Motor Sport: France May Lose Its Grand Prix

The French grand prix, the oldest event still on the sport's international calendar, may be dropped from the formula one world championship in 2008. That warning came yesterday from the French national motorsport federation, the FFSA, which strongly hinted that the race's present home, the Circuit de Nevers at Magny-Cours, was not up to scratch in terms of facilities and accessibility.

In a statement the federation said: "The executive committee has decided to suspend the inscription of the French grand prix on the 2008 calendar as the conditions of a successful event are not guaranteed." However, it did not close the door completely; it added that the executive committee would re-examine the situation at its next meeting in July.

Talk of the 2008 calendar as potentially a done deal seems premature because the FIA traditionally does not publish even so much as a provisional calendar until October of the previous year. Magny-Cours has hosted the French grand prix since 1991, when it took over from Le Castellet near Marseille, but the venue has been financially troubled for some years and if France is to host a race in 2009 it is likely Le Castellet or a new track within the Disneyland Paris theme park would host it.

The first French grand prix was staged in 1906 and the race has not missed a year since 1955. It has always been a nomadic fixture, being staged variously at Reims, Rouen-les-Essarts, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mans, Dijon-Prenois and Le Castellet prior to moving to Nevers.

The formula one rights holder, Bernie Ecclestone, who has a stake in the Le Castellet track, has developed the venue as a test and development circuit. It has similar access problems to Magny-Cours, so a track closer to Paris would be more in line with his expansion to new purpose-built circuits elsewhere in the world. "For me a Paris grand prix has been a dream dating back several years," he told France's Auto Hebdo magazine.

Ecclestone also suggested last year that Britain and France alternate their races. The FFSA agreed but Silverstone's owner, the British Racing Drivers' Club, judged that it made no commercial sense to maintain a formula one-specification track for a race every other year.