Montreal Grand Prix
The Canadian Grand Prix, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has seen many great races over the years. Originally called Ile Notre Dame Circuit and constructed in 1978, and renamed in 1982 in honor of Canadian Formula one driver Gilles Villeneuve, it has held a race since then, except in 1987 and 2009. Why did I come to this race? Because it’s a race that always excites, tight corners and long straights present a compromise in car setup between the slow and fast sections of the track. The weather can also add in a little something to create drama, like Jenson Button’s win in 2011 in a race that went for over four hours. Some notable crashes include Michael Schumacher’s 1999 crash with the Wall of Champions, Robert Kubica’s crash in 2007 or, Massa and Perez colliding on the last lap in 2014. The race I attended in 2017 was fairly straight forward by comparison.
Montreal puts on a lot of side events from the Thursday through to the Sunday, with Friday and Saturday nights being the busiest. Peel Street and Crescent Street both have free festivals with exotic cars and old Formula One machinery. Access to the circuit is best done via the Montreal Metro Yellow Line to the Station Jean-Drapeau. Don’t bother trying to drive and park here, though some people did catch taxi’s and Ubers and were dropped off near the Passerelle du Cosmos bridge. From the station you’ll need to walk towards the Biosphere and across the Passerelle du Cosmos bridge, where you’ll arrive at the hairpin. Seating locations I recommend are in stand 11, where I sat and the pictures below are from, and stand 24 at the hairpin. Walking from the station to stand 11 can take about an hour, so be prepared. Speaking of prepared, this is one of the few events I’ve been to that allowed people to bring in a cooler with food and drinks, including beer, as long as it could fit under your seat. This is something which needs to happen everywhere. There is free wifi in the stands, but don’t expect it to have any bandwidth to work come qualifying or race day.
On the Thursday there is a pitlane walk, this is access by walking across the Passerelle du Cosmos and using the circuit provided shuttle buses to whisk you over to the pitlane exit. You can get lucky and a driver may come out and greet the crowd, otherwise you’ll mostly see the cars without front wings fitted and possibly the Ferrari Hat Guy. Once you’ve walked up to pit entry there are more shuttle buses to return you to the Passerelle du Cosmos.
In all, this race was fairly easy to access, cheap to attend, and allowed patrons to bring in food and drink. To make the weekend complete, I’d recommend attending “An Audience with Joe Saward”,a long time reporter and blogger of Formula One, as well as a great guy who doesn’t suffer fools. This is a paid event, so you’ll need to keep an eye out on his website or look for updates at http://morienval.com/montreal.html . This is usually held at the Pub St Paul on the Friday.
