Former McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has been appointed as Managing Director of the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.
French Grand Prix organisers at Le Castellet have announced that Eric Boullier has been promoted to Managing Director for the event, having joined the organisation this time last year as an advisor and ambassador.
Boullier remains working within Formula 1, having been axed from his McLaren leadership role in 2018 as CEO Zak Brown made managerial changes amid an organisational shakeup.
Before his tenure at McLaren, Boullier had had a more successful spell as team boss at the Lotus Grand Prix team between 2010 and 2014 as well as a long-term role at DAMS prior to that.
After being dropped from McLaren, Boullier was poached by the GIP Grand Prix de France organisation as they brought him for advice and guidance as Formula 1 returned to Paul Ricard for the first time in 30 years.
“I am happy and proud to be more involved in this beautiful project that is the Formula 1 Grand Prix de France.” said Boullier of the announcement. “I look forward to continuing to contribute to the success of this great motor sport event on French soil. I would like to thank Christian Estrosi and the GIP Grand Prix de France – Le Castellet for their trust.“
President of the GIP Grand Prix de France is Christian Estrosi, who said Boullier proved invaluable in terms of helping with the working group in 2019: “Since 2019, the French Grand Prix team has already benefited greatly from Eric Boullier’s advice and expertise. Eric had already participated in the working group for the return of the Formula 1 French Grand Prix and I am delighted that he is now getting more involved in its organisation. “
The organisation also took the opportunity to reveal the mobility plan in place for this year’s French Grand Prix, seeking to improve further on the already much improved 2019 event after criticism of the 2018 traffic plan.
- The network of free park and ride shuttles will be extended to the towns of St-Cyr sur Mer, Le Castellet, Le Beausset while increasing the number of parking spots available from La Ciotat;
- The campsite of the French Grand Prix will be extended;
- The traffic routes, the layout of the parking areas as well as the information system set up in 2019 will be improved upon.
In addition to these improvements, many new features will be integrated:
- Free shuttles from 5 towns close to the Paul Ricard circuit with an additional stop at the La Ciotat SNCF railway station;
- Development of a carpooling application with the possibility of using a priority lane and a reserved car park;
- Shuttles from Marseille, Toulon and Aix-en-Provence during the entire event;
- Shuttles from Arles, Avignon, Draguignan, Gap-Tallard, Manosque, Nice, Saint-Raphaël and Salon de Provence on Saturday 27 June and Sunday 28 June;
- Shuttles from major cities such as Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Montpellier, Perpignan and Valence (Sunday only);
- International shuttles from Barcelona, Milan, Turin, Amsterdam and Eindhoven with a special offer of three nights camping and two days of Grand Prix.
