WHEN THE PRESENT MEETS THE PAST: HADJAR AND GASLY AT THE GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE HISTORIQUE
MAY 11, 2026
Circuit Paul Ricard does not need much to feel like a Grand Prix weekend. Add over 200 historic racing cars, two current Formula 1 drivers, and the kind of engines that have not been heard at full cry in decades — and the result is something altogether different.
From May 8 to 10, the 2026 KENNOL Grand Prix de France Historique brought Le Castellet back to life in the way only this event can. More than 60 Formula 1 cars from the 1970s through to the 2010s took to the circuit across the three-day weekend, alongside endurance prototypes and classic single-seaters — a rare and unfiltered celebration of motorsport's most storied era.
Two of Formula 1's current generation were part of it. On Saturday, Isack Hadjar climbed into the Red Bull RB7 — the car that won Sebastian Vettel the 2011 World Championship — for a demonstration run that drew one of the weekend's loudest receptions. The contrast was striking: a 2026 F1 race winner behind the wheel of a machine from a different technical era entirely, yet equally commanding at the wheel.
On Sunday, it was Pierre Gasly's turn. The Alpine driver drove the Renault RS10, a car that carries singular significance in Formula 1 history. In 1979, the RS10 became the first turbocharged car ever to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix, a result that permanently changed the direction of the sport's technical development. Driving it at Paul Ricard — home of the French Grand Prix for much of that era — carried a weight that needed no explanation.
Neither run was a race. There were no points on offer, no championship implications. But there was something arguably more valuable: two current drivers connecting directly with the history of the sport they compete in, in front of fans who came precisely for that kind of moment.
Some weekends remind you why motorsport matters beyond the results. This was one of them.