After a year's absence, the Pau Grand Prix returns to the motorsport calendar as a round of the International Formula 3 Trophy this weekend. As Marcus Simmons explains, it's a jolly good thing too

February 19 1933: It's snowing in Pau, a town in South-West France in the shadow of the Pyrenees. It's approaching 2pm and the flakes have been falling since last night. Which is a shame, as the very first Grand Prix de Pau is about to start.

The organisers have been toying with the idea of calling the race off – there's no chance of postponing it – but, with a logic that would be welcome amid today's health-and-safety madness, they decide that the drivers are good enough to judge the conditions themselves.

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