Circuit du Sud-Ouest (1900–1901) In 1900, as part of the 'Semaine de Pau', the newly created
Automobile-club du Béarn held a race on a road circuit, called the
Circuit du sud-ouest (Pau–Tarbes–Bayonne–Pau). The race was given the same name as the circuit, and was won by
René de Knyff. In 1901, for the second event, the race had individual prizes for the four separate classes of entrants: • The
Grand Prix de Pau (cars 650 kg or over) was awarded to
Maurice Farman (
Panhard 24 hp). • The ''Grand Prix du Palais d'Hiver'' (400–650 kg 'Light car' class) was awarded to
Henri Farman (
Darracq). • The second ''Grand Prix du Palais d'Hiver
(under 400 kg Voiturettes'') as awarded to
Louis Renault (
Renault). • The
Prix du Béarn was awarded to Osmont in a '
De Dion' tricycle.
French Grand Prix (1930) The
French Grand Prix was held at Pau in 1930.
Starts of the Grand Prix de Pau in the
Delahaye 145 and Caracciola in the Mercedes W154 on the starting grid The 1933 Grand Prix de Pau was held in February with snow still on the ground. The race was won by Marcel Lehoux driving a
Bugatti. After being run to Formula Two regulations in 1958–1960, limiting the capacity to 1500 cm3 Formula One in 1961 allowed the Grand Prix de Pau back in the spotlight ahead of the
Monaco Grand Prix. In the early 1960s, the event was won by such famous drivers as
Jack Brabham,
Maurice Trintignant, and
Jim Clark (who achieved his first victory in a Formula One car in Pau Grand Prix in 1961, and went on to win the Pau Grand Prix three more times in 1963–1965).
Formula Two period (1964–1984) In 1964, after switching the format of the Grand Prix again from Formula One to Formula Two,
Jim Clark won the Grand Prix for the second consecutive year, repeating his success for the third time in a row the following year. In 1967, drivers such as
Jean-Pierre Beltoise and
Henri Pescarolo made their debut at Pau.
Jochen Rindt won his first Grand Prix de Pau that year before winning twice more in 1969 and 1970. In 1968,
Jackie Stewart won with
Matra Sports. During this period, several former and future world champions also raced at the event:
Graham Hill,
Jackie Stewart,
Jack Brabham,
Denny Hulme, and
Emerson Fittipaldi. There also appeared more young French drivers like
Johnny Servoz-Gavin,
Jean-Pierre Jarier,
Jean-Pierre Jabouille,
Patrick Depailler and
François Cevert, as well as other drivers such as
Reine Wisell and
Peter Gethin, who won the Grand Prix in 1971 and 1972 respectively. In 1973, the event was threatened by problems with the
homologation of the circuit, it was quickly brought up to standard by the personal intervention of the Mayor
André Labarrère (who had been in office since 1971). François Cevert won that year. Drivers such as
Jacques Laffite,
Patrick Depailler and
René Arnoux won in Pau, and many F1 drivers at the time continued to race in
Formula Two. In 1980, the 40th Grand Prix de Pau was won by the French driver
Richard Dallest.
Formula 3000 (1985–1998) In 1985,
Formula 3000 replaced
Formula Two as the "second-division" formula below
Formula One and the Grand Prix de Pau became part of the new Formula 3000 European Championship. That same year,
Alain Prost became co-organiser of the race. In 1989,
Jean Alesi took his first victory after a turbulent start (the race was restarted four times because of successive problems on the grid, and a spectacular crash). In 1994, French driver Nicolas Leboissetier had a spectacular accident at the
Virage de la gare ("train station corner"), reviving the climate of tension that followed the deaths of
Ayrton Senna and
Roland Ratzenberger at
Imola during the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix. The Pau-born driver
David Dussau participated in the race in 1996. He was well-positioned on the grid, but was forced to retire because of a crash. Colombian
Juan-Pablo Montoya won the race twice, in 1997 and 1998. The
French Supertouring Championship was a support event from 1993 to 2000. At the end of 1998, it was decided that all Formula 3000 races would be organised exclusively as the curtain-raiser of European-based Formula One Grand Prix, The 2009 event featured the
Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup; the
French Formula Renault had last raced at Pau in 2006. Following a decision taken by the municipality for financial reasons, the Grand Prix was suspended in 2010, and the WTCC was no longer from this point.
Return of Formula Three (2011–2012) The event was revived in 2011 by
Peter Auto and with the return of Formula Three with the
International Trophy as the main event. However, the race was shorter than in previous years and only had fifteen drivers on the entry list, so there were few spectators. In addition, the only French driver,
Tom Dillmann, retired on the fourth lap of the race, which was won by the German
Marco Wittmann. One of the most important support races of the weekend was the first electric Grand Prix, run with cars with full electric drivetrains. The category included mostly French drivers such as
Soheil Ayari,
Franck Lagorce and
Olivier Panis. Also, the
Formula Renault 2.0 Alps made their first visit to Pau. In 2012, the organisers announced that in addition to the International Trophy there would also be a round of the
British Formula Three Championship. But on March 9, 2012, the World Motor Sport Council of the FIA announced that it would be part of a new
FIA Formula 3 European Championship, revived from the previous series which ended in 1984. The Italian
Raffaele Marciello won the Grand Prix after dominating qualifying and the race sprint. This victory made him one of the youngest winners of the Pau Grand Prix at only 18 years of age. There were no French drivers in the event The
Porsche Carrera Cup France was also added to the program for 2012 and one of the drivers was
Sébastien Loeb and his team
Sébastien Loeb Racing. The Alsatian dominated the weekend and impressed when he won both races with leads of over ten seconds. At the second Grand Prix de Pau electric, the two races were won by the same winners as the previous year, but in reverse order; the first race was won by
Adrien Tambay, the second by
Mike Parisy. The participants included the Canadian driver
Marc-Antoine Camirand (from
Quebec) who, with his car in the colours of the
Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, was present to pay tribute to the Formula One driver
Gilles Villeneuve and to bring the electric GP to Trois-Rivières. The 2012 event received between 22,000 and 23,000 spectators, 10 to 15% more than in 2011.
Formula Renault 2.0 Pau Trophy (2013) The 2013 event took place on 18, 19 and 20 May. At the Whit Monday holiday, an historical tradition of Pau Grand Prix, the headliner should have been the
British Formula Three Championship. But this series, with a lot of concurrence with the
FIA Formula 3 European Championship, was forced to reduce its calendar to 4 events and so cancelled many rounds including Pau. The headliner would, therefore, take place as a non-championship "special" race for
Formula Renault 2.0 open to several European championships teams and drivers: the Formula Renault 2.0 Pau Trophy. At the end of January 2013, the organisers announced that
Sébastien Loeb and
Jacques Villeneuve would be present in Pau in the Mitjet 2L category.
Return of European Formula Three (2014–2022) From 2014 to 2018, the Pau Grand Prix was headlined by the
FIA Formula 3 European Championship. The
Formula Renault 2.0 Alps also returned to Pau in 2014. The
GT4 European Series joined the event in 2016, being replaced by the
FFSA GT Championship from 2017 to 2019. For 2019 and 2022, the
Euroformula Open Championship became the new headlining formula race. 2020 race was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, and there was no race planned for 2021. The
World Touring Car Cup and
FIA ETCR – eTouring Car World Cup joined the event in 2022.
Formula Four (2023) In 2023, the
Euroformula Open Championship was intended to be the headlining formula race, however the Euroformula Open race was cancelled on 5 May due to a misunderstanding between the organisers of Euroformula and Pau GP organizers linked with the possibility to run on sustainable fuel during the weekend. After the cancellation of Euroformula race, the weekend program was updated and
French F4 Championship was designated to be the titular race, in which the third
Formula 4 race would be considered the Grand Prix. Besides French F4 Championship,
TCR Europe Touring Car Series joined the event in 2023.
Decline (2024–present) Due to financial difficulties of the Association Sportive de l'Automobile Club Basco-Béarnais (ASAC BB), the future of the Pau Grand Prix seemed uncertain. At the end of 2023, the ASAC BB announced that the Pau Grand Prix would be cancelled ahead of the 2024 season, with a plan to return in 2025. On October 8, 2024, the ASAC BB appeared before the Pau Judicial Court requesting to be placed under safeguard proceedings due to unpaid dues of approximately €150,000. On December 8, 2024, ASAC BB took part in a general assembly for the city of Pau, which revealed that the institution had experienced financial difficulties since 2022. Although the race is expected to return around the 2025-2027 seasons, the Pau Grand Prix would be jeopardized for the 2025 season ahead of furthering financial difficulties. ==Events==