The French Prime Minister is outraged by the absence of GP

There is finally a high-ranking member of the French government speaking out on the issue of the French GP: it is Prime Minister François Fillon, present in Monaco this weekend, who said he is pushing as much as possible to do what is necessary and resolve the remaining issues to host F1.

I can’t believe that we don’t have a French Grand Prix. The government will do everything to have one as soon as possible » declared Mr. Fillon on the radio Europe 1. Fillon is known to be a motorsport enthusiast, especially since he was born in the Le Mans region, which hosts the famous 24-hour race every year.

Magny Cours lost its chances of staying in F1 at the end of 2008, and extending the contract would have required too many investments to update the complex. Triple world champion Alain Prost has been closely involved from the start and quickly submitted a potential F1 site at Disneyland to the government. As this project was quickly abandoned, the former driver turned towards Flins-Les-Mureaux, which was more feasible, but faced resistance from the Minister of the Environment, Jean-Louis Borloo, since the circuit would be built on a large aquifer in the Yvelines region.

«It was France that invented automobile racing and the first Formula 1 Grand Prix took place in France » added the Prime Minister, «we are currently looking into whether we need to build a new circuit. In the meantime, we might have to organize the Grand Prix on an existing circuit, as construction of a new one would take us until 2012.»

However, we cannot accept that there will be no F1 Grand Prix in France by 2012.

Among the “temporary” sites, there could be Paul Ricard in the south of France, whose director, Gérard Neveu, was approached by several people this week.

Editor’s note: François Fillon was referring to the first “Grand Prix” that was held in 1906 in Le Mans. The first race under the “F1” label was run at Silverstone in 1950, the inaugural year of the championship.