Vergne doubts French GP will return to F1 anytime soon - MotorSportsTalk

Jean-Eric Vergne is still hanging onto hopes that the French Grand Prix will return to Formula 1 in the near future, even if he realistically cannot see it happening.

The last grand prix to be held in France was at Magny-Cours in 2008, but the event was cut for the 2009 season and has not taken place since. Despite there being speculation about the return of the race at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France, no concrete plans have yet been made, nor do they look likely.

In an interview with gpupdate.net, Vergne – one of three French drivers on the grid in 2014 – shared his thoughts on the possibility of the race returning, but did not seem too optimistic.

“We know that these countries pay a lot of money to receive Formula 1 and France isn’t what it used to be,” he explained. “It isn’t as rich as it was before. We have a different politics.

“I don’t really know much about it. All I know is that I hope that France will come back on the Formula 1 calendar.

“I would love for that to happen. It would be a great thing. There are three French drivers in Formula 1 so that would be beautiful.

“France has a great pedigree in motorsports. To have Formula 1 coming back, I think everybody would love it.”

Formula 1 is currently looking for ways to ‘improve the show’ and make the sport more entertaining following a global decline of 50m TV viewers in 2013. 16m of this drop came in France after the move from free-to-air broadcasting to a subscription service. Vergne was quick to acknowledge the fall in popularity of the sport in France, but he is confident that the return of a race would go a long way to rectifying the situation.

“I think it lost a little bit,” Vergne said. “But if the French Grand Prix comes back, I think it would grow again. We have three French drivers and an engine manufacturer which won many titles in the last few years, so the potential is there.”

Realistically, the French Grand Prix is facing an uphill struggle to get back on the calendar as the sport continues to go global and look for new markets: the recent addition of a race in Azerbaijan for 2016 is proof of where F1’s focus currently is.

Of course, older circuits are by no means exempt from rejoining the calendar. The Austrian Grand Prix at the revamped Red Bull Ring was a great success after eleven years away, but with Red Bull billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz footing the bill, it was welcomed onto the calendar.

Unless a major backer or a group of investors is willing to do something similar for the French Grand Prix, a return is unlikely. The fact that there has been a decline in the sport’s popularity in France will make it even more difficult for any potential investors, as the value would be in the long-term and not immediately evident.

As Vergne did point out, with three home drivers on the grid (Vergne, Romain Grosjean, Jules Bianchi), France a market that could hold some value for Formula 1 if it did choose to go back there.

Follow @LukeSmithF1

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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