The FIA has released details of the Paul Ricard circuit with changes made, track limits, DRS zones and more for this weekend’s F1 French GP.
Eduardo Freitas is back as the FIA Race Director this weekend for F1 French GP, taking over from Neils Wittich. He has released the note detailing about various aspects, leading with the changes made to the Paul Ricard circuit.
The changes here goes as:
- A gravel bed has been installed at the exit of T7.
- A TSP dedicated to indicating the obstruction of the pit entry road has been installed.
- The runoff at T2 was releveled.
In terms of track limits, the FIA Race Directors’ note has checked on multiple turns as potential ones. While the white lines remains the core point, but majority of the corners mentioned for Paul Ricard relates to re-joining the track after going off.
Here goes the track limits details:
- In accordance with the provisions of Article 33.3, the white lines define the track edges. During Qualifying and the Race, each time a driver fails to negotiate with the exit of Turn 10, will result in that lap time and the immediately following lap time being invalidated by the Stewards.
- Turns 1 and 2 – Any driver who fails to negotiate Turn 2 by using the track, and who passes completely to the right of the first fluorescent yellow bollard on the apex of the corner, must keep completely to the right of the fluorescent yellow bollard and re-join the track by driving through the two arrays of blocks in the runoff by passing to the right of the first and to the left of the second.
- Turns 3 – 5 – Any driver who fails to negotiate Turn 4 by using the track, and who passes completely to the left of the fluorescent yellow bollard on the apex of the corner, must keep completely to the left of the fluorescent yellow bollard and re-join the track by driving to the left of the block in the runoff prior to Turn 5.
- Turns 8 and 9 – Any driver going straight on at Turn 8 must re-join the track by driving through the four arrays of blocks in the escape road, to the left of the first, to the right of the second, to the left of the third and to the right of the fourth.
Moving on to the two DRS zones at Paul Ricard, the first detection zone is 75m before Turn 7, while the activation is 170m after Turn 7. The second zone’s detection is at Turn 14 and activation is at 115m after Turn 15.
As for the four FIA stewards for French GP weekend, Dr Gerd Ennser will lead the panel comprising of Matthew Selley, Enrique Bernoldi and Jean-Marie Krempff.
Here’s the full FIA Race Directors’ note: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2022%20French%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Race%20Director’s%20Event%20Notes.pdf