French Grand Prix 2022: Track Guide
Here's everything you need to know ahead of this year's French Grand Prix, officially the Formula 1 Lenovo Grand Prix De France 2022.
Work for the Circuit Paul Ricard began in 1969, with French race drivers, Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo, consulting the circuit's building. The track hosted its first Formula 1 event in 1971, with Sir Jackie Stewart winning the inaugural race.
What Le Castellet gave us last year
Max Verstappen cruised to a strategic victory, overtaking Lewis Hamilton at the closing stages of the race, as Red Bull outsmarted Mercedes in terms of tyres and strategy. A reversed Spanish Grand Prix situation found Verstappen stopping twice to Hamilton's one-stop strategy, with the Dutchman overtaking the 7x world champ on lap 52 of 53, having much fresher tyres.
Track Characteristics:
Turns: 15
DRS Zones: 2
Circuit Length: 5.842 km (3.630 mi)
Total Race Distance: 309.69 km (192.43 mi)
Number of Laps: 53
Lap Record: 1:32.740 (Sebastian Vettel, 2019)
Direction: Clockwise
Elevation change: 33 m
Paul Ricard provides a combination of high-, medium- and low- speed corners, which fairly makes the circuit a good testing track, so that's why some teams are bringing many updates this weekend. Despite its good testing qualities, Le Castellet is known to F1 fans as one of the most uninteresting Grands Prix in the calendar
Tyres
Once again, just like last year, the three medium tyres in the Pirelli Formula 1 range have been selected for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix: the C2 as the P Zero White hard, C3 as the P Zero Yellow medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.
Pressure and Camber info:
Minimum Starting Pressure (slicks): 24.0 psi (front), 21.5 psi (rear)
EOS Camber limit: -3.25° (front), -2.00° (rear)
French Grand Prix Weekend Schedule
FP1 | 22 July | 13:00 - 14:00 |
FP2 | 22 July | 16:00 - 17:00 |
FP3 | 23 July | 12:00 - 13:00 |
Qualifying | 23 July | 15:00 - 16:00 |
Race | 24 July | 14:00 - 16:00 |