Paul Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racing circuit, and the result was one of the most innovative venues of its era. Situated on a plateau above the Var coastline near Marseille, the circuit benefited from mild winter weather, an on-site airstrip, and modern facilities that made it immediately popular with Formula One teams for off-season testing. The circuit had three track layout permutations from the outset; the long layout measuring 5.809 km was used for the French Grand Prix.
The dominant feature of the long circuit was the Mistral Straight — 1.8 km of unbroken acceleration leading to the high-speed right-hand Signes corner. The combination of the Mistral and the sweeping Verrerie curves on the approach to it made the original Paul Ricard among the most demanding layouts in terms of engine longevity. Cars ran at full throttle for extended periods, and engine failures were a regular occurrence.
The track was built on a flat plateau, giving it virtually no elevation change — an unusual characteristic among major European circuits. Opened on 19 April 1970 with a 2-litre sports car race, it hosted its first Formula One French Grand Prix the following year in 1971.
The classic long layout hosted the French Grand Prix intermittently from 1971 to 1985, alternating with the Dijon-Prenois circuit in some years. The circuit was particularly associated with the emergence of French talent: Alain Prost won the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in 1983 on his way to building a record that would see him win four times at the circuit overall.
The long Mistral Straight defined the character of racing in this era. Turbo-charged cars of the early 1980s reached extraordinary speeds on the straight — during qualifying for the 1985 French Grand Prix, Swiss driver Marc Surer clocked what was at the time the highest speed recorded by a Formula One car on the Mistral, pushing his turbocharged Brabham-BMW to 335 km/h. The contrast with the naturally aspirated machinery in the same field was stark: Stefan Bellof's Tyrrell-Ford V8 managed only 277 km/h on the same straight and qualified 12 seconds slower than pole winner Keke Rosberg.
Rosberg himself set the race lap record for the original long circuit layout at 1:39.914 during the 1985 French Grand Prix, driving a Honda-powered Williams FW10. That race was also notable for dramatic incidents on the Mistral: Ayrton Senna suffered a major accident at Signes after his Lotus-Renault engine failed and he went off backwards, while Nigel Mansell crashed at the same corner following a slow puncture that caused his rear tyre to explode at over 320 km/h, tearing off the rear wing of his car. Both drivers escaped serious injury.
In 1986, during a testing session at Paul Ricard, Brabham Formula One driver Elio de Angelis was killed after the rear wing of his Brabham BT55 broke off at the fast first turn. The crash occurred in the sweeping Verrerie curves section immediately following the start-finish straight. Although the circuit was not considered the primary cause of the accident, the combination of the speed and the limited safety infrastructure at that section prompted significant redesign.
The modification that followed effectively ended the classic long circuit's use for Grand Prix racing. The Mistral Straight was shortened from 1.8 km to just over 1.0 km by adding a bypass that connected the pit straight directly into the middle of the Mistral, eliminating the Verrerie sweepers entirely. This reduced the circuit length from 5.809 km to just 3.812 km. The effect on lap times was dramatic: Keke Rosberg's 1985 pole time of 1:32.462 in his turbocharged Williams-Honda became Nigel Mansell's 1990 pole time of 1:04.402 in a V12 Ferrari — a reduction of nearly 30 seconds per lap.
The shorter Club Circuit was used for the French Grand Prix from 1986 until 1990, when the race moved to Magny-Cours.
The original long Paul Ricard layout represented a particular philosophy of motor racing circuit design — fast, flat, technically precise, demanding absolute mechanical reliability — that the post-1986 truncated version could not replicate. The circuit's location, facilities, and airstrip made it one of the most practical testing venues in Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and teams continued to use the shortened and later substantially rebuilt test-track configuration well after Grand Prix racing departed. The classic 5.809 km layout, with its full-length Mistral Straight and Signes corner, is preserved in historical simulation software and remains a benchmark of the turbo era's high-speed circuit demands.