Bad news... The 2004 French GP was cancelled because of financial problems. http://f1.racing-live.com/en/index.html?%20<A%20HREF=
season / # of races ------------------- 2003 / 16 2002 / 17 2001 / 17 2000 / 17 1999 / 16 1998 / 16 1997 / 17 1996 / 16 1995 / 17 1994 / 16 1993 / 16 the 2004 tentative initial schedule was for 18 races (drop austria; bring back belgium; add bahrain and shanghai) - more than they've raced in recent history. so they kinda had to kill somebody, right? i assume bernie just put the screws to his least favorite handful and waited for someone to scream uncle. now if shanghai and bahrain both don't open in time, they'll be down to 15, which smells like a problem. doody.
I cannot say that i will miss the French GP. Between it and the Hungaroring those are my 2 least favorite tracks of the year.
Here's some bad news for some of you..lol >Still hope for France ''The French Grand Prix is not entirely dead according to the French sports minister. On Friday evening the President of the local council which runs the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours said the 2004 race would be cancelled due to financial problems. It is speculated that around $10million is owed to Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management company and that it would need to be found before an event could go ahead in 2004. On top of that reported debt, however, is the fee for 2004 taking the total due to Ecclestone to around $15million. Eyes now turn to the French government for help after the past two French Grand Prix failed to turn a profit for organisers. Sports minister Jean-François Lamour said that a decision had yet to be taken by 'competent authorities'. He added that he would support the French motor racing federation to persuade the FIA to keep the 2004 race on the calendar for the good of motor sport. He made no real reference to the government helping out financially. The FIA World Council meets in three weeks to confirm the final shape of the 2004 calendar - time is running out for France...'' http://www.f1racing.net/news.php?ID=65611
Time isn't running out, the FIA is based in Paris...They can squeeze in their GP whenever they want. Seriously I'm not too sad to see Magny Cours fall through the cracks. The track sucks, artificial and sterile to the extreme, no elevation changes, stupidest chicane of all. On top of that it sits in the middle of nowhere. When Mitterand was president he wanted to stimulate the economy in his home area and so he put the new track there. But the plan failed. Other than the GP weekend, nothing ever happens there. So all the fans, teams, press have to travel 100 km just to get to the track from their hotels. Ridiculous. In a way the situation is as screwed up as in the States: The French have tons of great tracks (Dijon being my favourite) but race on this Mickey Mouse circuit. Sound familiar? Indy vs Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen or Road America? Another reason for the French GP to drop out is the busy summer schedule. For obvious reasons F1 teams hate to do races on consecutive weekends.
The latest I heard, was that now at least two other French places are fighting for it: One in the Burgundy, where they could get an exception at least for alcohol advertisements and the other for Paul Ricard. Burgundy doesn't have a track yet, but then again that didn't stop Magny Cours to be built out of nowhere. Ricard exists, but would need some serious improvements including grandstands. What speaks for Ricard is, that it belongs to Ecclestone... Most realistically however will be, that Magny Cours will only be dropped next year and come back in 2005 after the French Government paid the money owed to Ecclestone.
The saga continues: Latest one is, that the French GP is back in the calendar in Magny Cours but trading places datewise with the British GP.
Bernie is very keen to move the date of the British GP as it current;y clashes with the final of wimbledon and the final of the European Cup. If they use another circuit in France it will almost certainly be Paul Ricard which is now owned by Bernie Eccelstone
The whole mess is about $$$ owed to Bernie by the owners of Magny Cours. So I bet the French government will step in, pay the bill and we'll have the Grand Prix of the Grande Nation as usual. I think it is all a power play just like it was with Spa and Canada. And Bernie holds the cards, if they don't pay up, the race will go eastbound out of Europe.