Motorsport came to Pau as early as 1900, when the Automobile-club du Béarn organised the Circuit du Sud-Ouest, a 300 km road race linking Pau, Tarbes, and Bayonne. René de Knyff won that inaugural running; the 1901 edition divided prizes across multiple classes, with victories going to Maurice Farman, Henri Farman, and Louis Renault.
The French Grand Prix moved to Pau in 1930, and three years later the city launched its own annual Grand Prix. The 1933 race was held in February with snow still on the ground and was won by Marcel Lehoux in a Bugatti. The event quickly became a prestige fixture on the European calendar. In 1938 it hosted a defining symbolic contest: René Dreyfus, driving a Delahaye 145, defeated the German Mercedes-Benz pairing of Rudolf Caracciola and Hermann Lang without making a pit stop, a result celebrated in France as a sporting rebuke to the dominant Silver Arrows. The following year Hermann Lang beat Mercedes teammate Manfred von Brauchitsch at the same circuit.
Racing resumed at Pau in 1947 and almost immediately delivered compelling competition. In 1948 the young Nello Pagani won ahead of Raymond Sommer, Philippe Etancelin, and Jean-Pierre Wimille. Juan Manuel Fangio dominated the 1949 edition — starting from pole, setting fastest lap, and taking victory — beginning a long association between the circuit and world-class talent.
Jean Behra won in 1954 before a record crowd, defeating Maurice Trintignant. The circuit was improved for the 1957 event after the 1956 race was cancelled in the shadow of the Le Mans disaster. From 1958 to 1960 the race ran under Formula Two regulations; when Formula One adopted a 1500 cc limit in 1961 the Pau Grand Prix re-entered the spotlight as a warmup for Monaco. Jim Clark won at Pau in 1961 — his first Formula One car victory anywhere — and returned to win three more times in 1963, 1964, and 1965.
When the Grand Prix shifted to Formula Two in 1964, Clark won again, and the event attracted the generation that would define 1960s and 1970s Formula One. Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt, François Cevert, Patrick Depailler, René Arnoux, and Jean-Pierre Jabouille all raced at Pau during this period. Rindt won three times (1967, 1969, 1970); Stewart took the 1968 race with Matra Sports.
Formula 3000 replaced Formula Two as the supporting ladder category in 1985, and Alain Prost became a co-organiser of the event that same year. Jean Alesi claimed his first victory at Pau in 1989 after a chaotic race requiring four restarts. Juan Pablo Montoya won back-to-back in 1997 and 1998. When Formula 3000 was consolidated exclusively as a Formula One support series at the end of 1998, Pau lost the category.
Formula Three took over as the headline category from 1999. Lewis Hamilton won the 2005 edition; Romain Grosjean took both races in the 2006 British Formula Three visit. Between 2007 and 2009 the event hosted the World Touring Car Championship's Race of France, a period marked by an unusual incident in 2009 when the safety car entered the track without authorisation and was struck by the race leader Franz Engstler. The FIA sanctioned the officials responsible.
After a financial-driven cancellation in 2010, the Pau Grand Prix was revived in 2011 by Peter Auto with Formula Three and an inaugural electric Grand Prix support event. The FIA Formula 3 European Championship headlined from 2014 to 2018, followed by Euroformula Open and other series. A historic Grand Prix, run since 2001 with pre-war and 1960s Formula One machinery, has become a parallel institution alongside the main event.
The event's long-term future became uncertain when the organising body, the Association Sportive de l'Automobile Club Basco-Béarnais, announced financial difficulties in 2023. The 2024 race was cancelled, and in late 2024 the association appeared before Pau's judicial court over approximately €150,000 in unpaid dues. A return in the 2025–2027 window was hoped for, though remained unconfirmed.
The Pau Grand Prix holds a unique place in European motorsport as a street race that has survived wars, regulatory changes, and shifting commercial landscapes for nearly a century. Its roll of honour encompasses virtually every major driver of the post-war era and served as a talent proving ground for future world champions at multiple points in its history. Autocar magazine's 2021 ranking of the ten best street circuits in the world included Pau among its selections.