Playground in the Provence
When Pirelli needed an advanced facility at which to test its new wet weather tyres for the forthcoming Grand Prix season, it was the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track (HTTT) in the south of France that it chose.
It might sound odd venturing to the Provence region of France in search of rain, but the track boasts a highly sophisticated automatic watering system designed to reproduce wet driving conditions. A bespoke computer system regulates the volume of water on the circuit, fed from a system of 315 pipes and 35 sprinklers, and controlled from the track’s command centre.
This is just one of a number of innovative features at the facility. No wonder that in 2007 the FIA Institute, which promotes ideas and innovations for improving safety, designated the track its first Centre of Excellence.
But then the Paul Ricard circuit has always been innovative. When it opened in 1970 it was the first to use lights rather than a flag to start races, and each marshal’s post was also equipped with warning lights. Wide run-off areas backed by wire mesh fences were a first at the track and the facilities were unrivalled in Europe. Lock up pit garages included piped water, electricity and television sets, all taken for granted these days but a luxury in the early seventies. Above the pits, reception rooms, a restaurant, bars and air-conditioned press room were all unheard of at the time.
It was once the most modern facility in the world. Today it is possibly the greatest circuit that is not used to host a Grand Prix. Situated 35 miles east of Marseilles and 100 miles west of Nice, the circuit was founded by Paul Ricard, the French entrepreneur and pastis millionaire.
Signes was one of the great corners of the racing world. To go round that one with your foot on it, was no small matter.
Ricard recognised the value of sports sponsorship, backing the Tour de France as long ago as the early fifties. Although he had no interest in motor racing he decided to build a track near the village of Le Castellet. The story goes that he wanted to find out whether it really was as hard to build highways as the French government at the time claimed… Whatever his reasoning behind the venture, the result was a superb modern facility unrivalled anywhere it Europe.
An outstanding feature was the Mistral Straight, over a mile long; cars would accelerate down the Mistral in the same way that the wind from which it takes its name rushes through the Rhone Valley, gathering speed as it does, and bringing that wonderful clarity of air and light to the Provence region.
When it hosted its first Grand Prix in 1971, the track wasn’t universally popular. Contemporary reports describe it as “flat and featureless”, and of having a “Mickey Mouse” infield section. The sophisticated pits complex was dismissed as being vast and clinical. Stewart, though, who won the first Grand Prix, was impressed by the place.
“It was a new dimension,” he says. “We hadn’t been to a track like that. It was beautifully turned out in terms of the garage areas and the hospitality area. That was the first modern Grand Prix facility. All the tracks are like that now, so it was the leader.
“It was a good race track too,” he continues. “Signes [a high-speed right-hander at the end of the Mistral Straight] was one of the great corners of the racing world. To go round that one with your foot on it, was no small matter.”
The track continued to host the French Grand Prix, 14 in total, alternating first with Clermont-Ferrand and then Dijon-Prenois, until becoming the exclusive venue for the event between 1985 and 1990. It was also briefly the home of the Larrousse Formula One team and the ORECA F3000 team.
Sadly, despite its acclaim amongst many drivers, the circuit is remembered for tragedy. It was while travelling back from Paul Ricard in March 1986 that Sir Frank Williams suffered his near-fatal car accident. In May the same year, whilst testing at the circuit in his Brabham-BMW, the Italian driver Elio de Angelis was killed when his car suffered a rear wing failure and he crashed. The circuit was shortened in time for that year’s French GP just seven weeks later.
But it was politics, not safety concerns, which spelt the end for the circuit as a host to the country’s premier race. French president François Mitterand’s finance minister, Pierre Beregovoy was mayor of the city of Nevers, where the Magny-Cours circuit is located. Government money was used to improve the facilities there and the Grand Prix left Paul Ricard, never to return, in 1991.
This marked the start of a period of decline for the circuit, which now had no major races to host. When Paul Ricard himself died in 1997, the Pernot Ricard company put the circuit up for sale and it was bought in 1999 by Excelis, which is owned by the Ecclestone family, for around $11 million.
Philippe Gurdjian, the person charged with breathing new life into the circuit, decided to test new safety concepts which did not exist at any other track in the world. One of these was the use of high-abrasive surfaces for run-off areas to slow down errant cars, rather than the ubiquitous gravel trap. Gurdjian undertook an ambitious programme of work designed to make Paul Ricard “a model for all the world’s circuits” and so the High Tech Test Track was born. However, these new concepts meant that the circuit didn’t conform to official FIA standards, hence the fact that it became purely a test facility at
the time.
Viewed from above today, the Paul Ricard HTTT resembles an abstract painting with its blue, black and red swirls delineating the edge of the track. These are the high-grip asphalt runoff areas, known as the Blue Line™ concept. If a driver spins, he or she will be slowed by the different abrasive surfaces of the run-off area – the red zones, located beyond the blue, being the most abrasive. This means that there is much less bodywork damage to the cars and that the driver feels that they can go “all the way to the limit of the tests”, as former F1 driver Olivier Panis used to say when testing there for Toyota.
It is homologated for F1 and if the decision is to be taken, we will be present on the F1 Grand Prix stage.
If a vehicle does manage to cross these colourful swirls, then it will encounter the TecPro High Speed Barrier. Paul Ricard HTTT was the first circuit to develop and install these barriers which replace traditional tyre-walls.
And then there’s the sprinklers. The automatic watering system is capable of dampening the track to any specified degree of wetness. Which is why over the course of a two day test last November, Pirelli test driver Pedro de la Rosa was able to complete 826 kilometres in the Toyota TF109, which Pirelli is using to refine its wet and intermediate tyres.
At the end of 2008, Gérard Neveu who had been the track manager for eight years, became circuit director and decided to open the track to spectators and have real racing back on the asphalt of the Paul Ricard circuit. The following year it hosted another round of the FIA GT championship and in 2010 played host to the Le Mans Series and FIA GT1 world championship. In October an historic meeting marked the circuit’s 40th anniversary.
So is it Neveu’s intention to try to get the French Grand Prix back to the circuit?
“The Formula One Grand Prix, in any country, is not decided by a circuit,” he says. “First of all there must be a promoter for the event. Once there is an official and valid promoter, they will try to find the best circuit to organise and welcome a Formula One Grand Prix. They will then validate the idea with the official authorities such as the FIA or FFSA (Fédération Française de Sports Automobiles) who will take the final decision.
“As of today, the Paul Ricard circuit is able to welcome a Formula One Grand Prix. It is homologated for F1 and if the decision is to be taken, we will be present on the F1 Grand Prix stage.”