The Circuit Paul-Ricard celebrates its 50th anniversary!

This Sunday on the Castellet plateau, the first spectators of the Var circuit which is celebrating its fifty years are witnessing a double baptism: that of a brand new circuit born from the will of a pastis manufacturer and that of the European Sports and Prototypes Trophy which will become the 2-liter European Championship.

On April 19, 1970, the Circuit Paul Ricard was inaugurated. It was 50 years ago. We couldn't get together today to celebrate this anniversary, but some of our friends wanted to send us a message... https://t.co/KlgoGplvTW

— Paul Ricard Circuit (@PaulRicardTrack) April 19, 2020

It is Patrick, the son of Paul Ricard, who welcomes Joseph Comiti, Secretary of State for Youth, Sports and Leisure of the Chaban-Delmas government. The initiator of the project did not come, angry with the prefecture and the municipality of Castellet who, according to him, continued to put obstacles in his way during the construction of the circuit. If Paul Ricard is conspicuous by his absence, the circuit is however quite impressive.

“That day, we gave the other routes a real old look, remembers with emotion François Chevalier who is not yet the director of the circuit but the assistant of Jean-Pierre Paolo, right-hand man of Paul Ricard. There were a lot of deaths during this period and introducing a “right to make mistakes” became our leitmotif during construction. I remember very well Jean-Pierre Jaussaud who competed in the race on a Tecno on April 19 F3 support (in addition to the European Trophy, this inaugural meeting included Formula 3, Formula France, Formula Blue, Gordini Cup. Editor's note), rejoicing in the fact that he wasn't going to wreck his car if he spun. It was quite an innovative concept! »

Headlined by the Swedish Jo Bonnier and the British Brian Redman, the entry list for the European Trophy is also rich in the names of Jean Guichet, Gérard Larrousse and others. On the car side, it's the fight between the aging Alfa 33/2 and Porsche 907 against the new Chevron B16 and Lola T210. 

From the start, Bonnier took the lead with his Lola and only Redman's Chevron managed to limit the damage. At 2/3 of the distance, while, barring any incident, the T210 appears to have won the race, its engine begins to sputter in the turns: planing! The Swede is therefore forced to stop to refuel. He thinks that Redman will have to do the same, but the Englishman does not stop and wins after 100 laps of the small 3,3 km circuit. And Bonnier was even forced to give up 3 laps from the end, broken accelerator cable. He nevertheless retained 2nd place.

“With Paoli, continues François Chevalier who did not yet know that he was going to lead the circuit for the next 30 years, we fought to make this inauguration meeting a success. For months, we had gone down every day to our “enchanted mine” as we called the circuit site, but a mine all the same. Bernard Consten, then president of the FFSA, was incredibly involved in being entrusted with the organization of the very first round of this brand new championship. We won this bet together and at the end of May, Consten called us to offer us the organization of the French GP F1 in September ! We had the wisdom to decline because we were not ready. »

A year later, the Paoli pair who would become the right arm of Guy Ligier and Chevalier were this time ready. On July 4, 1971, Castellet hosted the French Grand Prix for the first time. But that's another story...

Bonus – The first rounds of the Formula 2 at Paul-Ricard: