one of the many victims of the coronavirus pandemic. Even if the season starts later, the Circuit Paul Ricard was still no way.
The race is also the first of the season’s first triple headers. After the trip to Le Castellet, the F1 circus goes to Austria for two consecutive races in the Red Bull Ring.
Lewis Hamilton has won both times since being reintroduced to the F1 calendar in 2018.
What happened at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?
Sergio Perez got his first win in a Red Bull Racing Car during an eventful Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc had taken his second pole position in a row but found it difficult to maintain that position with Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Pérez passed him on the first few laps.
The first dramatic moment occurred during a routine pit stop for Hamilton, who ran out of the front. His pit stop was delayed because he had to wait another two seconds Pierre Gasly passed in the pit lap. When both Verstappen and Pérez pitted, they managed to overtake Hamilton, leaving him pitted in fourth place Sebastian Vettel in front.
On lap 30 the safety car was brought out due to a neglect Lance walk‘s left rear tire. The Canadian started on the hard tire and was still standing in front of the pits. The cars were behind the safety car for six laps and restarted on lap 36.
The race had calmed down. Pérez did a great job of defending Hamilton in second place and Verstappen was up front. Everything collapsed when Verstappen also fell victim to a puncture on lap 46 and his car crashed into the wall. Fortunately, Verstappen escaped the incident, but the reliability of the Pirelli tire raised eyebrows.
During the clean-up, the drivers were ordered to drive through the pit lap. A communication error between Nicholas Latifi and his Williams Racing team meant he stayed outside and amassed a 32nd post-race time penalty.
On lap 48, the race management finally decided that the race had to be stopped with a red flag. This decision was made due to the shortness of the remaining race, only three laps, and the race director Michael Masi wanted to give the driver a few laps to race instead of spending the dying stages behind a safety car.
After a little over half an hour late, the race restarted standing, meaning it was a two-lap shoot-out to the finish line. Pérez was in pole position, with Hamilton right behind him.
Pérez was slow at the start, which meant Hamilton could take the lead, but disaster struck the Brit when he accidentally turned off his brakes and flew into the run-off zone at Turn 1. Hamilton was able to get back on track, but crossed the line last.
Pérez sailed to fame and was accompanied by Vettel in second place, who was also voted driver of the day for his stormy race, and Gasly in third place.
What happened at the 2019 French Grand Prix?
Hamilton clinched victory at the 2019 French Grand Prix and crossed the finish line a little more than 18 seconds ahead of his teammate from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team Valtteri Bottaswho finished second. The podium was rounded off with Leclerc in third place.
The win was the eighth straight win for Mercedes in 2019 and the sixth one-two for the team of the season. The race itself wasn’t full of action, but there were a few breakdowns nonetheless.
Daniel Ricciardo crossed the finish line in seventh, but received two five-second time penalties on his final lap. Lando Norris got into hydraulic problems on the last lap and when Ricciardo tried to overtake him, he went deep in turn eight and forced Norris off the track.
This allowed Raikkonen to pass, but Ricciardo fought his way back and overtook him on the straight. However, he received a five-second penalty for not safely returning to the track and a second for overtaking Raikkonen on the straight off the track.
Romain Grosjean was the only retirement and retired on lap 44 of his home race.
The racetrack
The drivers will drive a total of 53 laps on the 5.842 km long route, which results in a total distance of 309.69 km.
The circuit has a total of fifteen corners, one of the lowest numbers on the F1 calendar.
The track record is held by Vettel. He set a time of 1: 32.740 in 2019.
Photo credit: Pirelli Media
Sectors, corners and DRS zones
Sector 1 consists of the first five corners, starting with “S” de la Verrerie and ending at Virage du Camp.
Sector 2 starts at Turn 6, Virage de la Sainte-Beaume, before the drivers enter the Mistral straight. The last corner, Turn 9, is the chicane north.
The last six corners are all in sector 3, starting with Signes and ending with Virage du Pont, the last corner.
Paul Ricard has two DRS zones. The first is between curves 7 and 8, with the detection zone just before curve 7. The second is along the start / finish straight, with the detection area just before the driver’s head in curve 14.
Tire strategy
Pirelli chose mid-range tires for the French Grand Prix. The connections are C2 as white striped hard, C3 as yellow striped medium and C4 as red striped soft.
Pirelli also predicts the race will be a one-stopper, as does the 2019 winning strategy. Switching from medium to hard was the most popular choice.
What should we watch out for this year?
Mercedes will want to recover after two less than satisfactory races in Monaco and Baku. In both races they only got away with six points, a big difference to Red Bull, which collected 62 points over the races and is now 26 points ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ championship.
The battle for third place between Scuderia Ferrari and McLaren F1 team is now even closer. Ferrari overtook McLaren after Baku and now there are only two points between the teams.
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda took their first colon of the season in the last race, which is sure to give them the impetus to chase McLaren, especially after Gasly’s podium in Baku.
After Raikkonen scored a point in Baku, it’s just that now Williams races and Uralkali Haas F1 Team Drivers who have not yet scored a point.
What’s the schedule?
Friday June 18th
10:30 am BST / 11:30 am local time – Free Practice 1
14:00 BST / 15:00 local time – Free practice 2
Saturday June 19th
11:00 BST / 12:00 local time – Free Practice 3
14:00 BST / 15:00 local time – qualification
Sunday June 20th
14:00 BST / 15:00 local time – race
How can I keep up with the action?
Follow the action at the Checkered Flag with our extensive coverage, quotes and analysis on every session of the 2021 French Grand Prix. You can watch all the coverage live on Sky F1 and see highlights on Channel 4.
The post PREVIEW: French Grand Prix 2021 – Circuit Paul Ricard first appeared on monter-une-startup.
