Canadian Grand Prix: track and statistics

Formula 1 came to Canada in the mid-60s, for four years the national Grand Prix alternated between Mont Tremblant and Mosport, then the stage settled in Mosport – the other circuit turned out to be too dangerous.

In 1977, French-Canadians, impressed by Gilles Villeneuve’s success, came up with the idea of ​​building an autodrome in Quebec (Olympic Games-76). The city council found $2 million, tied stretches of straights together, and everything was set for the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix.

The first stage winner was Gilles Villeneuve, who completed 70 laps of the 4500 meter circuit in a Ferrari 312T3 in 1:57’49. In 1982, after Gilles died during qualifying for the Zolder race, the circuit was named after him.

The history of the Canadian race is full of tragedies and triumphs. Here it is almost impossible to guess the winner, often a pilot who does not claim the title rises to the top step of the podium, and the leaders of the championship are not always lucky…

Follow features

The Canadian track is demanding on the brakes, engines and suspension settings and not so demanding on the aerodynamics – this is the second track (after Baku) where relatively little downforce is needed. The absence of some problems leads to others, it is not easy to find the optimal balance and settings, so the track is not empty during training.

The suspension needs to be both soft, so you can effectively attack the curbs, and hard for quick changes of direction in chicanes. Finding a compromise takes a lot of time, and it is also difficult to accurately recreate the situation on the simulator, because the properties of the asphalt change every year due to winter frosts.

Uneven asphalt will contribute to the manifestation of car build-up for those teams that suffer from it.

On relatively short straights, the brakes don’t have time to cool down and there’s four serious braking on the circle – the straights are torn apart by chicanes, so the brakes and gearboxes will have to take a beating.

The pole on the Montreal circuit plays a minor role compared to other stages. The probability of the safety car leaving is high – 80%. High fuel consumption forces riders to attack from a distance.

Diego Ioverno, head of the Ferrari racing team: “A stage in Canada, unlike most European races, requires a different approach to logistics. Some of the equipment is delivered by sea and the team load is not as great as other away grands prix because we are returning to Europe after the race and not going to another overseas leg.

In terms of the load on the car, the race in Montreal is very tough. The power station, brakes and other systems operate under difficult conditions, which is related to the configuration of the track and its characteristics.

Montreal is a beautiful city with a great atmosphere. The people here are very welcoming, wherever you go, you feel that Formula 1 is loved here. For most teams, the Canadian Grand Prix is ​​one of the favorite stages of the season.”

Weekend schedule

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Tire sets given to teams for the weekend

Mario Isol: “The Canadian Grand Prix has traditionally been one of the most spectacular on the calendar, rich in incidents and surprises due to the fact that there are places to overtake on the circuit, and there are no prisoners. As is usually the case on tracks like this, we bring the softest trio – C3, C4 and C5. I had the same tires last year. We expect C5 to be used in qualifying, while C4 and C3 will be the main lineups in the race.

The tarmac is quite slippery, but this semi-stationary track is not used very often, so as the weekend progresses we should see a fairly rapid improvement in road conditions. There are no fast corners in Montreal, and the most important factor is the car’s efficiency when accelerating out of slow corners, braking stability and agility when changing direction.

Another important element to take into account this weekend is the weather. Conditions can change quickly – not only from wet to dry asphalt, but also with noticeable temperature fluctuations. The asphalt temperature during qualifying last year was 17 degrees and during the race 40.

Performance of active riders in Canada

Kevin Magnussen: “Montreal is a cool city. The track is also good and quite unique – it combines the features of urban and stationary – I like it. At the same time, there are many bumps on the track, so it will be difficult to fly on new generation cars, because they are very heavy. I am sure we are facing an interesting challenge.

There is no doubt that our job is to earn points. I believe we can count on such a result thanks to the speed of the machine and I am looking forward to the start of the weekend.