Circuit Paul Ricard

French race track

Le Castellet, the Circuit a Pastis Maker Built

On a plateau above the coast near Marseille, the circuit Paul Ricard built is known for its long Mistral Straight and its striped blue run off.

Some people celebrate success with a yacht. Paul Ricard, the pastis magnate, built a racetrack, chiefly for the challenge of doing it. Work began in 1969 on a flat plateau at Le Castellet in the Var, near Marseille, roughly 400 meters above sea level, and the circuit opened on the 19th of April 1970 with modern facilities, an industrial park and an airstrip of its own. Add mild winters, and it is little wonder the teams came to test.

Its signature has always been the Mistral Straight, 1.8 km long in its original form and ending at Signes, a fast right hander. On the first 5.809 km layout the engines spent long spells at full revs, and many gave up; in 1985 Ayrton Senna spun off backwards at Signes on oil from his own failed engine. After Elio de Angelis died in a testing accident at the Verrerie curves in 1986, the Grand Prix switched to a shorter course of 3.812 km that cut across to the middle of the Mistral.

The French Grand Prix first came here in 1971, won by Jackie Stewart, and Ricard held 14 championship rounds through 1990. The race had a knack for forecasting the season: six times its winner went on to become world champion that same year. Alain Prost won four times, in 1983, 1988, 1989 and 1990, more than anyone else at the circuit.

After Ricard's death the circuit was sold in 1999 to a company owned by Bernie Ecclestone and remade as an advanced test track. Its trademark now is the run off: bands of blue and black asphalt mixed with tungsten in place of gravel, backed by a rougher red zone that helps a car stop. The layout can be arranged in 247 different ways, enough to keep any test driver from growing bored.

Formula 1 came back in 2018 with the first French Grand Prix in ten years. Lewis Hamilton won that year and the next, Max Verstappen in 2021 and 2022, and with that the total reached 18 championship rounds from 1971 to 2022 before the race left the calendar again. The circuit carries on with endurance racing, the Bol d'Or motorcycle race and a full program of testing.

Every Grand Prix here

Scroll to Top