by Alex Johnston
After a 2 year absence, the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve returns this weekend with Montreal welcoming F1 back to the city. Canada has become a fan favourite destination with the circuit able to host 100,000 spectators around the street circuit.
Since joining the calendar in 1982, Canada has hosted Formula 1 every year to date with the exception of 2009, when it was dropped to accommodate the new Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and in 2020 and 2021 when COVID restrictions meant F1 could not visit Canada.
📸 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Fast paced, the racing around Montreal attracts the attention with testing corners, a narrow straight and the long back straight leading to the famous ‘Wall of Champions’ and the main straight. Let’s have a look at some key areas.
Turn 1/Senna Virage The ‘Senna S’ section has seen plenty turn one action down the years, ranging from mega race starts to cars ending up the barrier on the outside, as well as opportunistic moves leading cars on to the escape road.
📸 Turn 1 and 2 at Montreal.
Sergio Perez, then with Force India and Felipe Massa, then a Williams driver crashed at this corner in 2014, with Massa going off the road in excess of 190mph. Perez was given a five place grid drop for the next race as a result.
📸 Perez’s Force India after colliding with Massa.
📸 Massa appeared to come off worse.
On the 2017 race start, Max Verstappen has the start of all starts, moving from fifth to second by the time he reached turn one, jumping Valtteri Bottas’s Mercedes and the Ferrari cars of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. Sadly for Verstappen he failed to progress further, retiring after 10 laps.
📸 Verstappen made a great start but retired shortly after.
Turn 3/4
The grassy section at turn 3 and 4 has also cost Felipe Massa dearly. In 2018 and then with Toro Rosso, Carlos Sainz ran into Romain Grosjean who put his Haas on the grass, shunting into the Sainz who in turn slid into Massa leaving him in the grass and the wall. Front wing required for Grosjean, while Sainz and Massa retired.
📸 Sainz was at fault for ending his and Massa’s race.
Another famous moment came in the last race here when Sebastian Vettel, under pressure from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, ran over the grass. In doing so, Vettel’s low grip forced him wide towards the wall on the exit of turn four and forcing Hamilton to brake to avoid contact. Vettel was given a 5 second time penalty and crossed the line below that gap, handing the win to Hamilton. Vettel refused to follow the podium procedure properly, leaving his car at the opposite end of the pit lane, before coming to the right end and swapping the first and second board around from Hamilton and where his car should have been.
Turn 5
A sweeping corner with a heavy braking zone before turn 6. Lance Stroll ended his home his race on lap 1 when he forced Brendon Hartley out of road in 2018, launching Hartley’s Toro Rosso into the air, before landing on Hartley’s car landed on his tyre, ending both drivers race.
📸 Both drivers were okay after this accident.
Turn 6
Jenson Button clinched his famous 2011 win here when Vettel ran wide on a wet part of the track, allowing Button past, to win the longest race in F1 history in which Button visited the pits six times.
📸 Button rushes past Vettel’s Red Bull to win having been last with 30 laps to go.
Droit Du Casino/Turn 9
A quick kink before the Hairpin Curve at Turn 10.
This was the site of Robert Kubica’s huge crash in 2007. The Polish driver hit Jarno Trulli’s Toyota before hitting a bump which launched Kubica in the to the wall, losing the front portion of his BMW Sauber car before he bounced across the circuit into the wall on the left side. Kubica suffered a sprained ankle and a concussion.
📸 Kubica missed the following race at Indianapolis after a really shocking looking crash.
Hairpin Curve/Turn 10
A big overtaking spot on this circuit!
📸 The Hairpin Curve, turn 10 at Montreal.
The Wall of Champions
At the end of the back straight comes a chicane, on the end of that chicane, comes the famous Wall of Champions.
The section takes its name from the fact a number of World Champion drivers including Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Jenson Button have had races ended by crashing into the wall there.
📸 Non World Champions are not exempt from the Wall of Champions as Antonio Giovinazzi found out.
Some facts about the circuit;
Was formerly known as the ‘Île Notre-Dame Circuit’, before being named after Gilles Villeneuve in 1982.
Has run in 5 different layouts, with the most recent layout being run since 2002.
The circuit is on the man made Notre Dame Island in the Parc-Drapeau area.
The St.Lawrence River runs around the the circuit.
Was the site of the first of Lewis Hamilton’s 103 Formula 1 wins.
Like Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Robert Kubica, Jean Alesi and circuit namesake, Gilles Villeneuve.
The 2011 race here was the longest in F1 history, at over 4 hours.
Roll on the weekend!
Image credit(s): Formula Motorsport Limited
Comentarios