Big changes could be coming to Paul Ricard as Eric Boullier takes over as the new managing director at the French Grand Prix.
The former McLaren sporting chief became a key advisor and ambassador for the event when it returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2018, bringing with him multiple years previously as team boss Renault/ Lotus before joining McLaren between 2014-2018.
His role was essential to the organisation of the race at Le Castellet, as France itself hadn't hosted F1 since 2008 with Paul Ricard absent since 1990.
"I am happy and proud to be more involved in this beautiful project that is the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France," Boullier said in a statement.
"I look forward to continuing to contribute to the success of this great motorsport event on French soil. I would like to thank [French GP president] Christian Estrosi and the GIP Grand Prix de France - Le Castellet for their trust."
Now at the helm, the Frenchman is pushing ahead with plans to alter Circuit Paul Ricard, this after the first two races at the popular test track failed to produce a huge amount of on-track action.
“We are going to redesign all the first sector, basically," Boullier told RaceFans.
“There is a target which is to make the lap time a bit faster and maybe push the F1 teams to run lower downforce level, but we [will] also create another big opportunity for overtaking.
"Clearly this one will help also the second one, which is before the [Mistral] chicane.”
It has also been suggested French GP organisers should simply remove the Mistral chicane altogether and allow drivers a chance to slipstream down the full 1.8km straight, but that has been ruled out.
The final sector will also remain untouched, where Paul Ricard's more famous corners are located.
“We don’t want to change the DNA of the track," Boullier continued.
"We have this famous Signes corner [Turn 10] which maybe is the fastest one in the whole calendar, plus the double Beausset [Turn 11]. So we have kept the DNA of the track.
"But we have found some opportunities to improve drastically the capacity of the cars to overtake each other.”
Despite agreement from the circuit, race organisers and F1 owners Liberty Media to the alterations, which have been developed in co-ordination with Ross Brawn, work can't begin until the FIA homologate the proposals by, as Boullier said, giving them the "green light".
And time is getting tight with this year's race set to take place on June 28th.
