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Race Name: Canadian Grand Prix
Circuit Name: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal
Circuit Length: 2.747miles / 4.421km
Race Length: 189.543miles / 305.049km 69 laps
Lap Record: Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams BMW 1m15.960s

Alex Wurz's View

"As you start a lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, you reach 185mph / 297kph in seventh gear along the short pit straight, before braking hard for the right-left weave of turns one and two. Located just past the pit lane exit, turn one is taken at 90mph / 144kph in third gear, and is immediately followed by the Coin Senna. This right-hand hairpin is negotiated at 50mph / 80kph in second gear. You push hard on the throttle as you exit the Coin Senna for the short straight that leads to the chicane of turns three and four. You drop from 160mph / 257kph in fifth to negotiate the right-left flick at 82mph / 131kph in second, as you aggressively jump the curbs.

Exiting turn four, you sweep flat out through the long right-hand curve of turn five, reaching 170mph / 273kph in sixth before once again braking hard for the right-left flick of turns six and seven. The first left-hander is taken at 50mph / 80kph in second with your speed increasing to some 90mph / 144kph in third for the right of turn seven.

Full on the throttle on the exit as you power along the Place de la Concorde, achieving speeds of up to 195mph / 314kph in seventh gear, before dropping back through the gears for the right-left sequence of turns eight and nine. Entering the bumpy braking zone under the bridge for turn eight, your speed decreases to 70mph / 112kph in third gear.

The slightly faster turn nine follows and this can be taken at 80mph / 128kph, still in third gear. Exiting turn nine, you blast along the sweeping straight that leads to the L'Epingle hairpin. Having reached speeds of 160mph / 257kph in fifth gear, you brake hard for the 180-degrees right hander, which swings you round onto the Droit du Casino. Accelerating along the main straight, you reach 195mph / 314kph in seventh gear as you approach the hardest braking point on the track.

You pull -3.8G as you brake sharply to negotiate the final two corners that take you back to the start-finish straight. The right-left complex of bends is negotiated at 70mph / 115kph in third gear and you have to be careful not to jump the curbs too aggressively."

Olivier Panis' Vew

“I must say that I have been amazed at the way the team has bounced back since Monaco. We ran a two-pronged test effort last week: I took over from Ricardo Zonta at Monza for two days concentrating on low downforce development, which we will need at the next race in Montreal, and my teammate Cristiano Da Matta was at Silverstone on Tuesday and Wednesday.

We made really good progress with the car at both tracks and worked on dampers, general car set-up, tire tests and also a new-specification engine for Canada, which I am very positive about. I really love the team spirit at Panasonic Toyota Racing. Everyone is so determined and it is as times like this — when we have just had a bad couple of races — that it really counts. With everybody pushing forward at the moment I believe that it is only a matter of time until our luck changes.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is where I broke my leg in 1997, but that doesn't mean that I don't like the place. The accident could have happened anywhere and the truth is that I really like to race there. From a driver's point of view it is not a technically demanding track to drive, but there is lots of heavy braking, which makes it good for overtaking. I don't want to make any predictions as to how we will get on in the race. Our performances have varied so much this year that I have a very open mind as to how we will get on."

The Track's F1 History

The Canadian Grand Prix track is named after its first winner and Canada's most famous racing driver, Gilles Villeneuve. It is also the site of Jean Alesi's one and only grand prix victory (an incredible record given the number of races he has had in race winning machinery). His win here in 1995 for Ferrari seemed to be almost destined as it happened on his 31st birthday in a scarlet Ferrari baring Villeneuve's famous number 27. The son of person after whom the circuit was named has had a torrid time of it over the last few years.

Jacques Villeneuve's best result here was a 2nd in 1996 after which Villeneuve has posted a string of retirements. Both Schumacher and Hakkinen have won here in fine style over the last few years though it is also a circuit that suits Coulthard and Barrichello (the former leading comfortably until his retirements both in 1997 and 1998).

In 1999 the final corner caught out three former world champions when Villeneuve, Schumacher and Hill all came to grief there. In the end Mika Hakkinen came through to take the win, resulting in his only win here.

In 2000 the race was a pretty good one with rain late in the race resulting in a shaking up of the order that resulted in a Ferrari 1-2. The main loser in the rain was Coulthard who ended up having to come in for a third pitstop which resulted in a 7th place. Giancarlo Fisichella ended up taking the last podium place - hardly a surprise as Fisichella always drives impeccably here.

In 2001 Ralf Schumacher and his brother had a thrilling battle for the lead which was eventually resolved in Ralf's favor. Mika Hakkinen showed he still had some life left in him with a third place finish while Montoya clattered into the barriers taking out Barrichello with him. Frentzen had to withdraw from the race after he suffered headaches in practice leading to Riccardo Zonta driving his first race for Jordan.

In 2002 the Canadian race began what was to be a familiar sight as Juan Pablo Montoya took pole position but was beaten through better strategy, better tires and better overall race pace by Michael Schumacher's Ferrari (the fact that his engine let go didn't help matters either!). Coulthard and Barrichello had a good scrap for second place but there was no way that Michael Schumacher was going to be headed on Ferrari's 150th race. The race was dull for a Canadian Grand Prix (which is usually very exciting indeed) but was still better than some of the "snorathons" that were to come later in the season.

Last year saw Michael Schumacher take a narrow win from his brother with Montoya and Alonso putting in an impressive scrap behind them. Alosno's performance was particularly noteworthy as he was using the down on power wide angled engine. Alonso and Montoya repeatedly went wheel to wheel, at one stage even heading into the first corner three abreast with Ralf Schumacher! Barrichello and Raikkonen suffered their share of problems but still finished ahead of Webber and Panis who rounded out the points.

The Track

The Canadian GP usually gives some excellent racing. Unlike the vast majority of tracks the Formula One circus visits at this time of year, Montreal is a 'green' track (this means that the tarmac is free of the rubber put down on the track as a result of other cars accelerating or braking heavily). As the cars go out for the various practice and qualifying sessions, so as more rubber goes down on the track so the speeds steadily increase through the weekend. The other affect of this is that the car's setup needs to be played with as the track gets bedded in.

The track has some great quick corners allied to a couple of really slow corners (in particular the hairpin and the final corner before the pitstraight) making passing relatively easy here (that said, Irvine's battle with Herbert in 1999 and Schumacher's with Hill the year in 98 showed just how tricky overtaking is though the new rules forcing the front wing to be higher up has made overtaking a viable proposition this year so fireworks should be in store!).

The Gilles Villeneuve circuit is almost tailor made for a first corner pile up and it is usually pretty rare that someone does not come a cropper. Although the circuit is hard on the cars (particularly the car's brakes and transmissions) the teams love this place and the boating lake in the center of the island is the location for the inter-team mechanics raft race that takes place on the Sunday morning before the race.

Standing Canada joined the Formula One calendar in 1967 and apart from missing out in 1975 and 1987, has been a regular World Championship venue ever since.

The inaugural race took place at Mosport Park in Ontario, a high-speed and challenging road course through undulating wooded countryside.

In the early years the race was also staged at Mont Tremblant, but this tree-lined track was deemed too dangerous even by the standards of F1 in those days and after two races, Mosport Park took over as the permanent venue from 1971.

But within a few years Mosport was itself being seen as too dangerous and in 1978 the race moved to its current home in Montreal.

Built on the Ile Notre Dame in the St. Lawrence Seeway — alongside the rowing venue for the 1976 Olympics and near to the site of the 1967 Expo — it is a cross between a street circuit and a permanent road course.

Local hero Gilles Villeneuve was the dream first winner, perhaps adapting better to the unusual conditions. Held in October, the weather was so cold it snowed.

The circuit was renamed after Villeneuve following his death at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix though that year's race in Canada was also marred by the death of Riccardo Paletti after an horrific start-line crash.

In 1991, Britain's Nigel Mansell started celebrating his second 'victory' in Montreal too early having miscalculated the number of laps, and after stalling his Williams saw Brazil's Nelson Piquet sweep to the final victory of his career.

Mansell missed out the following year when he crashed at the final chicane, the difficult, high-speed section of the track where world champions Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill all crashed in 1999.

Last Year's Canadian Grand Prix Results

Circuit Name / Location:  Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal

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