Circuit Paul Ricard

The Circuit Paul Ricard near Le Castellet in Provence was built in 1969 and opened on 19 April 1970; it was financed by the pastis magnate Paul Ricard, after whom the venue is named. Wikipedia lists the current main layout 1C-V2 at 5.842 kilometres with 15 corners, alongside shorter configurations down to 3.841 kilometres with eleven corners; five layouts hold FIA Grade 1 status. The Mistral straight was originally 1.8 kilometres long and was shortened to roughly one kilometre in 1986 for safety reasons. Instead of gravel traps the run-off next to the track is a mixture of asphalt and tungsten, the so-called Blue Zone, with the higher-grip Red Zone further out. The circuit sits on a plateau between 408 and 441 metres and is correspondingly flat. The operator names the Bol d'Or, the 24-hour race of the FIM Endurance World Championship, as its largest motorcycle event and runs regular track days for motorcycles alongside it. For you that mostly means speed: on the Mistral straight you sit pinned for a long time, and that is exactly where any instability in the chassis shows up, because you have to live with it for what feels like an eternity before the next braking zone. Top of our cause list for weave on fast straights is a ride-height and sag balance that is off with the rear too high - set sag correctly before anything else.