Photographed by us during a visit to Le Mans – despite mostly around 200,000 spectators, the atmosphere at the Bugatti Circuit was always excellent, and we didn’t see as much rubbish as in Assen, Brno and Mugello, nor dirty toilets in every other corner. Even the stupid Rossi-Marquez “fan hatred” is hardly noticeable here, quite the opposite, for example, to the Grand Prix in Italy. Unfortunately, this year the fans have to stay at home again.

The French before their MotoGP home race

In contrast to Germany with the Sachsenring race, there is absolute high spirits in France before the home game of their MotoGP heroes. From Johann Zarco to Fabio Quartararo to Lorenzo Fellon in Moto3, their heroes have strikingly Italian-sounding names. The French don’t care at all because the two most prominent of them are currently among the most important riders in MotoGP. If you look into the forest of leaves and the sports portals of the Gauls, the anticipation for the French GP there is very high. Whether on moto-station.com, motomag.com or L’équipe, at least the two national heroes of the premier class are omnipresent. Everyone is relieved that Quartararo is apparently feeling great after his arm pump operation and that he is ready for the home race.

We photographed Turn 1 in Le Mans on the Bugatti Circuit in May 2018 – two years later, spectators were not allowed for the first time and unfortunately, except for a few privileged people, it looks just as bad in this regard in the second Corona year.

From another sport: Double scandal in Spain – what happened to Germany?
Before the Germans look enviously at France, we would like to point out a sporting scandal in tennis, which impressively shows how this country and its journalists often deal with its best athletes. Alexander “Sascha” Zverev just beat the world’s best tennis clay court player in his home country and even won the Masters tournament in Madrid afterwards. Nevertheless, the Spanish stadium announcer presented him twice in a row before the semi-finals and finals as “Alexander Medvedev”. This was the first embarrassing scandal in Madrid. The second followed at the press conference.

Did you recognize him? Yes, it is – Dad Helmut Bradl, on the road at a time when motorsport enjoyed a much higher level of acceptance in his country than it is today. Now even tennis is not worth more than a few lines to most journalists, even if a German player has just won a major tournament.

An embarrassing prime example for German journalists and their understanding of fairness
When the German journalists were asked to put their questions to the top player who had grown up in Germany, not one came. Which simply means nothing other than what Alexander himself stated at the end of the PK, when he said into the microphone “I can even win a 1000 tournament, but the Germans don’t care about me“. From the 18th place of Michael Schumacher’s son in Formula 1 and another zero from Sebastian Vettel, however, the sports pages were full. You no longer need to be surprised why Marcel Schrötter hardly knows anyone in this country. We seriously suggest that Stefan Bradl should emigrate to Austria, because even there he would be far more widely accepted than one of the world’s fastest drivers. And with Jochen Rindt they had already celebrated a German as one of their own, and with that exercise.

The poster was photographed by us right next to the racetrack to the 2019 GP – unfortunately there was little to do with Johann Zarco on the KTM at the time, but now on the Ducati he is one of the favourites on the podium.

The high level of acceptance of motorsport in France has a long tradition

In contrast to Germany, to name just a few examples, the enthusiasm and high level of acceptance of motorsport in France, England, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic has never really suffered. Even when the French had hardly any top international drivers in the early post-war years, their magazines were full of reports on racing and technology. For example, we found a lot more about the interesting riders and bikes from the GDR from the 1950s there than in West Germany. Political ideologies were not only in the East above the interests of sport and the hostility between the two “brother states” led to embarrassing embarrassments. The French and English, on the other hand, met the drivers of all countries absolutely openly and without suspicion, which was also true for the West German drivers.

An MZ Re 250 engine from the 1950s, the picture comes from a French magazine, where the potential of the fast two-stroke engines from Saxony was recognized early on. Two decades later there were tons of strong drivers from the country in which the fine cuisine has its origins.

The former heroes of French two-wheeling and their successors
Even before the brothers Christian and Dominique Sarron, there were quite a few strong drivers in France who made a name for themselves. With Olivier Chevallier and Patrick Pons in the larger classes up to 750 cm³ and drivers like Christian Estrosi, Patrick Fernandez, Guy Bertin, and later Arnaud Vincent, to name just a few big names. They also had numerous heroes in automobile racing, and drivers such as Patrick Depailler, Jacques Laffite and Alain Prost are still spoken of today. It took far too long for the country with its long tradition of famous drivers and races to finally be at the forefront again. A folk festival would have been wished for them, but unfortunately in the second Corona year this remained a pipe dream. If there are countries that don’t deserve their heroes, France is definitely not one of them. Whether in Le Mans or again later in the year, we too would like to hear a second edition of the Marseillaise with Zarco and Quartararo – allez les bleus!

Patrick Fernandez (Yamaha) – one of many strong drivers from France who caused a sensation in the golden 70s and 80s in Grand Prix sport internationally. With Patrick Pons, Olivier Chevallier and others, some of them lost their lives at the time, which was mostly due to the lack of security precautions.

The Le Mans weekend is eagerly awaited

With only 5 left turns and 9 right turns, the Bugatti circuit, like most of the circuits, is clockwise. For the opponents of Ducati it is reassuring that there is no long straight here either. The maximum is 647 m, with which the lightning-fast reds have to wait until Mugello in order to enjoy their strongest triumph. La Chapelle and Garage Vert are somewhat reminiscent of the almost 180 degree curves 6 and 13 of Jerez, but otherwise the characteristics of the Circuit Bugatti are completely different. Up until a day ago it looked like the weather situation had improved compared to a while ago. But currently the chances of this are significantly worse again. If the current forecast is correct, it will be damp until the weekend, very wet.

Mood picture taken by us on site at the Bugatti Circuit when things got threatening on Saturday in 2019 and the Q1 even had to be driven on a damp track. Shortly before the end, Valentino Rossi risked driving out on slicks and before his brand colleague “Morbido” the old master hit the asphalt in a time more than 1.5 seconds faster. It is precisely this man that many want to write off prematurely after a failed season opener, it is unbelievable.

The world championship stand in all classes before the 5th round at Le Mans

The schedule for the Le Mans weekend

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© MotoGP).