... We saw a few support races over the three days we were there which ranges from classic car racing to Formula 3000. There were also a few porsche races. The main attraction, Formula 1 of course, was really good. There were the 2 practice sessions on Friday, then saturaday morning practice, ... Read review
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Advantages: Amazing atmosphere, good view Disadvantages: Poor shower facilities, AIRHORNS
...from classic car racing to Formula 3000. There were also a few porsche races. The main attraction, Formula 1 of course, was really good. There were the 2 practice sessions on Friday, then saturaday morning practice, pre-qualifying and qualifying, then the race itself on sunday. The speed was just incredible and seemed so much faster than watching it on tv. The noise was so loud and i would recommend earplugs to those with sensitive ears, or those ... ...Schumacher drives past!
The track itself is one of the best in my opinion, although this view is not shared by many people. It has long fast straights and a nice hairpin and has some good overtaking places. The grandstand we were in, called Est, is one without individual seats, but stone steps (kindov like an ampitheatre) so you had to get there quite early to get a place with a really good view ie of a large part of the track, but ... more
My sister went to the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours this year. This is a review of it in her words:
We booked our 3 days camping for the grand prix online about 6 months in advance. Actually we booked only 2 days but the company made a mistake and gave us 3 days for the same price, which was pretty cool! There were four of us going, me and my boyfriend and two other friends, and were looking forward to it really much.
The journey took a hell of a long time as we were driving there, and living in yorkshire had to make a 600 mile car journey with a ferry ride in the middle. The fuel to get there cost a bomb and our legs were aching from being sat in a car for about 18 hours but it was all worth it in the end! Toll roads in france also cost about 30 Euros in total (approx. £20) so it was an expensive journey.
We found Magny cours quite easily with an autoroute map, but still managed to get lost in the village somehow. Asking one of the locals for directions got us there in the end though, after a conversation in french which nobody quite understood but all four of us managed to pick a bit up from it so we got it in the end!
We arrived at the campsite at about 9pm and found the people working there to be quite rude. As all of us only speak a bit of french it took a while to understand what the staff were telling us, however, words like "stupide" and "idiot" are not too hard to translate into english! this was a bit offensive but it was only one of the men at least! After finally figuring out where we were supposed to pitch the tents and park the car (as we kept being told to move them to different places by different members of staff) we were able to light a campfire which is something we would probably have been forbidden to do in English campsites. The nights sleep was pretty poor due to fans with airhorns all around us, and some inconsiderate sales people driving around at 4am shouting wake up before setting up their souvenir shop and blasting music out of it! Althogether quite an annoying night with not much sleep!
There were Portaloos everywhere so we asumed that these were the only toilets on the campsite, and they were absolutely disgusting as the were simply holes in the ground, and not very big holes at that which meant that people who had misaimed left poo and wee all over the floor. However, we later discovered that what we had thought was a shower block infact contained proper toilets, a great relief, (although you had to provide your own toilet paper) and it didn't contain many showers, 6 to be precise, which were to serve the whole campsite. The toilets and showers here were quite clean though even though queues for the shower were about an hour long!
The camping itself was quite enjoyable despite the downsides, as the atmospere was great and people were particularly impressed by our fire, which was the biggest on the campsite on the first couple of days even though it was fairly small! Everyone there was in a constant party mood and being French had bottles upon bottles of wine, and were happy to share them!
Our time spent at the racetrack was really great. We saw a few support races over the three days we were there which ranges from classic car racing to Formula 3000. There were also a few porsche races. The main attraction, Formula 1 of course, was really good. There were the 2 practice sessions on Friday, then saturaday morning practice, pre-qualifying and qualifying, then the race itself on sunday. The speed was just incredible and seemed so much faster than watching it on tv. The noise was so loud and i would recommend earplugs to those with sensitive ears, or those who dont want to be deafened by airhorns when Micheal Schumacher drives past!
The track itself is one of the best in my opinion, although this view is not shared by many people. It has long fast straights and a nice hairpin and has some good overtaking places. The grandstand we were in, called Est, is one without individual seats, but stone steps (kindov like an ampitheatre) so you had to get there quite early to get a place with a really good view ie of a large part of the track, but wherever you sit you get a clear view of the track infront of you, which is a long straight with a hairpin at the end. Either way it was really exciting!
Before the race there is a drivers parade. This is where the drivers all go around the circuit for people to wave at! Sometimes they all stand on the back of a truck but this time they went around in twos (in their teams) sitting on the back of some really old fashoined cars. I'm not a car expert so i cant remember any of the precise names but they were all relevent to the teams in some way (ie the jaguar drivers were in a jaguar and so forth). You could see the drivers really well and it was cool to see them in the flesh instead of only in pictures!
Alonso was in pole position after a tense qualifying session, which the french were incredibly pleased about since he drives for Renault, and it was nice to see a race where Michael Schumacher wasnt on pole! It was also nice to see that the majority of the crowd supported a team other than Ferrari! As a David Coulthard fan myself i was pleased to see him qualify third - his highest position this season - thanks to the launch of the new Maclaren for this race. However, everything changed in the race, with Schumacher passing Alonso as a result of pit stops - he doesnt seem to be a fan of good old fashioned overtaking does he? Well i was a bit annoyed at the outcome of the race, especially as DC also fell back, but the dissapointment was outweighed by the sheer amazingness of the whole experience! All in all a great race to watch!
The souvenirs available to buy were the usual hats, T-shirts and flags, and were quite reasonably priced compared to what you would pay at the British Grand Prix. A hat cost 30 Euros, about £20 compared to £25 at silverstone last year. The programs were also considerably cheaper at 10 euros, around £7, compared to £15 at silverstone last year. Although they were still fairly expensive it didnt really matter because i already had my Jaques Villeneuve hat from last year (even though he doesnt have a drive this year) so all i needed to buy was a program.
Overall it was a great experience, although quite expensive three days in france worked out cheaper than one day at Silverstone. The entire trip prabaly cost about £300 each, which sounds expensive but i spent £200 ish going to silverstone for only one day last year. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys F1 and has the patience to camp among people who are noisy throughout the whole night. It really was a great experience and i would definately do it again... just watch out for airhorns cos they really bug you after a while! For those people who would not be able to cope with the camping i would still recomend going just for the day because it really was great, however, if you take an airhorn I'll be forced to murder you!
Advantages: A small bit of overtaking Disadvantages: The rest
* The Track *
Looking from above like some sort of demented pac man, Magny-Cours is a modern circuit that nearly always tends to produce a rather dull race. Fun to drive on but not to race on, the large number of fast corners means that any wannabe overtaker will struggle in the dirty air of the overtakee preventing from having any real chance of getting close enough. Therefore the two best overtaking sections on the track are around the two heavy ... ...last year) and the Chicane/Lycee bend section, just prior to the main straight. Obviously these would make for the best viewing locations.
If you’re taking your homebrew F1 car down to France for the day, you’ll want a medium downforce to reach a compromise between the fast corners and the fast straights. As it’s a modern circuit, the surface is very smooth so you can run the car very low.
* The Results – Warning: May cause ...
yhwman 02.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Formula 1 Circuit, Magny Cours, France
Advantages: Good track, always spaces Disadvantages: Miles form anywhere
...is not the home of Formula One. Most of the teams come from UK and the only team based in France are the "Tail End Charlies"Prost Team run by Alain Prost. Yet they make their testing ground at the French home to the Grand Prix, Magny Cours. For many years in the 70's and early 80's, the French Grand Prix was held at Paul Ricard Circuit. After some political reorganisation and the lack of money, it was moved to the newer venue at Magny Cours. Paul ... ...but by modern standards, would prove very unsafe. The Magny Cours track is very VERY smooth. Some say this is another reason why Prost and, before they changed their name, Ligier struggled at grand prixs around the world. The team do all of their testing and development on a dead flat track. When they race on bumpy surfaces such as Monaco they suffer. The track is therefore rice to race on. The structure is a very boring layout according to the Drivers ...
andycharger 06.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Formula 1 Circuit, Magny Cours, France
Advantages: Track has smmoth surface; Excellent Pit Facilities Disadvantages: Poor location; Not very challenging;
The French Grand Prix is held at the Circuit De Nevers Magny Cours which is located in Central France- some cyncics,say,in the centre of nowhere!. Certainly it is far from enjoying a great location !
The circuit is 4.25 km in length and there are some 72 laps. The total race distance amounts to 305.672 km.There are a large variety of corners,the circuit is replete with tight turns and hairpins, and Magny Cours can appropriately be described as a ... ...very even,indeed,some drivers consider it is the smoothest in the FI calendar. Another excellent feature-it really does have has first class pit facilities. This week end's race will be the 51 st French Grand Prix and the 11 th at the Magny Cours circuit. All told no less than seven circuits have hosted the French Grand Prix-viz, Reims,Clermont-Ferand, Le Castellet, Rouen, Le Mans, Dijon-Prenois, and Magny Cours. The chances of a French car winning ...
ashford 01.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Formula 1 Circuit, Magny Cours, France
As the Formula One wagon trundles around Europe it stops this week at France, but what sort of a track is it?
The home of the French Grand Prix, the Circuit De Nevers Magny-Cours is not a remarkable track but it does have a few interesting points. The 2.64 mile track features a variety of corners, all named after the great F1 circuits of the world. It is a recently new addition to the Grand Prix calendar, replacing the old French Grand Prix which ... ...the start line the track sweeps left through Grand Courbe, then heads right through the endless Estoril bend. The lateral g-forces around here are high and contribute to the tracks tyre wear, a problem which Ferrari were affected by last year. In the latter stages of the race you could literally see Shumacher and Barrichello losing time here as they battled with the car. Exiting the Estoril bend leads in to a long straight which in turn leads in ...
real_rob_writer 30.06.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Formula 1 Circuit, Magny Cours, France
Advantages: Very smooth circuit. Disadvantages: Hard on cars.
The tarmac surface at the Magny Cours circuit is rather unique because it is so smooth. There is a plastic membrane that was laid down during the construction of the track and this combined with the local materials used to construct the track has produced a very smooth racing surface. This smooth surface allows the teams to set the ride height of the cars lower and also to set the wings much closer to the ground. This helps to maximise the aerodynamics ... ...of the car very technical and difficult. The suspension of the cars is also set much stiffer than normal, so when a driver goes over a kerb it will feel much more uncomfortable for them. On the corners the tyres tend to roll and slide on the smooth surface and this quickly degrades the tyres and at a type change the old tyres look more like slicks than grooved tyres. In the centre of France about halfway between Paris and Lyon the Grand Prix race ...
daseaford 26.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Formula 1 Circuit, Magny Cours, France
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