CanadianGrand Prix

Fred’s View

Test and Reserve Driver Fred Vesti says: “The circuit is a special one. It has the feeling of a normal racetrack, but it is also part street circuit. It can give the driver a lot of confidence, but even the smallest mistake can leave you in the wall.

“There is a mix of slow and medium corners, and lots of chicanes, where kerb usage in crucial.

“The races are usually good in Montreal as there are plenty of opportunities to overtake. It is my favourite circuit on the F1 calendar.”

Canada Chaos

Given the unpredictability that has taken place on the Île Notre-Dame through the years, it is not hard to see why this is one Grand Prix so many teams and fans look forward to every season.

In 1991, Williams driver Nigel Mansell ground to a halt while just two corners from the chequered flag, allowing Nelson Piquet to claim a dramatic victory.

Four years later, French driver Jean Alesi won a long-awaited maiden Grand Prix in Montreal. Though it would be the Ferrari’s drivers only career victory, he did join an exclusive list of drivers to have won an F1 Grand Prix on their birthday.

The only other time this has happened was in 1976, when James Hunt won the Dutch Grand Prix.

Four years later, and the venue’s final corner wrote itself into F1 folklore by catching out three former F1 World Champions. Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, and Michael Schumacher all crashed into the barrier on the exit of Turn 13, which has been dubbed ‘The Wall of Champions’ ever since.

In more recent seasons, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel have added their names to the list of drivers to end up in the guardrail at the start of the pit straight.

CART champions Ricardo Zonta and Juan Pablo Montoya have also had their F1 races ended in the infamous wall.

Canada’s most famous race undoubtedly came in 2011, when Jenson Button charged from last at one point to first, overtaking Sebastian Vettel on the final lap, in a race that lasted four hours and four minutes – the longest in the history of Formula One.

The race featured six Safety Car stints, and a long red-flag period due to torrential rain.

Masters of Montreal

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton hold the record for the most Canadian Grand Prix wins, with seven.

Mercedes-Benz Power has achieved 10 wins at the track across a twenty-year period, from Mika Hakkinen in 1999, to Lewis Hamilton in 2019.

Montreal has also proven a popular location for maiden Grand Prix triumphs. Thierry Boutson (1989), Jean Alesi (1991), Lewis Hamilton (2007), Robert Kubica (2008), and Daniel Ricciardo (2014) all stood on the top step of the podium for the first time in Quebec.

History was made in 2001 when siblings occupied P1 and P2 at the chequered flag, as Ralf Schumacher led home brother Michael.

There was another rare occurrence in 2024, when the top two qualifiers on the grid posted identical times in qualifying. George took pole on that occasion, courtesy of setting his lap time before Max Verstappen in second.

This was just the second time such an incident had happened in the fight for pole. The first came in 1997, when Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher, and Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the same time in qualifying for the season-ending European Grand Prix at Jerez.

A Unique Layout

Few F1 venues possess such a backstory as the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The circuit is located on the Île Notre-Dame, an island that hosted the World Expo in 1967. The Expo 67 American Pavilion, which became the Montreal Biosphere and is now an environmental museum, is a visible reminder of this.

The man-made body of water outside the track – which drivers cross over to get into the paddock – was built to host the rowing and canoeing events at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games.

The 405-metre pit lane ranks seventh in terms of length across all the circuits on the 2025 calendar.

However, time expended during a pit stop is not especially high, as drivers are spared the inconvenience of going through the last chicane, instead entering the pit lane directly.

Additionally, the pit exit feeds in at Turn two, thus drivers avoid having to negotiate the first corner too.

Did You Know?

The 1973 Canadian Grand Prix is widely accepted to have been the first World Championship race to have witnessed a Safety Car deployment, when a yellow Porsche 914 was called onto the track following a series of incidents during the race.

For the first time in series history, F1 ACADEMY will race in Montreal in 2025. The fourth round of the campaign will see three races held across the weekend, making up for the cancelled feature race in Miami in May.

Team Junior Doriane Pin will be looking for her third win of the season, and boost her title hopes.

Weather Watch

Canada ranks second for the highest probability of rain of all the races on the 2025 F1 schedule. Eight of the last 25 sessions at the circuit have seen inclement weather – a ratio of 32%.

Only Belgium has a higher wet weather probability reading. The skies are definitely to be kept a close watch on in Montreal.