FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed the governing body will complete a simulation to assess whether to remove the Mistral chicane at Paul Ricard for 2019.
For the first French Grand Prix in 10 years, organisers decided to split the famous 1.8km Mistral Straight into two parts with one of the numerous chicane configurations available just after halfway.
During the drivers briefing on Friday though, the consensus was that its inclusion had taken away one of the main features and challenges of the track at Le Castellet.
“Everyone would talk about the straight and the corner at the end, just like everyone talks about other sections in the world,” said Renault’s Carlos Sainz referring to the flat-out Signes bend.
“It would give it a touch of character that maybe it doesn’t have at the moment.”
In the race though, concerns over a lack of overtaking were unfounded as drivers completed numerous moves into the chicane as well as other parts of the layout.
“In my opinion, everything worked well,” Whiting said. “There are some who think we shouldn’t have it [the chicane], but the teams and drivers knew about it long before the Grand Prix. So I was surprised when on Friday it was suddenly an issue.
“We can do a simulation to check it but I would also like to hear the opinions of the drivers again because we saw a lot of good overtaking during the race and we might not have seen it without that chicane,” he added.
One man who did more overtaking than most was Sebastian Vettel as the German made his way through from the back of the field following the collision with Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1.
Giving his view on the race, the Ferrari driver did point to one factor which likely helped improve the quality of the racing.
“I think it was to do with quite a strong headwind we had. From the east end of the track to the west end down the long straight,” he stated.
“That was helping a lot because we were gaining a lot in the second part of the straights, which obviously made the tow quite strong.
“If the wind was the other way around I think it would have been more difficult.”
