Talk:1971 French Grand Prix

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Why was this race over 55 laps and not 54 laps?[edit]

See also Race result on racing-reference.info --Mark McWire (talk) 09:14, 25 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't been able to find any explanation. Neither Motor Sport, grandprix.com or Mike Lang's Grand Prix! make any mention of the race being "extended" to 55 laps or the chequered flag being waved 1 lap late or anything like that; all the sources I can find just seem to indicate that the race was always planned to be 55 laps in length. (And likewise, their reports about the 1973 race make no mention of why the race distance was 54 laps from then onwards). My best guess is that the note at racing-reference.info is just supposition on their part. DH85868993 (talk) 10:06, 25 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, I may have found a possible explanation. 1973 Formula One season says "Another change to the rules introduced this season was the cars doing a full warm-up lap before the race. Prior to this, tracks included a dummy grid a short distance behind a grid proper, and the cars would simply move from one to the other to begin the race.". So perhaps that's why the 1973 French Grand Prix (and subsequent French GPs at Paul Ricard) were 54 laps rather than the 55 laps of the 1971 race; to make allowance for the warmup lap. I note that similarly the 1973 British Grand Prix was 67 laps, rather than the 68 laps of the 1971 race. Having said that, several other 1973 races (German, Austrian, Italian, Canadian, US) retained the number of laps from the previous race on the same circuit, so who knows? DH85868993 (talk) 10:28, 25 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]