Plans have finally been announced for a new Formula One track in France, to be built in the Seine valley to the west of Paris. The French firm Wilmotte et Associes and British company Apex, which designed the Dubai Autodrome, will build the course at a cost of US$142 million.

The plan is for the course to be ready to host a race in 2011. By that point, France will have been without a Grand Prix for three years, after the sport left the unloved Magny-Cours venue for good in 2008 when the French Motorsports Federation (FFSA) withdrew financing. Construction will begin immediately, despite the fact that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has yet to give the go-ahead for the sport's return to France.

The track, which will be just short of three miles long, will have 120,000 grandstand seats and will cover a 235-acre site, also incorporating a conference centre capable of hosting 1,000 people. The design was picked by a jury of 18 people.

"All of the 18 jury members voted for this project," said Pierre Bedier, chairman of the departmental council of the Yvelines region. "This dossier has the virtue of improving a site which is currently lying fallow and not being properly utilised."