Formula 1 returns to France for the first time in a decade this weekend, with the Paul Ricard circuit hosting the eighth race of the season.

The F1 bandwagon is back in France, and it is at a circuit that none of the drivers have raced an F1 car on, as Paul Ricard has not hosted the event since 1990 – when Alain Prost won.

A newly refurbished Paul Ricard circuit, which is near Marseille in the South of France, stages and the drivers and team alike are very happy with the new track.

Bonjour mais amis. The view from the roof by the @skysportsf1 Commentary Box

A post shared by David Croft (@croftyf1) on Jun 22, 2018 at 2:44am PDT

Sebastian Vettel arrives in France having comfortably taken victory in Canada last time out, and ahead of a hectic July – which will see four races, the Ferrari man is hopeful of extending his Championship lead – which is currently just one point ahead of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton.

“A lot of races coming in the next couple of weeks but generally it’s positive. If you look back and look at the big picture, we’ve had seven races and we’ve won three of them. So it’s not bad,” he said.

“The fact we have been competitive in most of them makes us quite confident for the next races. In some races you find yourself being more competitive than others, probably [for Ferrari] you can pick Canada versus Spain. Spain was probably our least-competitive race.

“It’s normal to have ups and to have downs but we’re working hard to have more ups than downs. It’s wise to go step-by-step.”

Hamilton and Mercedes were not happy with their performance in Canada, although that could be put down to their failure to bring their engine upgrade to Montreal.

But the British star is expecting and improvement in France, with all Mercedes cars having fresh engines installed.

“We all can do better, we can all squeeze more juice out of ourselves, and out of the car.

“Particularly Montreal was a very, very average weekend performance-wise. We’ve got to make sure we are in tip-top shape moving forward.

“We had really good meetings afterwards. There were great discussions where the team was able to be open with each other, and say honestly, ‘This could be better.’

“About each other as well, and things that I know I can do better, which I’m planning to do.”

Red Bull come into the weekend having confirmed their switch to Honda for next season, but they are yet to tie down Daniel Ricciardo to a new deal, amid reports McLaren have joined the bidding for his services.

It's been 10 years France ?? We're ready for you! ? #FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/CKtCKrY2lt

— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 22, 2018

Ricciardo admits he has a lot to think about, but he is not certain to leave Red Bull.

“For sure the priority is to get a car to win the world title because I really believe I can,” he said. “I am slightly careful because it is easy to think the grass is greener and maybe it is, but I also have it pretty good where I am.

“People do like a change but just to make change for the sake of making a change is not enough for me. I need to find some substance behind it to jump ship.”