All this Paul Ricard conversation reminded me that I have a copy of the 1976 French GP on VHS tape. Broke it out tonight and watched it, with a good bottle of wine of course. It really hit home how lovely F1 was back then. A bright sunny day in Provence, huge crowd, James Hunt's McLaren M23 perfectly suited to the long straights and fast sweepers of Ricard, dominated the race, helped by both Ferrari's having their engines scatter, while at full chat on the Mistral (obviously the Maranello engine dept. tried to squeeze to much grunt for the passes down the straight). Really the beginning of James championship charge. Also great drives by Patrick Depailler in the P34, and Wattie in the Penske. Ricard is probably much more manicured now, but it was also a hell of a GP venue back then.
Fax