CanadianGrand Prix

What You Need To Know

During the 1960s the country's Grand Prix had two homes: alternating between Mosport Park and Mont-Tremblant.

By 1970 Mont-Tremblant was deemed too dangerous, and the race was moved full time to Mosport Park.

In 1977 the French Canadians, motivated by the success of local hero Gilles Villeneuve, decided to create a racetrack.

Building a new circuit simply wasn't feasible, owing to both time and financial constraints. Their solution was simple and effective. Taking the Île Notre-Dame, they connected all of the island's roads and made a course.

After $2m was spent upgrading the circuit to Formula 1 standards, the first race was held in October 1978.

Gilles Villeneuve, who was yet to win a Formula 1 race, took a memorable victory at his home Grand Prix.

After his death in 1982, the track was renamed the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in his honour.

Fact File: Canadian Grand Prix

• The 4.361 km Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is similar in its characteristics to that of the Baku City Circuit in Azerbaijan. Long straights requiring lower drag are punctuated by slower speed corners such as chicanes and hairpins that require higher downforce.

• The 14 corners of the circuit comprise six left-hand and eight right-hand turns. Most of the corners are in a similar speed range, which is at the lower end of the scale compared to the rest of the circuits on the 2023 calendar.

• Several corners come as a double change of direction (left/right or right/left combinations) that require good responsiveness from the car. These include the combinations that comprise turns one and two, turns three and four, turns six and seven, turns eight and nine, and the final chicane at turns 13 and 14.

• The 405-metre pit lane ranks eighth in terms of length across all the circuits we race at. 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.

• The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is traditionally regarded as tough on brakes, similar to the Austrian GP. However, there are usually fewer cooling problems in Canada than in Spielberg because the lap distance is greater and there is more time for the brakes to dissipate temperature.

• Although the track surface in Montreal is quite smooth, tyre degradation is traditionally high. Combined with the track characteristics, which are of a stop-go nature, this improves the chances of overtaking and generally provides an entertaining race.

• Due to the proximity of the walls and little run-off area, even relatively minor accidents can pose a threat of the safety car being deployed.

• Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher share the record for the most wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with seven.

• 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.