Estrosi: “The French Grand Prix must be a huge success”

Christian Estrosi, president of the GIP Grand Prix de France – Le Castellet, admits that the return of the event to the Circuit Paul Ricard after 10 years of absence is expected around the corner.

Present Tuesday morning in Paris to sign, with the president of the FFSA Nicolas Deschaux, the sporting organization agreement for the French Grand Prix, Christian Estrosi praised the investments made by the Var route – almost 30 million euros in recent years. years – and praised the skills of the Federation to ensure the holding of such an event.

« This agreement formalizes the position of the FFSA as a partner and co-leader at the organizational level, declared the deputy president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Together, we have a unity of view, an ambitious vision for this return of the French Grand Prix. Because we also know that people are watching us, observing us, spying on us. We know that if it were a failure, it would be up to us to take responsibility. If it's a success, we'll say 'it's France that succeeded'. I'm used to it in public life. We have no room for error. There are five years in the contract and of course each edition will be perfected compared to the next one but our ambition and our objective is to make it a huge success from the first year and I know that we can count on the FFSA to contribute to this. very widely. »

Nicolas Deschaux, for his part, was keen to applaud the “ iron political and financial voluntarism » of the GIP and its president, with communities investing 14 million euros each year for economic benefits estimated at 65 million euros. He also welcomed the “ tour de force » carried out by the Circuit Paul Ricard, whose recently initiated metamorphosis will notably make it possible to go from 5 to 000 seats in the stands for a capacity of 51 people in total.

Open to the public since November 16 and organized in several successive waves, the event's ticket sales already exceed 30%, i.e. a level " in our hopes even if the bar of expectations is always higher » admitted Christian Estrosi.

The latter also lifted a corner of the veil on the ambitions of Liberty Media, at the dawn of their second season at the helm of the F1, evoking the desire of the new owners to make each event more identifiable in relation to other dates on the calendar.

« Bernie Ecclestone's successors have the same rigor but also a new outlook and the desire to see each Grand Prix with a stronger personality. We have to say to ourselves 'we are really in France, at the Circuit Paul Ricard' with this Mediterranean side and character which remains our trademark. In our organization, we try to personalize this dimension with all our might.

Thursday day (usually reserved for media operations) will be fully part of this process and will be geared towards young people. We are going to ensure that access is free for a large number of high school students in our region, young people in apprenticeships or those supervised by associations that affect city politics. We want to show that Formula 1 is not inaccessible but on the contrary an event that offers professional prospects. »

Finally, in addition to the F1 show already planned in Marseille, Christian Estrosi also announced events linked to the French Grand Prix in the cities of Nice and Toulon with the aim of creating “ a healthy emulation " In the region.