🇫🇷Circuit Paul Ricard

Circuit Paul Ricard (also known as Le Castellet) is a 5.842 km motor racing circuit at Le Castellet in the Var department of southern France, about 40 km east of Marseille. The circuit was built in 1969 with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard and opened on 19 April 1970, its innovative facilities (including extensive run-off areas and the iconic blue-and-red striped Tecpro barriers) making it one of the safest racing circuits in the world at the time. The original layout was dominated by the 1.8 km Mistral Straight, leading into the high-speed right-hand Signes corner — taken nearly flat-out and one of the most demanding corners in motorsport. After Paul Ricard's death the circuit was acquired in 1999 by Excelis, a company owned by F1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone, and Philippe Gurdjian (organiser of the F1 French GP from 1985 to 1997) led a complete renovation to turn the venue into the world's first track dedicated exclusively to testing and communications — the "Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track". The Mistral straight was split with a chicane and the painted run-off areas (alternating red and blue with progressively coarser abrasive surfaces) were invented here. Paul Ricard hosted the French Grand Prix from 1971 to 1990, returned to F1 between 2018 and 2022, and hosts the FIM Endurance World Championship 24 Heures Motos (one of the four EWC classics) and the Bol d'Or as one of the most prestigious motorcycle endurance races on the calendar. Named corners include Verriere (T1), the long Sainte Beaume (T3) flat right, Beausset, Signes, Bendor and the wide final Boule du Var sweeper.