Magny Cours is still in the race to host France’s return to formula one.

But according to RMC, the race’s former host – having run the French grand prix between 1991 and 2008 – has been handed a much higher price-tag than Paul Ricard.

Just before Nicolas Sarkozy lost the recent presidential election, the basis of an agreement to annually alternate a French GP with Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps was agreed.

The 2013 host would be Paul Ricard, the Bernie Ecclestone-owned circuit, and the race fee EUR 22 million.

Politics, it seems, have intervened.

Francois Hollande, France’s new president, is not a supporter of the grand prix, and vowed to re-evaluate the sport’s return to the country.

RMC reports that officials at Magny Cours have used the opportunity to “repeatedly” contact F1 chief executive Ecclestone in recent days.

The Nievre region is politically aligned with the new administration, but Ecclestone is reportedly “asking EUR 10 million more” for a race at Magny Cours.

Politics, however, could also be on Paul Ricard’s side, with Citroen’s former world rally boss Olivier Quesnel reportedly lined up to lead the F1 project.

Quesnel is reportedly close to FIA president Jean Todt, and the pair apparently met earlier this week.

Amid France’s push to return to the F1 calendar, it appears Magny Cours is not yet out of the game.

Prime minister Francois Fillon, however, has earmarked Paul Ricard – the well-known test circuit at Le Castallet near Marseille – as the host.

But it was Magny Cours that hosted the French grand prix between 1991 and 2008.

The local Nievre department’s president Patrice Joly last week accused Fillon of “bias in favour of Le Castellet” for the 2013 deal.

He said Magny Cours has “all the facilities, infrastructure and expertise needed to organise such an event”.

Championing Magny Cours’ renewed push to host the 2013 French grand prix is Guy Ligier, the now 81-year-old Frenchman who once had his own formula one team based at the circuit.

“I am trying to lend a hand,” he confirmed to the sports daily L’Equipe.

“I have had Bernie (Ecclestone) on the phone several times, as a friend, and have asked for his advice. We talked about the hotel business around (Magny Cours).

“He said to me, ‘Guy, I know you’re in the know.’

“I have a feeling that Bernie is not going to sign anything before he knows the outcome of the presidential election.

“I’ll tell you honestly what I feel: nothing is lost for Magny Cours,” added Ligier.

France’s return to the 2013 formula one calendar is not quite at the finish-line.

Many expected prime minister Francois Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit last Friday to coincide with an announcement about the revival of the French grand prix next year.

Some think that was indeed the intention, but ultimately a couple of details were missing at the last hurdle.

The first was the identity of the host circuit that will annually alternate the race date, amid reports Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps is not yet ready or able to agree.

“The formula one management has approved the plan without indicating who would be the other country,” Fillon is quoted as saying in local reports.

Another problem is on the financial side, with Fillon admitting that – politically – there can be no direct government subsidy other than a mere “bond”.

The difference between a deal and no deal between Bernie Ecclestone and the Le Castellet organisers, then, is “about two million euros”, Fillon revealed.

“The formula one organisers’ proposal is reasonable enough,” he said, “but we have to make them remove the ‘enough’,” he added.

“Symbolically it would not be acceptable (for the government) to subsidise a grand prix,” he insisted, “as was the case in the past with Magny Cours.”

Magny Cours, the former French GP venue, reacted with shock and anger, accusing the prime minister of “bias in favour of Le Castellet”, where temporary grandstands will have to be erected to host spectators.

On the other hand, Magny Cours has “all the facilities, infrastructure and expertise needed to organise such an event”, insisted Patrice Joly, president of the conseil general of the Nievre department.

“Contrary to what you would expect from the head of government, the prime minister strives to implement a solution based on partisan considerations and personal issues away from the general interest,” he added.

New media reports have contradicted claims French PM Francois Fillon will on Friday announce the country’s 2013 return to the formula one calendar.

Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday said Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit on Friday is to confirm the successful end to long negotiations to revive the French grand prix.

Those negotiations were for Paul Ricard to annually alternate a race date with Belgium’s fabled Spa Francorchamps.

But the French-language RMC insists that Belgium is “not ready for the alternation”.

“If France has received a contract to organise a grand prix every other year, this is not the case for the Belgian promoters, who are still waiting for the document to send to the government of Wallonia,” the report read.

RMC said the hold-up could be because Spa is having trouble paying its sanctioning fee for this year’s race date in September.

The French magazine Sport-Auto agrees, insisting that Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix de France on Friday”.

“The prime minister will travel to the (Paul Ricard) circuit,” an official close to Fillon is quoted as saying by AFP news agency, but Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix to the calendar in 2013″.

The official, however, said Bernie Ecclestone as approved “in principle” France’s presence on the calendar every other year, beginning in 2013.

But “It (the alternation) will not necessarily be with Belgium,” the report added.

In an interview to be published by the Nice-Matin newspaper on Friday, Fillon is quoted as saying a grand prix is crucial to France.

“Bernie Ecclestone has just sent us a draft contract,” said the prime minister, “which is the result of negotiations that began several months ago.

“We now have a concrete basis for discussions,” he added.

The race to put the French grand prix back on track will be over in three weeks.
That is the claim of Nicolas Deschaux, the president of the country’s motor sport federation who admitted concern the deal to put Paul Ricard on the 2013 calendar is not yet done.

France has been missing from the calendar since Magny-Cours last held a grand prix in 2008, but efforts have been made to annually alternate a race between Paul Ricard – a track in Le Castellet, near Marseille – and Belgium’s fabled Spa Francorchamps.

Deschaux told RMC the project needs to reach the finish-line within three weeks.

“We have always been working very hard,” he said. “We have arrived in the home stretch, where either we come to finalise within three weeks, or we will go on a path that forces us to postpone.”

France’s sports minister insists the country is still on course to return to the formula one calendar.
Recently, a deal to see the Paul Ricard circuit annually share a grand prix date with Belgium’s fabled Spa-Francorchamps seemed imminent.

But although the key meeting with Bernie Ecclestone took place nearly a month ago now, sports minister David Douillet said the 2013 French grand prix “is not dead”.

“We have three new French drivers in F1 and so we have to have a grand prix de France,” he is quoted by TF1 television. “That’s my job.

“France is the land of the grand prix,” added Douillet. “I met with Bernie Ecclestone and he is totally willing to share it between Belgium and France.

“He has mobilised and motivated local governments for the financing of the event, even if we are yet to have all the details from our Belgian friends.

“There are also some details to go with one or two of the close cities. We are almost there,” he insisted.

Jean Alesi has welcomed news his native France looks set to rejoin the formula one calendar.
It is expected that, three years after Magny Cours dropped off the schedule, France will return in 2013 with a single annual date to be alternated between Paul Ricard and Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps.

“The drivers love Spa and I think it is very important to always go there because of the spectacle, the history and everything else,” Frenchman Alesi, who contested more than 200 grands prix until 2011, said.

“But the problem is the money,” the 1995 Canadian grand prix winner and Group Lotus ambassador is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Spa doesn’t have enough (money) to compete with places like Abu Dhabi. So it would be a shame to lose Spa but I say it’s better to go every other year than not at all.

“The compromise would be beneficial for everyone. As I am French, I would love to see the French grand prix coming back,” added Alesi, “and with the sharing (scheme), we can have both (France and Spa).”

The French prime minister has confirmed high-level efforts to revive the country’s formula one race.

FIA president and Frenchman Jean Todt revealed recently that “many people … at the highest levels of government” are pushing to end France’s three-year hiatus since Magny Cours stopped hosting its annual event.

We reported on June 7 that the most likely venue for a reinstated French grand prix is Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, a circuit with close links to F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.

At the same time, the Journal du Dimanche said French PM Francois Fillon has appointed countryman and Renault team boss Eric Boullier to help with the efforts to organise the event.

“It’s true that I have put together a team,” the L’Equipe sports daily quoted Fillon as having told the Var Matin newspaper on Tuesday.

“It (the team) is led in particular by one of my former colleagues Gilles Dufeigneux, working with the French motor sport federation, the FIA and also Eric Boullier and the director of Le Castellet, Gerard Neveu,” confirmed the prime minister.

The last grand prix at Le Castellet, which has since been redeveloped as the Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track, was won by Alain Prost in 1990 before the French event moved to Magny Cours.

Spa-Francorchamps could be the key to France’s return to the formula one calendar.
The French Le Journal Du Dimanche newspaper reports the possibility of the famous Belgian race alternating annually with a circuit in France.

“I’ve been asked about it earlier this year by French officials,” admitted Belgian GP promoter Andre Maes.

“This may be interesting, so I am waiting for further news,” he said.

The Belgian GP has admitted to worrying about being priced out of F1 due to rising race sanctioning fees.

French grand prix host Magny-Cours dropped off the calendar after the 2008 season due to “economic problems”.

Alain Prost has admitted he is frustrated that moves to revive a French grand prix have so far not succeeded.

After the demise of the Magny Cours event, the quadruple world champion actively supported the major alternative projects, including one at Flins-Les-Mureaux as well as Disneyland Paris.

He told RMC radio that he is concerned efforts to put France back onto the F1 calendar is losing momentum.

“It must not be buried now,” said Prost.

“There was a great opportunity last year at the time of the regional (elections), and a first draft for Disney which in hindsight was perhaps a bit complicated.

“But Flins was an exceptional site with a real project, a real business plan, and formula one to happen for only eight hours in a year, to appease the critics,” he explained.

“There was a real programme for the utilisation of the circuit, with an economic and social advantage.

“There would have been 100,000 extra people near Paris.  Everyone was enthusiastic, especially Bernie Ecclestone.

“But the project was abandoned when everything was ready and financed, because of the regional election and an environmental problem that was essentially political,” Prost charged.

He confirmed that the biggest problem seems to be a lack of political will.

“Do we want a grand prix of France?” wondered Prost.  “Today, there are no French drivers in F1, Renault will soon not be called Renault … it’s a bit complicated and a financial issue.

“The price asked by Bernie Ecclestine (for a GP) is variable — about EUR 15 million per year in Europe.  Abroad, it is between 30 and 40 million, as in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s an economic equation: how many spectators can you get?  (If it’s) about 50 or 60,000, and the price is 15 million, your losses are about 8 million.

“Who can put up 8 million?  So if the politicians or the government are not saying ‘it’s important for France to have a grand prix’, it’s not worth talking about.

“It’s rubbish when I hear that what is needed is a promoter.  The promoter (of the Disneyland Paris project) was the Lagardere group and myself.

“Above all what is important is that the economics are sustainable,” added Prost.

Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he is not opposed to the idea of France returning to the formula one calendar.

Earlier this month it emerged that Magny Cours, the long-time scene of the country’s annual race between 1991 and 2008, is ramping up its efforts to return to the calendar by 2012.

But F1 chief executive Ecclestone is no fan of Magny Cours’ remote location, and has been pushing for a grand prix venue nearer the French capital.

The Briton is also involved with the test track at Paul Ricard, near Marseille.

“Paul Ricard is probably one of the best in the world,” Ecclestone is quoted by L’Equipe.

“But we still don’t have a place for a race. You know the problem.

“The (French) grand prix has a future, but where is the promoter?” said the 79-year-old. “I really thought the project near Paris would happen.”

He said he is open to finding a place on the calendar for France, the scene of the very first grand prix in 1906.

“I am ready to sign a contract as soon as possible, the very moment someone comes to me and says ‘I have the money and a circuit’.

“I would be happy to have a race in France,” insisted Ecclestone.

A return to the formula one grid of French grand prix venue Magny Cours is on the cards for 2012, according to reports.

L’Equipe, and the French news agency AFP, said circuit boss Serge Saulnier sounded bullish on Thursday amid recent efforts to reinstate the race after it was dropped after 2008.

The FIA published the 2011 calendar this week, with France once again omitted.

“Yes. We stopped in 2008 because the financial cap could not be filled by the counseil general de la Nievre, or the regional Burgundy council,” explained Saulnier.

Among F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone’s criticisms of Magny Cours, located in rural central France, was the difficulty of the journey from Paris.

Saulnier said this problem is going to be solved.

“Yes. The A77 motorway from Paris to Magny Cours will be inaugurated in the coming weeks, and we are also going to launch covered stands at the Adelaide corner.

“Like every year we have received approval from the FIA for formula one, and this year we have enlarged the pitlane. It’s been done.

“We are in the starting blocks to again organise a grand prix of France,” he insisted.

“We will achieve our financial package before June 2011, we are the only circuit in France approved for F1 and we mustn’t forget that motor sport allows for rapid develop of alternative energies,” said Saulnier.