Financed by drinks magnate Paul Ricard, the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet in the south of France has been one of the country’s top racing circuits since it first opened in 1970.

Construction of the flat circuit was completed by the turn of the decade, and the venue opened its doors for the first time in April 1970.

Regarded as one of the safest circuits at the time, the original layout featured the daunting 1.8 km long Mistral Straight.

The circuit quickly attracted Formula One, hosting the French Grand Prix in 1971 and after alternating initially with Charade and then Dijon, by 1985 it was the main host of the event.

Alas, that year would be the final time the full circuit was used for F1 – following the death of Elio de Angelis at the fast Verrerie corners in a 1986 testing accident, only the short 3.812 km variant was used for the top-line event.

It lost the Grand Prix after the 1990 running, and aside from hosting the 1995 FIA Touring Car World Cup, staged few top international events for over a decade.

Purchased by a consortium headed by Bernie Ecclestone in 1998, the circuit went through a phase of rejuvenation, turning it into the Paul Ricard High-Tech Test Track (HTTT).

Changes were completed by 2001, the circuit reopening for testing the following year. The adjustments focussed on reconfiguring the Virage de l’Ecole sequence of corners, the Bendor chicane and l’Epingle bend and the final corner, Virage du Pont.

Elsewhere, numerous additional links and options were added, to create many more configurations to suit testing needs. New red and blue high-grip asphalt runoff was also installed, giving the circuit a very distinctive look. Tec-Pro barriers were also installed circuit-wide.

Two further notable changes came in following years – in 2003 another chicane option was added halfway down the Mistral Straight, before in 2005 the first corner ‘Verrerie S’ was modified, creating a new tighter opening left-right turn – again with alternative options.

In 2006 the circuit was again homologated by the FIA for racing, receiving the FIA GT Championship, which visited again in 2009.

World Touring Cars came from 2014 to 2016, and in recent seasons the track has become an established part of the TCR Europe calendar. From 2018, the circuit also secured the French Grand Prix once again.