Unusually even for a race of such longevity, the location of the Grand Prix moved frequently, with 16 different venues used over its life, a number only eclipsed by the 23 venues used for the Australian Grand Prix since its 1928 start. It is also one of four races (along with the Belgian, Italian and Spanish Grands Prix) to have been held as part of three distinct Grand Prix championships: the World Manufacturers' Championship in the late 1920s, the European Championship in the 1930s and the Formula One World Championship since 1950. The Grand Prix de l'ACF was tremendously influential in the early years of Grand Prix racing, leading the establishment of the rules and regulations of racing as well as setting trends in the evolution of racing. The power of the original organiser, the Automobile Club de France, established France as the home of motor racing organisation.
France was one of the first countries to hold motor racing events of any kind. The first competitive motor race, the Paris to Rouen Horseless Carriages Contest, was held on 22 July 1894 and was organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF). The race was 126 km (78 mi) long and was won by Count Jules-Albert de Dion in his De Dion Bouton steam-powered car in just under seven hours. This race was followed by races starting in Paris to various towns and cities around France such as Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon and Dieppe, and also to other European cities such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Innsbruck and Vienna. The 1901 Paris-Berlin race was noteworthy as the winner, Henri Fournier, averaged 57 mph (93 km/h) in his Mors.
These races, held on public dirt roads that were not all closed to the public, came to a halt in 1903. The Paris-Madrid race, a 1,307 km (812 mi) competition from the French capital to the Spanish capital held in May of that year, had over 300 entrants, with some cars doing 140 km/h (87 mph). The race was a disaster, with eight people killed and over 15 injured in multiple accidents before any competitor reached the Spanish border. The most notable fatality was Marcel Renault, one of the three brothers who founded the Renault car company; he lost control of his 16HP Renault in poor visibility caused by excess dust near the village of Payré, crashed into a tree, and succumbed to his injuries two days later. The race was eventually called off by the French government and there was no declared winner. The cars were impounded by French authorities and transported back to Paris by train. After the 1903 Paris-Madrid race, the French government banned point-to-point car races on open public roads. James Gordon Bennett, an American newspaper publisher, organized the Gordon Bennett Cup, four of which were held in France; after Paris-Madrid he moved the 1903 race to Ireland on a closed circuit, the first of its kind, won by Belgian Camille Jenatzy in a Mercedes. The last Gordon Bennett Cup race was held on a 137 km (85 mi) circuit in Auvergne in south-central France, starting in Clermont-Ferrand and won by Léon Théry in a Brasier.
The French Grand Prix, open to international competition, was first run on 26 June 1906 under the auspices of the Automobile Club de France in Sarthe with a starting field of 32 automobiles. The Grand Prix name ("Great Prize") referred to the prize of 45,000 French francs to the race winner. The earliest French Grands Prix were held on circuits consisting of public roads near towns through northern and central France, usually at different towns each year, such as Le Mans, Dieppe, Amiens, Lyon, Strasbourg and Tours. Dieppe in particular was an extremely dangerous circuit—nine people in total were killed at the three French Grands Prix held at the 79 km (49-mile) circuit.
The 1906 race was the first ever national race named "Grand Prix". It was run on a 66-mile (106 km) one-off anti-clockwise closed public road circuit east of Le Mans, starting in the village of Saint-Mars-la-Brière. The Hungarian Ferenc Szisz won this 12-hour race on a Renault from Italian Felice Nazzaro in a Fiat; laps took just under an hour and the fastest lap average speed was 73.37 mph (118.09 km/h). The 1908 race saw Mercedes finishing 1-2-3 at the lethal circuit at Dieppe, where four people were killed during the weekend. The 1913 race was won by Georges Boillot on a one-off 19-mile (31 km) circuit near Amiens, where five people were killed during pre-race testing and the race weekend.
The 1914 race, run on a 23-mile circuit near Lyon, is perhaps the most legendary and dramatic Grand Prix of the pre-WWI racing era. It was a hard-fought battle between the French Peugeots and the German Mercedes. Although Boillot led for 12 of the 20 laps after Max Sailer's Mercedes dropped out with engine failure on lap 6, the Dunlop tyres the Peugeots used wore out badly compared to the Continentals on the Mercedes. Boillot's four-minute lead was wiped out by Christian Lautenschlager in a Mercedes while Boillot stopped eight times for tyres; Boillot retired on the last lap with engine failure, and for the second time in six years Mercedes finished 1-2-3.
Because of World War I, the Grand Prix was not brought back until 1921, and that race was won by American Jimmy Murphy with a Duesenberg at the Sarthe circuit at Le Mans, that circuit's first year of operation. Bugatti made its debut at the 1922 race at an 8.3-mile (13 km) one-off public road circuit near Strasbourg, close to Bugatti's headquarters in Molsheim. It rained and the race became a duel between Bugatti and Fiat; Felice Nazzaro won in a Fiat, although his nephew Biagio Nazzaro was killed after the axle on his Fiat broke. The 1923 race at a circuit near Tours featured the new Bugatti Type 32, dubbed the "Tank" for its streamlined shape; it was outpaced by Briton Henry Segrave in a supercharged Sunbeam. Segrave won, and the Sunbeam would be the last British car to win an official Grand Prix until Stirling Moss's victory with a Vanwall at the 1957 British Grand Prix. The 1924 race was held again at Lyon, on a shortened 14-mile variant of the 1914 circuit; the Bugatti Type 35 and the Alfa Romeo P2 both made their debuts, and Italian Giuseppe Campari won in his Alfa P2 after the Bugattis suffered tyre failure.
In 1925, the first permanent autodrome in France was built, the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, located 20 miles south of the centre of Paris. The 7.7-mile (12.3 km) circuit included a 51-degree concrete banking, an asphalt road course and then-modern facilities. Montlhéry first held the Grand Prix de l'ACF in 1925 as part of the inaugural World Manufacturers' Championship, the first time Grands Prix were grouped together to form a championship. The first race at Montlhéry was marred by the fatal accident of Antonio Ascari in an Alfa P2 when he crashed at a fast left-hand kink. Miramas, a high-banked concrete oval completed in 1926, played host that year; only three cars, all Bugattis, competed, and Frenchman Jules Goux won—he had also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1913.
The 1927 race at Montlhéry was won by Frenchman Robert Benoist in a Delage. 1929 saw a brief return to Le Mans, won by William Grover-Williams in a Bugatti; he had won the first ever Monaco Grand Prix earlier that year and had also won the 1928 race at the Saint-Gaudens circuit. The 1930 French Grand Prix, held at Pau, saw the supercharged "Blower Bentley" driven by Briton Tim Birkin, who passed the pits at 130 mph (208 km/h) and overtook car after car but finished second to Frenchman Philippe Étancelin in a Bugatti.
Montlhéry was also part of the European Championship when it began in 1931. The Reims-Gueux circuit in the Champagne wine region hosted the race in 1932, where Italian Tazio Nuvolari won in an Alfa Romeo. From 1933 to 1937 Montlhéry became the sole host. The 1934 French Grand Prix marked the return of Mercedes-Benz to Grand Prix racing after 20 years, with a team headed by Alfred Neubauer; 1934 was the year the German Silver Arrows debuted. Although Monégasque driver Louis Chiron won in an Alfa, the Silver Arrows dominated the race. Makeshift chicanes were placed on the circuit to slow the German cars for 1935, but Mercedes's Rudolf Caracciola won that year. The French Grand Prix then became a sportscar race for 1936 and 1937.
The French Grand Prix returned to the Reims-Gueux circuit for 1938 and 1939, where the Silver Arrows continued their domination. Around this time the Monaco Grand Prix gained a huge amount of prestige and would become the premier French-related Grand Prix event, but the French Grand Prix was still important and traditionally held on the first weekend of July. When World War II began, the French Grand Prix did not return until 1947, held at the Parilly circuit near Lyon, marred by an accident in which Pierre Levegh crashed and killed three spectators. Racing then returned to Reims-Gueux, where Alfa Romeo dominated for four years. 1950 was the first year of the Formula One World Championship; the race was won by Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, who also won the next year's race—the longest Formula One race ever held in terms of distance, totalling 373 miles.
The prestigious event was held for the first time at the Rouen-Les-Essarts public road circuit in 1952. The race returned to Reims in 1953, where the circuit had been modified to bypass Gueux, making it even faster; Fangio in a Maserati and Briton Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari had a race-long battle, with Hawthorn taking the checkered flag. 1954 marked Mercedes's return to top-flight road racing led by Alfred Neubauer; Fangio, now driving for Mercedes, and teammate Karl Kling dominated in their advanced W196s—an unpopular win, as a German manufacturer had won on French soil only nine years after the German occupation of France ended. The French Grand Prix was cancelled in 1955 because of the Le Mans disaster, and Mercedes withdrew from all racing at the end of that year. The race continued at Reims in 1956, a lengthened Rouen-Les-Essarts in 1957, and back to Reims from 1958 to 1961, 1963 and a final time in 1966. The 1956 race saw a one-off appearance by Bugatti with a mid-engined car driven by Maurice Trintignant, but it was underpowered and retired early. The 1958 race was marred by the fatal accident of Italian Luigi Musso in a works Ferrari and was Fangio's last Formula One race; Hawthorn, about to lap Fangio on the last lap, slowed and let the Argentine cross the line before him so he could complete the whole race distance. Hawthorn won and Fangio finished fourth. The 1961 race, held in 100 °F (38 °C) weather, came down to a slipstreaming battle between American Dan Gurney in a Porsche and Italian Giancarlo Baghetti in the sharknose Ferrari; Baghetti won his first ever championship Grand Prix by less than a car's length.
Rouen-Les-Essarts hosted the event in 1962 and 1964, and Gurney won both, one in a Porsche and one in a Brabham. In 1965 the race was held at the 5.1-mile Charade Circuit near Clermont-Ferrand, known as a mini-Nürburgring—twisty, undulating and very demanding. In 1966, 34 years after first hosting the event, Reims staged its last French Grand Prix, with Australian Jack Brabham winning in a car bearing his name. The short Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans held the race in 1967, but was not liked by the Formula One paddock and never returned. Rouen-Les-Essarts hosted in 1968, a disastrous event in which Frenchman Jo Schlesser crashed and was killed at the Six Frères corner in his burning Honda; Formula One did not return there. Charade hosted two more events before Formula One moved to the newly built Circuit Paul Ricard for 1971. Charade hosted the event one last time in 1972, by which time Formula One cars had become too fast for public road circuits; the circuit was littered with rocks and Austrian Helmut Marko was hit in the eye by a rock thrown up from Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi's Lotus, ending his racing career.
Formula One returned to Paul Ricard in 1973, and the French Grand Prix was never run on public road circuits like Reims, Rouen and Charade again. Paul Ricard also had a driving school, the École de Pilotage Winfield, that honed the talents of France's first Formula One World Champion Alain Prost and Grand Prix winners Didier Pironi and Jacques Laffite. The event was run at the Prenois circuit near Dijon in 1974, before returning to Ricard in 1975 and 1976. The two venues alternated until 1984, with Ricard getting the race in even-numbered years and Dijon in odd-numbered years (except 1983). In 1977 a new section called the "Parabolique" was built at Dijon; the race featured a battle between American Mario Andretti and Briton John Watson, with Andretti winning. Lotus teammates Andretti and Swede Ronnie Peterson dominated the race in 1978 with their dominant 79s.
The 1979 race was a classic, with a famous end-of-race duel for second place between Frenchman René Arnoux in a turbocharged Renault and Canadian Gilles Villeneuve in a Ferrari, considered one of the all-time great duels in motorsport; the race was won by Arnoux's French teammate Jean-Pierre Jabouille, the first race ever won by a Formula One car with a turbocharged engine. 1980 saw rookie Prost qualify his McLaren seventh and Australian Alan Jones beat French Ligier drivers Laffite and Pironi on home soil. The 1981 race was the first of 51 victories by future four-time world champion Prost; driving a Renault, the French marque won the next three French Grands Prix. The 1982 event at Ricard saw four French drivers finish in the top four, each in a turbocharged car; René Arnoux won from teammate Prost, with Ferrari drivers Pironi and Patrick Tambay third and fourth—but Arnoux violated an agreement to let Prost by. Prost won the next year at the same place, beating Nelson Piquet in a turbocharged BMW-engined Brabham.
Dijon was last used in 1984. The governing body FISA instituted a policy of long-term contracts with only one circuit per Grand Prix; the choice was between Dijon and Ricard, and Ricard was chosen, hosting from 1985 to 1990. From 1986 onwards a shortened version of the circuit was used after Elio de Angelis's fatal crash at the fast Verrière bends during a test session. Prost won the final three races there; the 1988 win was dramatic, as he overtook teammate Ayrton Senna at the Courbe de Signes at the end of the Mistral Straight, and in 1990 (turbos by then banned) the race was led for more than 60 laps by Italian Ivan Capelli and Brazilian Maurício Gugelmin in underfunded Leyton House cars before Prost, now at Ferrari, made a late charge to win.
In 1991, the race moved to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, where it stayed for 17 years. Magny-Cours was the seventh venue to host the French Grand Prix as part of the Formula One World Championship, and the sixteenth in total. The move was an attempt to stimulate the area's economy, but many in Formula One complained about the remote nature of the circuit. Highlights include Prost's final of six wins on home soil in 1993, and Michael Schumacher's securing of the 2002 championship after only 11 races. The 2004 and 2005 races were in doubt because of financial problems and new circuits joining the calendar, but went ahead. In 2007 the FFSA, the race promoter, announced the 2008 French Grand Prix was put on an indefinite "pause" due to the circuit's financial situation; funding was found and the 2008 race went ahead, the last French Grand Prix for 10 years.
The 2009 race was cancelled on 15 October 2008, with the official website citing "economic reasons". A huge makeover of Magny-Cours ("2.0") was planned but cancelled. The promoter FFSA looked for an alternative host, with five proposals—Rouen, a street circuit near Disneyland Resort Paris, Versailles, Sarcelles, and Flins-Les Mureaux near the Flins Renault factory—but all were cancelled. In 2010 and 2011 there was no French Grand Prix on the calendar, although Circuit Paul Ricard was a candidate for 2012. Ten French drivers have won the French Grand Prix; seven before the World Wars and three during the Formula One championship. Alain Prost won the race six times at three different circuits; Michael Schumacher won eight times, the joint most anybody has won any Grand Prix. Louis Chiron won it five times, and Juan Manuel Fangio and Nigel Mansell both won four times.
In December 2016, it was confirmed that the French Grand Prix would return in 2018 at the Circuit Paul Ricard, holding a contract to host until 2022. In an announcement on 13 April 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron said restrictions on public events due to the COVID-19 pandemic would continue until mid-July, putting the 2020 French Grand Prix, scheduled for 28 June, at risk; it was later cancelled with no intention to reschedule for the 2020 championship. The race returned for the 2021 season. The promoters confirmed the race would not be on the 2023 calendar, stating they aimed for a rotational deal sharing its slot with other Grands Prix.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
