2025 Grand Prix de France Historique report
Gala of the stars
Author
- Mattijs Diepraam
Date
- April 30, 2025
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Who?Zak Brown/Richard Dean What?Jaguar XJR-9 Where?Paul Ricard When?2025 Grand Prix de France Historique (April 25, 2024) |
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Why?
This year’s Grand Prix de France Historique at the Paul Ricard circuit was even more about the stars rather than the sport. However, organiser HVM made the right financial bet, as no fewer than 90,000 French spectators forked out a considerable sum of money to catch a glimpse of a parade of celebrities from Formula 1 past and present. It was instantly the most well-attended historic event of the year, apart from the Goodwood Revival that’s still coming up and where the same adage is so successfully exploited.
Despite the renewed presence of Alain Prost, René Arnoux, Philippe Alliot and the sons of Patrick Tambay and Jean-Pierre Jabouille at Paul Ricard, the immenseness of the Drive To Survive effect of contemporary Formula 1 soon become clear. Indeed, the loudest cheers of the entire weekend erupted when Charles Leclerc briefly made his appearance on Saturday to wave the starting flag for the afternoon’s historic Masters Historic Racing F1 race. It is not often that the screams of smitten schoolgirls be heard during a historic motorsport event, but such is the popularity of the handsome Ferrari driver today, especially in France.
Victor Jabouille and René Arnoux waiting for their turn in the Renault RS10 and Renault RE40, the latter raced by Eddie Cheever in period, instead of Arnoux. (photo 8W)
McLaren CEO Zak Brown suffered the same fate. The American came to Paul Ricard to drive his Williams FW07 and Jaguar XJR-9 during a weekend out, but was so besieged by hysterical fans on Saturday that he could not reach the podium to receive his trophy for second place in the Masters Group C race. Only once you have witnessed with your own eyes how Brown draws more crowds than a four-time home-grown world champion, you will understand the astronomically high entertainment value – and thus its economic value – of Formula 1 at this juncture. HVM and the Paul Ricard circuit, under the leadership of Jean Alesi – another celebrity himself, of course – knew full well how to tap into this plentyful resource. It spoke volumes that the race that Leclerc was to start needed to be postponed by 10 minutes because the crowd refused to leave the pit lane at the end of their grid walk – and that at an event that was otherwise superbly well organised.
On the circuit itself, many more famous names were ready to be admired – from former F1 drivers like Thierry Boutsen, Stefan Johansson and Mark Webber to sports car stars such as André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Jan Magnussen. Not all of them reached the podium, but that did not detract from their contribution to success. Still, it was the usual suspects who came out on top in the first Masters Racing Legends race for 3-litre F1 cars. No fewer than 37 cars had registered for it, further proof that historic 3-litre-era F1 is currently enjoying a boom. Former champion and multiple winner Mike Cantillon (Williams FW07C) emerged from third on the grid to pass poleman Werner d’Ansembourg (Brabham BT49C) on the fifth lap, tagging Jamie Constable (Tyrrell 011) along in his wake. On the same lap, guest driver André Lotterer was force to drop out after he had put his pre-78-class Hesketh 308 on the front row and initially made life difficult for d’Ansembourg.
James Hagan's Tyrrell 011B seen at full tilt on the stretch after the first esses. (photo 8W)
Cantillon drove home to victory, but not after Constable spun around while overtaking a hesitant backmarker. His pursuer’s Brabham was unable to avoid the spun Tyrrell, resulting in a damaged front wing. Constable was able to continue his way, but in the meantime reigning champion Matt Wrigley (Tyrrell 011) and Yutaka Toriba (Williams FW07C) nipped past. And yet Constable got his second place back, as Wrigley was dropped four spots in the results after being deemed guilty of a contretemps with Toriba that caused the Japanese driver to retire. It earned Ken Tyrrell (Tyrrell 011), the 2023 champion, third place.
After a bright Friday and Saturday, it was raining cats and dogs on Sunday, making the second race at least as exciting. Starting from the partially reversed grid, Dan Eagling (Fittipaldi F8) slithered to the front along with Wrigley to seize the first two positions at the chequered flag. For Eagling, it was a sensational debut victory, as the former BRDC Autosport Young Driver of the Year finalist experienced his first ever historic F1 weekend, having already stood out at Brands Hatch last year by winning that weekend’s Masters Gentlemen Drivers race in a puny Ginetta G4R. The quick driver-preparer was hired as a driver coach by Nine-W Motorsport, the team that ran the Fittipaldi and allowed Eagling to add value to his coaching advice by having him race the car himself first. That it would yield an immediate win, the team and Eagling himself never dreamed would happen. Behind Eagling and Wrigley, Cantillon opted to play safe and make sure of third place to become the first championship leader.
Mark Charteris handsomely paced F2 qualifying in the ex-Brian Henton Toleman March-Hart 782, but the car failed to appear in the races. (photo 8W)
Behind the top-three, André Lotterer and Soheil Ayari shone by storming up to fourth and fifth from the backfield. Lotterer won the pre-78 class, a win he had to leave to Peter Williams in the Lec CRP1 the previous day. In the rain, Ayari danced to the front from plum last on the grid, hustling the Ligier JS21 that he had graciously vacated for teammate ‘Mr John of B’ a day earlier. The latter had brought his Ligier-Matra JS17 for the occasion, but the French V12 engine proved unreliable during qualifying. The other twelve-pot in the field, Richard Hope's Alfa Romeo 182, also failed to make it through Saturday.
To enhance that typical Grand Prix feeling, the organisers had rightly put the emphasis on the monopostos. So between all the demos and star parades, historic F2, F3 and Formula Junior were allowed to demonstrate their virtues with two races each, alongside the time attack for F1s from the 1990s and this century’s GP2 and FR3.5 cars. The three older grids all featured double winners: Wolfgang Kaufmann won both F2 races in his March 782, despite fierce opposition from Manfredo Rossi's 762, but the Italian in turn twice topped F3. In his Ralt-VW RT3, Rossi fought with Alex Ames in the Argo-Toyota JM6 on Saturday, but Ames was spun around early in Sunday’s wet race. From 15th place, he fought his way back to the front to finish third behind Frédéric Rouvier's Chevron-Toyota B38. In Formula Junior, the busy Rossi had to acknowledge Horatio Fitz-Simon’s superiority in the Brabham BT6, as he twice left the the Martini heir’s Lotus 22 trailing by ten seconds. Meanwhile, in his final season of competition, Floris-Jan Hekker stood out by keeping his Rayberg FJ in one piece in Sunday morning’s drizzle and guiding his trusty steed to the class win for front-engined cars. The day before, Adrian Russell’s Condor ran away with class victory.
Marcel Fässler and Gérard Lopez stormed to a brace of Masters Group C wins in their Alpha-liveried Porsche 962C. (photo 8W)
Hekker was not the only Dutchman in action, as the Hart family had also come over. In historic F1, Olivier Hart was disappointed to bow out early when his Shadow DN8 proved to have a misfiring engine. In Masters’ new Group C class, young Hart was able to stretch his legs in the 3.5-litre-era Lola-Judd T92/10 penned by Wiet Huidekoper for Lola and its Dutch customer team of Euroracing, with Cor Euser, Charles Zwolsman and Jesus Pareja on the driving force. With the screaming Judd GV V10 in the back, Hart junior set a pole time of 1.56, a lap that would normally have gone into the books as the fastest of the weekend. However, in the time attack, Thomas Zeltner’s Dallara-Mécachrome GP2-11 managed to improve that to a 1.54.
However, with the Lola, the Harts would not make it to the end of the weekend either, as Olivier Hart spun on the Lola-Judd T92/1’s own liquids while in pursuit of the winning Porsche 962C of André Lotterer and former Lotus F1 team boss Gérard Lopez. This first Group C for Masters would be another milestone for the international promoter. As a compliment to the era’s history, it was appropriate that the top-three on the first day consisted of a Porsche, a Jaguar and a Lancia, as Thierry Boutsen finished third in an LC2. The next day, Fässler and Lopez won unchallenged, again leading home the Brown/Dean combo, while Daniil Kvyat's winning C2 car lost its third place after the race. This did not only apply to the Russian’s Spice SE89C, but Argentinian Alejandro Chahwan’s SE88C was also excluded from the results for technical non-conformity. With that, Masters confirmed that they too mean business when it comes to the renewed rules clampdown that Goodwood, Masters and Motor Racing Legends jointly announced last month, with Goodwood recently showing no mercy at the 82nd Members’ Meeting either.