Magny-Cours
When Magny-Cours opened in 1961, no one would have imagined that it would become France's premier racing circuit, the home to the French GP. However, this is what happened due, largely, to politics.
Built outside the town of Nevers some 240 km (150 miles) south of Paris, it's safe to say that it was a venue destined for nothing more than hosting club racing and, at best, rounds of France's national racing championships as well as becoming home to the Winfield Racing School that was the starting point for almost all of the stars of the future. Its only real link to the World Championship was that it was called the Circuit Jean Behra, named after France's mercurial but fated star of the 1950s.
In 1968, Magny-Cours also became the base for Martini Racing Cars, which used the track as a handy testing venue for its latest single-seaters that were so popular in the junior French championships. Indeed, this is how the circuit operated, even after 1971, when its lap was all but doubled in length at the suggestion of the local mayor. This was achieved by the addition of a long, thin loop that made the track turn left where it had doubled back on itself at a hairpin and then fed the cars through a very long righthander onto a lengthy back straight up a gentle slope to the distant Adelaide hairpin. Not that it was called that then, as the corner names that include Estoril, Nurburgring and Imola were added in the late 1980s, when the circuit gained international aspirations. The return leg of this new loop returned the cars to the original circuit at the exit of the hairpin from which it had been rerouted.
What happened next was a matter of political expediency President Mitterand put his weight behind developing the extremely rural Nevers region ahead of a national election and allocated considerable resources for the development of Magny-Cours, allowing the rebuilding of the circuit, with the old pit and paddock complex on the infield of the circuit on the descent from Chateau d'Eau being demolished and a new one built on the outside of the circuit after the next corner, Lycee. To help boost local employment opportunities, an industrial estate was built outside the circuit gates to operate as a hub for the French motor sport industry and its associated suppliers, with the jewel in its crown being the fact that this development attracted France's only Fl team of the time, Ligier, to move there.
The final piece in its transformation came in 1991, when it took over the hosting of the French GP from the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of the country. The teams and drivers were impressed by its super-smooth surface and its mixture of corner types, although some felt that there weren't enough fast corners. What Magny-Cours did have, though, was a fail-safe overtaking spot, with drivers able to line up slipstreaming moves into the Adelaide hairpin, so the racing was almost inevitably exciting, at that part of the lap at least. In fact, it was considered by many to be the circuit's only overtaking spot.
What F1 insiders didn't like, though, was the circuit's isolation, which meant that hotels were few and far between, meaning that many team personnel had undesirably lengthy commutes to the circuits. This rural location also limited the number of spectators, something that was perhaps a matter for which those present had reason to be thankful, as access to the circuit itself was through just one gate. Nigel Mansell won Magny-Cours' inaugural grand prix for Williams, a feat that he repeated in 1992 before Alain Prost took his ride for 1993 and gave the crowd a home winner.
The French GP remained at Magny-Cours until 2008, when Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the final winner in what has remained the country's final grand prix. There is talk of the French GP being revived and perhaps returning to the modernized Paul Ricard, leaving Magny-Cours back once more with its original diet of club and national racing series.
