F1 Paddock Notebook - French GP Friday

Recapping all of the additional news and notes from Friday at Paul Ricard, Crash.net F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- One of the biggest issues for many trying to get into the circuit on Friday was the amount of traffic, with heavy tailbacks causing large numbers of fans to get to the track late and miss opening practice. Officials confirmed that all available car parks have now been opened to try and help matters, as well as doubling the number of lanes of traffic around the track, reporting that the situation is "gradually improving".

- Force India's Otmar Szafnauer rasied concerns about the issues, though, and the impact it may have on bringing fans back to Paul Ricard in the future: "The fans have choice, and they’ll probably choose events where it doesn’t take two-and-a-half hours to go seven kilometres."

- Traffic issues continued through to the evening as fans then went to leave the track, leaving many in tailbacks keeping them inside the circuit.

- Following a recommendation from F1 race director Charlie Whiting, the FIA stewards confirmed after opening practice that the pit lane speed limit had been reduced from 80 km/h to 60 km/h.

- One of the biggest talking points of the day came in the FIA press conference when McLaren racing director Eric Boullier faced a series of questions about his future in the wake of reports of dissent within the team, dubbed 'Freddogate' after the chocolates team members were given as a reward for work. The questioning grew heated at one point, with Boullier saying a journalist was "lying" who suggested he was being briefed against by the McLaren team members. The FIA media delegate present in the press conference intervened, moving proceedings on amid calls from the journalist for Boullier to withdraw his comment.

- Gunther Steiner refused to get too carried away with Haas' impressive Friday showing in France as Romain Grosjean finished sixth in both sessions, saying he did not want to "curse" it. "We just need to bring it home," he said. "A good race, bring it home, not only the car but just to make a good race and finally get the points we should have."

- The track layout caught a few drivers by surprise during practice at the chicane halfway down the Mistral Straight, including Sebastian Vettel, who briefly turned in before adjusting to take the right layout.

- Wind was an issue for some of the drivers through the first part of practice, contributing to the high number of spins, but Sebastian Vettel said that it had died down by second practice.

- Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson have all taken new gearboxes ahead of this weekend's race as their previous units had completed six events. Brendon Hartley and Lance Stroll also both have new gearboxes as they did not finish the previous events.

- All six Mercedes-powered drivers have now been confirmed to be running with their updated engines in France that had originally been due in Canada. This is 'Phase 2.1' according to Mercedes, with some "added goodness" over what would have been in the Canada update.

- Relating to Sergio Perez's comments on Thursday about financial issues delaying Force India's updates, Otmar Szafnauer said that this was only in relation to the planned update for France that was delayed to Austria.