Host Carl Lewis is joined by motorsport journalist Sean Parker, they preview the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.
The final pair of back-to-back races prior to the summer break gets underway with this weekend's French Grand Prix, before moving onto Hungary on 31 July. Scuderia Ferrari and the other teams have set up camp at Le Castellet, in the Var region in the hinterland between Toulon and Marseille. The Paul Ricard Circuit is named after one of the original owners of the venue and the inventor of the eponymous aniseed drink, which is something of an institution in France. The race weekend is expected to be the hottest of the season so far, with temperatures heading for 40 degrees centigrade, which will make life difficult for the drivers and teams.
Paul Ricard was built in 1970, construction taking less than a year and today, it is at the cutting edge when it comes to race track safety. For several years it was used only as a test track, a popular choice because of the high number of possible configurations. Several safety measures first evaluated here went on to be adopted by the majority of tracks, with large run-off areas, some tarmac and others the traditional gravel.
The French Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2018, after a ten-year break and it uses a 5.842-kilometre version of the track, featuring 15 corners. The first sector is the fastest, providing the best overtaking opportunities, especially under braking into turn 1 and going into turn 3. The second section is all about the power unit, featuring the Mistral straight which is broken up by a chicane to reduce the entry speed into Signes, one of the fastest corners on the calendar. Aerodynamics take on greater importance in the third sector, with a variety of medium-speed corners between 11 and 15. There are two DRS zones: one on the main straight, the other on the first part of the Mistral straight.