The French invented motor racing and therefore the French Grand Prix has the longest history of all the races on the calendar. The first event took place in 1906 at Le Mans and the race has had many homes in the intervening years. Since the beginning of the world championship in 1950 the race has had seven different homes.

The flat-out speed bowl of Reims hosted the race in the Fifties and most of Sixties. In the Seventies and Eighties the race was held alternately between Dijon and Paul Ricard. The 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon produced one of greatest battles in Formula 1 history. In the closing laps of the race Gilles Villleneuve and Rene Arnoux had the dogfight to end all dogfights. Arnoux's team-mate Jean-Pierre Jabouille was leading and Arnoux was keen to make it a glorious 1-2 for Renault's turbo car. Villeneuve was less keen and the pair banged wheels and raced side by side almost continuously for the best part of three laps. Jacques' father eventually prevailed and afterwards all the talk was of the lurid scrap between Villeneuve and Arnoux, taking the attention away from a famous first victory for the turbocharged engine.

By the early Nineties the French Government was becoming interested in motor sport. President Mitterand backed a bid to re-develop the Magny Cours track which won the right to host the race from 1991. In recent years the most exceptional race was the 1999 French Grand Prix in which Heinz-Harald Frentzen came through to triumph in the rain-affected lottery.