French Grand Prix boss Eric Boullier says only overtaking “solutions” at Paul Ricard will be implemented this year due to the coronavirus.
Since returning to the calendar in 2018, the race has been marred by a lack of on-track action as drivers struggle to stay close to each other around the technical layout.
Plans to drastically alter the circuit, including an all-new first sector, had already been touted, but because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which is threatening the June 28 race, an unveiling of the changes had to be postponed.
“Just before the pandemic problem, we were ready to announce some changes for 2020, but also for 2021 and 2022,” Boullier revealed to Canal+.
“It’s a project that we have developed with the FOM, the FIA and the Paul Ricard circuit but, for the moment, we’re going to wait until there’s a little more visibility in our daily lives apart from the confinement to announce other things.”
The outbreak, which has seen almost 16,700 cases across France, has also limited the amount of work that could be done at Paul Ricard, meaning bigger changes have had to be delayed.
“We have a track that is what it is, but we have found solutions that should effectively improve overtaking and, in any case, the risk-taking of the drivers, so by definition the show,” the former McLaren chief continued.
“And then next year we’ll have other possibilities for changes, which unfortunately now in the time allowed can no longer be done, but we’ll see in 2021 according to the new regulations [which will not come into force until 2022], we’ll still have the possibility to change the circuit.”
