Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours - The Circuit

The Circuit

The track nowadays is a smooth circuit with good facilities for the teams, although restricted access prevents spectators from reaching many parts of the circuit. Unusually, many corners are modelled on famous turns from other circuits, and are named after those circuits, e.g. the fast Estoril corner and the Adelaide hairpin. It has a mix of slow hairpins and high-speed chicane sections which includes a long fast straight into the first-gear Adelaide hairpin, the best overtaking opportunity on the circuit. The circuit is very flat with negligible change in elevation (only a small valley at the Estoril corner and a slight hill near the Lycee corner).

The circuit provides few overtaking opportunities, despite modifications in 2003, which means the races here are commonly regarded as quite uneventful. Formula 1 races at Magny-Cours tend to have a processional nature, with most overtaking occurring during pit stop sequences. More varied racing occurs when it rains, such as in the 1999 race, which was interrupted by a downpour. After a restart, most top contenders developed problems, which paved the way for Heinz-Harald Frentzen to claim a surprising victory in his Jordan.

Although the Bol d'Or 24-hour motorcycle endurance race was held at Magny Cours for several years, it never quite matched the cachet of the Le Mans event; and now the Bol D'Or has returned to the more popular Bugatti circuit at Le Mans, (the capital of the Sarthe department) .