SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Preview: 2004 Canadian Grand Prix

I will be taking the course during the 2004 season using EA's F1 Challenge '99-'02. To make it more contemporary I will be applying Ralph Hummerich's excellent carset to it as soon as it is ready. I have chosen Ralph's carset as, in addition to him being a thoroughly top notch person, in my opinion his carsets are the best available and it is an honor for SimHQ to have an exclusive WIP version to be able to use for its screenshots. Many thanks Ralph! If you wish to try his 2003 add on please use this link to his page.

A Lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Accelerating out of the last corner and across the start finish line you take a slight right hand kink before braking hard and changing down to second gear to take the 70 mph Senna, a right hander that leads into a tight right hander called the island hairpin. This is usually taken at 45mph and this little complex of corners is often the scene of a big pile up away from the grid. In 1998 Alexander Wurz barrel rolled his Benetton here and Jarno Trulli has twice ended up parked on top of Jean Alesi following coming togethers away from the line. One of the fastest crashes of recent years happened here in 1997 when Ralf Schumacher managed to pile Johnny Herbert's Sauber into the side wall. You accelerate slightly uphill under a bridge that usually has a Players' logo on it before braking down again for the right-left chicane that is comprised of the (unnamed) turns 3 and 4. These are both taken at about 75 mph in third gear.

Accelerating through turn 5 (which really just requires a slight dab of the brakes and is taken in 4th gear at 165mph) you then brake for turn 6 which is a much slower left hander taken at a shade under 100mph in 2nd gear.

Turn 7 is a right hander called Pont De la Concorde. Although this a slow corner (is is another 2nd gear corner taken at 90mph), the proximity of the guard rails to the track means that an off can hurt as Olivier Panis found out here in 1997 when he crashed his Prost at this point, breaking both his legs.

You accelerate out of there and get a decent head of speed up before braking under a bridge down to third gear for a right-left that forms turns 8 and 9. In 1995 David Coulthard spun his Williams out early on when the damp under the bridge caused his Williams to get away from him. These turns are taken in 3rd gear at about 65mph.

You accelerate hard down to the Virage Du Casino where you brake incredibly late and very hard to the 1gear 40mph right hand corner. This has been the scene of some good overtaking moves and it is also the scene of some poorly considered lunges (none more so than Mika Hakkinen's move on Johnny Herbert's Benetton on the opening lap in 1995). It was here that Nigel Mansell managed to stall his engine on his final lap here in the 1991 race while waving to the crowd — this led to Nelson Piquet winning for Benetton.

Coming out of the hairpin you accelerate hard for well over a mile and a half where you reach speeds approaching 200mph before braking hard for the final chicane which is a right-left which is a 50mph 2nd gear turn which leads back onto the start/finish pitstraight. It was here in 1999 that Schuey, Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill all came to grief against the wall on the outside of the final corner. It was also at this corner that Nigel Mansell crashed in 1992 while pressuring Senna for the lead. This led to his breaking the longest winning spell since Alberto Ascari (though Schumacher replicated the feat at the start of this year).

Occasional crashes can happen just before the final corner due to the pitlane being straight on and therefore requiring a later braking point than the track and is where Riccardo Paletti was killed in 1982.

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