2024 will have been the year of the sidelining of Renault engine development activities at Viry-Châtillon, after the joint decision of Renault director, Luca de Meo, and the executors put in place at Alpine, including Flavio Briatore, to become customers of a Mercedes-Benz power unit in the future.
The aura of France in the landscape of motor sports, and of F1 in particular, remains very important: you only need to look at the top of the organizational charts of many F1 structures to be convinced of this. Randomly, Frédéric Vasseur at the head of Ferrari, Pierre Waché at general design at Red Bull in the wake of Adrian Newey, or even Laurent Mekiès at Racing Bulls, to name but a few. On the driver side, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are well established, while Isack Hadjar is knocking on the door and Victor Martins is elevating his career in F2.
But it is true that despite a calendar of 24 Grands Prix, we are not ready to see contemporary F1 racing again in France.
Also read: De Meo defends Renault F1 engine abandonment: “I can’t think like a fan”
The CEO of Formula 1, Stefano Domenicali, had not ruled out the idea of a possible return of France to the calendar in the more or less near future, during an interview carried out by Canal + in April .
The Italian then insisted on the fact that the French government must make efforts and demonstrate a level of support approaching that seen by other places showing themselves to be very aggressive in welcoming F1, in an already consistent schedule and leaving on the touch of other great nations such as Germany or soon the Netherlands.
The French Grand Prix has not been part of the F1 calendar since 2022, when the last edition took place at the Paul Ricard circuit. We can now only attend Le Castellet for the Grand Prix de France historique, which remains a very beautiful event every year at the end of April.
For the CEO of the premier category, France obviously remains an important country and the idea of a possible return to France has never been ruled out by the discipline. However, Domenicali insisted that the French government will have to be convincing with a “significant investment”.
“In a marriage, you must have at least two people who agree,” said Stefano Domenicali. For us, France is a very important country with history, with the passion for F1. We had an incredible Grand Prix at Paul Ricard two years ago [en 2022, ndlr]but we have to find the right solution.
Also read: Luca de Meo saved Renault's presence in F1 in 2020
We need interest from France, for the country to understand that, when today you want to organize a Formula 1 Grand Prix, you need a significant investment, which, I think, can be organized at central level with the government.
When working on a global level, [on voit qu’] there is the Prime Minister, there is the king, there are all the people who are really in the F1 project, because F1 represents a possibility for this country to represent the country in the world entire.
There is a business opportunity, there is an opportunity to welcome the people who come… I have said everything. »
The ball is now in the court of the French government which will have to prove to Formula 1 its desire to host a Formula 1 race again in the future…
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