• French Grand Prix

France lacks will to stage grand prix - Prost

Alain Prost: 'Today, there are no French drivers in F1, Renault will soon not be called Renault ... it's a bit complicated and a financial issue' © Sutton Images

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Alain Prost has spoken of his frustration that efforts to reinstate the French Grand Prix have so far not succeeded.

The French Grand Prix was last held in 2008, and although a contract was in place to stage the race in 2009 it was cancelled with the FIA citing "economic reasons" for the decision. Since then a number of ventures at a variety of venues have been floated as ideas but none has progressed.

Prost actively supported the major alternative projects, including one at Flins-Les-Mureaux as well as Disneyland Paris, and he said he was concerned efforts to put France back onto the F1 calendar were losing momentum.

"It must not be buried now," he said. "There was a great opportunity last year at the time of the regional elections, and a first draft for Disney which in hindsight was perhaps a bit complicated. But Flins was an exceptional site with a real project, a real business plan, and Formula One to happen for only eight hours in a year, to appease the critics.

"There was a real programme for the utilisation of the circuit, with an economic and social advantage. There would have been 100,000 extra people near Paris. Everyone was enthusiastic, especially Bernie Ecclestone. But the project was abandoned when everything was ready and financed, because of the regional election and an environmental problem that was essentially political."

He confirmed that the biggest problem seemed to be a lack of political will. "Do we want a grand prix of France? Today, there are no French drivers in F1, Renault will soon not be called Renault ... it's a bit complicated and a financial issue.

"The price asked by Ecclestone is variable … about €15 million per year in Europe. Abroad, it is between €30 and €40 million, as in Abu Dhabi. It's an economic equation: how many spectators can you get? If it's about €50 or 60,000, and the price is €15 million, your losses are about €8 million.

"Who can put up €8 million? So if the politicians or the government are not saying 'it's important for France to have a grand prix', it's not worth talking about. It's rubbish when I hear that what is needed is a promoter. The promoter [of the Disneyland Paris project] was the Lagardere group and myself.

"Above all what is important is that the economics are sustainable."

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