They say that Kahnawake can be spelled 17 different ways, so I guess it is fair to say that no-one can get it wrong. It comes from an Iroquoian language called Kanien’kéha, which is spoken these days by only a couple of thousand people of the Mohawk Nation. The name Kahnawake means “on the rapids”, which was indeed the case. These dangerous waters are known in English as the Lachine Rapids, which are so-named because the first explorers in these parts went up the river looking for a passage to China (Chine being the French for China). When they returned without finding any Chinese, the locals began calling the area Lachine, as a joke.
The name stuck.
Most F1 folks stay in Montreal for the Grand Prix, but as the cost of the hotels has risen, so those who have budgets have moved into the suburbs: to Laval in the west, or Longueil to the east. We decided to try a new idea and looked south. We found the cheerily-named Châteauguay, which you get to by taking the Honore Mercier Bridge, which flies over from Montreal Island across the St Lawrence River and the Seaway alongside. The canal, designed to bypass the rapids, means that Kahnawake is no longer on the rapids, which is unfortunate, but I am not sure that Kanien’kéha has a word for canal…
It is, however, what modern Canadians call a “First Nation Reserve”, which possibly explained a bizarre incident one morning when we were trying to get to the circuit and were turned away from Kahnawake by a policeman, who said that the road was only to be used for locals. This seemed rather unreasonable and we drove away, swearing and cussing about Canadian policemen with no clue that he was probably there to prevent us disturbing members of the First Nation. He was not there the following morning and so we spent the rest of the weekend driving gleefully up and down the road and found no good reason to explain why we should not be allowed through. It was just another bumpy Canadian road. It was while doing this that we somehow missed a turning and ended up on Sesame Street.
For those who do not know the name, Sesame Street is a TV show for kids which dates back to the 1960s. It is probably most famous for turning The Muppets into global celebrities. The choice of the name, it seems, has nothing to do with Kahnawake (such a shame) but was chosen because the series aimed to give kids access to exciting things and someone suggested Sesame Street because of the phrase “Open Sesame”, from the Arabian Nights, is the password to enter a open a cave where the Forty Thieves had hidden stolen treasures. The Sesame Street we discovered was a nondescript suburban street, with little to commend it. Maybe they used to grow sesame plants there. Next time (not that there will be one) we will have to ask a policeman…
Chateauguay was relatively uninteresting as well, except it has a good view of the majestic river, has traffic jams caused by gaggles of geese, waddling over bridges (left), and because there was once battle of Chateauguay, when invading Americans, intent on expanding their country, were turned back by British troops, with the help of some friendly Mohawks, during the War of 1812.
There was once a time when a lot of people in F1 would happily name Montreal as their favourite Grand Prix of the year. It is great track and well-located close to what was always an exciting city, but something has changed. The track is still great, a place where a driver can make a difference, but the city has lost its shine. Montreal has always been a mess of roadworks, orange plastic cones and closed roads. Staying in the centre meant that it was more fun, but as this is no longer affordable, we no longer spend time downtown.
Montreal cannot help its weather and last weekend we had torrential rain, hail and lots of mud. This did not help but it was not just that. The race weekend is no longer fun. Last year, I was amazed to discover, the Canadian Grand Prix had the smallest number of F1 Media passholders in attendance. Fewer even than faraway Melbourne.
This year (perhaps because of the previous sentence) someone decided that the Media Parking should be relocated to a faraway place on the Ile Sainte-Hélène, two kilometres as the crow flies from the paddock.
I checked it all out on the Thursday and concluded that the P30 parking lot might as well be on Saint Helena, where Napoleon was sent into exile. The best option, suggested by someone in the Accreditation Centre, was to pay to park there and use shuttle buses laid on from there to the circuit. This worked fine if one arrived early in the morning and left late at night. At all other times everything just got stuck. The traffic plan was hopeless, illogical and policed by people who had no clue what they were doing.
If there were gold medals for traffic jamming, the Quebecois would be in contention.
We encountered fans who had been turned way by police who told them that the event had been “abandoned” because the access was such a disaster. It was a shame that so good a circuit had become such a misery. As often happens in these circumstances, everyone blames everyone else and the problem is never solved… But I fear it will be solved soon enough if things do not improve because the F1 group is getting tired of hosting exasperated sponsors, who turn up spattered with mud and angry. The word is that some of the folks at F1 are already looking at Toronto, even if there is a contract in place in Montreal until 2031. The city authorities don’t seem to care very much, the promoter aways claims there is not much he can do. This year the track was resurfaced but the new pit building was leaking like a sieve, with some dramatic moments in the commentary boxes as TV technicians fought to divert water which was threatening to blow up their equipment.
The whole thing needs a solid rethink. Fortunately, F1 is working to find solutions with the provincial government (which can tell people what to do) and one of the VIPs on the grid on Sunday was Quebec’s Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, a former financier who is also looks after the portfolios of Regional Economic Development and the Montréal Region. The date of the race is still a problem because, quite logically, F1 wants it to be a double-header with Miami, rather than two separate transatlantic excursions, but neither race wants to move. Whatever the details, things need to fixed so that F1 can fall back in love with Montreal again.
In a perfect world, the Olympic rowing basin, which is 2.2 km in length, could be filled in at the southern end to create room for all that the racing circuit requires. It is only 2.5 metres deep and I am sure engineers could figure out how to create a parking lot under a paddock, which could also include better facilities for the water sports community to use. Montreal’s summer is short and regattas do not happen every day but if they really need to have 2.2 km of water (as standard international rowing courses are usually 2.1km in length), there is potential to extend the basin at the northern end and use the rock to form other useful leisure venues, marinas or whatever. Given the winters they have they might also be able to develop snowmobile courses ice driving schools and so on. Much of the traffic problem could be solved simply by using the Pont Victoria and rethinking its access roads. At least the flows of cars and spectators would not then overlap at all, which is the root of the problem. Nothing is impossible with a little imagination and some public money. It must be worth it for the city to keep the Grand Prix, which is a huge boost for the local economy – so huge that many of us have to stay outside the city…
This may all sound a lot but there was a time when Montreal was a city with big ambitions. The Ile de Notre Dame was created for Expo 1967 with rock from the construction of the Montreal Metro, and it was converted to a rowing facility for the Olympic Games in 1976. It then became a park and racing circuit after the Games were finished. It would be a shame to waste such a great venue.
It is always good for race promoters to visit other venues around the world to see how things are done and how revenues can be maximised and in recent years Silverstone has been leading the way in this respect. It will soon begin construction work on an international standard kart circuit, which will be adjacent to the main vehicle bridge at the entrance to the infield area, where the old Abbey Corner used to be. It will feature a two-storey Timing and Race Control Building, which will also serve as a viewing terrace, as well as a meet-and-greet facility for visitors to the kart track. The facility will be permanent, although parts of it may still be used for other purposes during big race weekends.
Change is something that F1 has always thrived on and it is not going to change any time soon. Those who do not keep up end up worried about the future. Monza is in the throes of a huge rebuild, which we will see later this summer, while Barcelona is ruing its failure to make changes as it has now lost the Spanish Grand Prix to Madrid… Perhaps it can survive by alternating with the Dutch Grand Prix, which wants to become a biennial event. It seems that the Belgian Grand Prix does not want to share a date with the Dutch, but we have to see what happens after the Belgian election last week. The country has been run since the end of 2020 by the De Croo government, an alliance of liberals, socialists, greens and Christian Democrats, but it may take some time for a new alliance to be created. The country was without a government for 494 days after the 2019 elections.
Still, some would argue that nations that can survive without politicians may be the answer to all of our problems in the world…
The governance of Formula 1 is under discussion again as the negotiations for new commercial agreements continue. The FIA is trying to make nice to everybody after a fractious period since the elections in 2021. This is largely because the incumbent wants another term of office. F1 is polite, but not overly keen on the antics of the current President, but if they can pin him down and get him to commit to certain things,w hich will get rid of instability, then there is potential for a smoother running sport, as long as both sides keep to the agreement.
There was media chatter in Canada about the long-overdue announcement about the chassis rules for F1 in 2026. Some teams think they have not been properly consulted by the FIA, but the reality is that the announcements are not actually agreed in any great detail and it is expected that the details will be hammered out in the months ahead. The concept is to get rid of the current ground-effect cars and return to a flat bottom concept, coupled with a relatively short rear diffuser. The cars will also feature a dual drag reduction system, operating on both the front and rear wings. The devil is in the detail, but the important thing is to create more nimble cars, which are lighter and smaller, with less downforce. Aerodynamicists make the last point very difficult over time, but the aim is to make it easier for drivers to overtake. The previous rules were designed to do the same by reducing the dirty air behind the cars, which led to a drop off in downforce for a following car, but the work done by teams has (apparently) reduced this problem and so the FIA thinks there is no longer need for ground-effect.
The difficult thing is to make the cars lighter without compromising technological progress or safety – and without adding to the costs involved. This will get sorted out (because it has to be) and so there is little point in gnashing and grinding teeth on the issue.
Elsewhere the driver market is now waiting for Carlos Sainz to decide whether to move to Audi or Williams. It is essentially a question of faith in one team or the other. Both will improve, but the key issue is which will improve faster. Audi might (in a perfect world) end up as a championship contender, but it should be remembered that just because a manufacturer arrives in F1 does not mean they will be successful. If you look back to Mercedes-Benz, for example, the German firm hired Harvey Postlethwaite to oversee an F1 programme in the middle of 1991. The firm then changed strategy and hid behind Sauber which entered F1 with a Mercedes-funded Ilmor F1 engine, badged as a Sauber V10, in 1993. At the end of that year Mercedes-Benz decided to enter Formula 1 officially and bought a share of Ilmor.
At the end of 1994 Mercedes ditched Sauber and did a deal with McLaren. The partnership did not win a race until 1997 and the first title would come only in 1998. It took a very long time for Mercedes to become a force in F1, and to believe that Audi will win straight away in 2026 is the kind of thinking that has landed many an arrogant car manufacturer up to its neck in what the French so poetically call “merde” and it is always hard to feel sorry for them because they are all warned not to have daft expectations and yet they keep on coming and fall flat on their faces, one after another.
So, Carlos could join Williams in 2025 using Mercedes engines and the chances are that these will be pretty close to the front in 2026 (because they know how to do it). OK, Williams has not achieved much in the last 10 years, but if one watches the sport closely, one can see the signs that this is going to end. The team was in a dreadful mess when it was acquired by Dorilton, and fixing it up is taking time. But if one looks at what McLaren is now doing, a Mercedes customer team is as good as Mercedes and Ferrari and that HAS to be a better bet than Audi. Williams is offering Carlos a two-plus-two deal, which would let him leave after 2026 if a better offer came along and, to be honest, you would need to be drinking Audi-manufactured Kool-Aid to think that the German firm is the better option in 2025…
Now that Perez has re-signed with Red Bull and Yuki Tsunoda has been retained by the Visa etc Team, which closes the door he thought he might have at Audi, the question will be how the Faenza team fits three drivers into two seats. Tsunoda is signed, while Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson are both looking at the second seat. At the moment it looks like Lawson could get the drive after the summer break, but if Ricciardo suddenly starts doing World Champion-like performances, Red Bull will have a problem. If Red Bull does not give the seat to Lawson, he will be free to go and that rather defeats the purpose of spending huge sums of money on junior teams.
Elsewhere, Ferrari and Mercedes are both expected to use their junior drivers in 2025 with Oliver Bearman bound for Haas and Kimi Antonelli joining George Russell at Mercedes. Alpine might also use its junior driver Jack Doohan because the only folk keen to drive for the team at the moment are the desperate or the bright-eyed youngsters. Esteban Ocon is already gone and will sign for Haas, as he appears to understand that Audi is not a great choice. Audi and Alpine can squabble over Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas and it is likely that one will go to whichever team the other does not, but there is also Guanyu Zhou in the picture. Being Chinese is obviously helpful, but his results this year have been disappointing, possibly because the team is a mess. Sadly that is probably not a good enough excuse. There seems be little chance for Logan Sargeant and for Kevin Magnussen, though both have been given plenty of chances to show their talents.
Presumably in an effort to look more impressive the soon-to-be-Audi team has just announced that it has hired Stefano Sordo to be the new Performance Director at Hinwil. He is a good hire and has spent time with Red Bull in the first set of glory years and then with McLaren before becoming technical director at the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing IndyCar team. This will help a little but there are still rumblings from sensible German sources (not the nutters) that there is jostling going on at corporate level within Audi, with suggestions that the arrival of non-F1 people could result in those who know about the sport being axed, mad though that may seem. There is also the question of whether Audi F1 “Chief Representative” Oliver Hoffman will ultimately survive as he was plonked into this role to get him out of his previous role of Audi board member for technical development and the top boys at Volkswagen may not yet have finished destroying him. Volkswagen is famously complex in terms of its internal politics, which is another reason why people who want to be successful in F1 may steer clear of the team – until it is properly on the move.
The other current example of a manufacturer messing up in Formula 1 is Renault where strange things are happening. The firm is looking to get an alternative engine supply in 2026, although it is saying nothing at the moment, putting its fingers in its ears and going “la-la-la” very loudly when the idea is mentioned. Getting out of building engines makes sense because the team might get hold of a competitive power unit without needing to spend money to develop one. This would save hundreds of millions of dollars and car manufacturer bosses like saving money more than anything, as it means that shareholders do not chase after them with axes when they get paid (pay themselves?) absurd amounts of salary. Saving $650 million on F1 engines in the years ahead and getting a more competitive car is not a bad idea, if one can ignore the fact that the company is admitting failure and giving up. Renault can use Viry-Chatillon to develop engines for Alpine to use at Le Mans. Renault boss Luca de Meo insists that there is no intention to sell the F1 team or any constituent part, but he was not asked whether he might give up making F1 engines, which would have been a better question…
De Meo has talked a lot about rebuilding the team in Enstone but the recent purges (and they may not be over yet) have resulted in a situation in which it is harder to attract the right kind of talent and team members are rightly worried about their jobs. It is going to be a very big job to build up a team that knows how to win in F1.
In Canada, Alpine had a good weekend and picked up three points, which enabled the team to overtake Williams in the Constructors’ Championship. This was rather lucky in that Williams’s Alexander Albon was running ahead of Pierre Gasly when he was taken out by a spinning Carlos Sainz.
Ironic, huh? Still, Ocon had managed to get ahead of Albon before that and was on his way to scoring two points before the crash, which helped Gasly get into the points.
If you like irony, you might also consider that before the Canadian Grand Prix, the two biggest car manufacturers involved in F1: Volkswagen and Renault had teams that were last and second-to-last in the Constructors’ Championship.
There might be a moral in that somewhere.
The other issue at Alpine is the suggestion that de Meo intends to give Flavio Briatore a role to help rebuild the team. This is astonishing thinking in that Briatore is 74 and has not been involved in the sport operationally since 2009 – 15 years – during which time everything has changed, not least the way the sport operates. Let us not forget that in 2009 he was thrown out of F1 – and banned for five years – because of his involvement in the infamous Singapore scandal. This also led to Renault leaving the sport for a lengthy period because car manufacturers cannot afford to be mixed up with such things. Involving the man who led to Renault’s public disgrace and the decision to pull out of the sport between 2011 and 2016 might not be considered very clever by shareholders. Briatore is hardly the poster boy for good governance and it would be astonishing if the squeaky clean Wall Street types at Liberty Media were happy with any high profile appointment. They don’t mind him finding money and delivering it to their doorstop (for a fee, naturally) but having him on Drive to Survive should really be a bridge too far…
It is by no means certain that any of the rival engine manufacturers would want to supply the Enstone team with engines and if Briatore was in charge, it might be even more difficult.
De Meo may think that leopards change their spots, but I have bad news. They don’t. Many years ago when I first lived in France, there was someone who lived further up the valley who kept big cats on his property. They were sufficiently fenced-in to keep the bureaucrats happy (no mean achievement) and everyone seemed happy enough until one day the vet came by to inject the family pig (a long story, but one which confirms the expression “squeal like a stuck pig”) and he explained that this was not such a difficult task as he had previously had to sedate a bunch of big cats after they had pounced on their owner and killed him…
The kings of the jungle are never domesticated and can never be tamed.
Ah well, we will see how it all turns out…
I am sure that some readers would like to know what happened after the last Green Notebook, with regard to my faithful Prius, which blew up after 472,000 km, near the city of Bourges, in the centre of France, on my way home from Monaco. Sadly, I have to report that the big bang, accompanied by flying shrapnel observed in the red view mirror, turned out to be terminal. Still, the old girl went out in style, blowing several holes (left are two of them) in her engine block, after what appears to have been a con rod failure.
Given the damage, a proper autopsy was not required. The problem could be fixed with a recovered engine but it would cost as much to do that as to buy a replacement vehicle, so I will return to Bourges next week, en route to Barcelona, and will pick up my belongings from the Prius and hand her over… One cannot complain about a car that dies with nearly 300,000 miles on the clock. I’m told that the average car in Europe is scrapped after just 105,000. I have since become the owner of another Toyota. This has the same drivetrain as the Prius and so there is the basis for a longterm relationship ahead…
joeblogsf1 
Your Prius reminds me of an Alfa retiring from the Long Beach GP from an “oil leak,” which it had through the giant hole in the crankcase.
The classic “electrical problem” – the conrod burst through the engine block and smashed the alternator.
Joe, just for clarification, when you say “At the moment it looks like Lawson could get the drive after the summer break”, do you mean “get confirmed for the 2025 drive after the summer break” or are do you mean there might be mid-season driver swap?
Swap
Gotta love those Ricciardo clicks. Make anything up for the traffic
I don’t care about clicks at all. If you read this column regularly you would know that. If you don’t like what you read, don’t read it.
“Gotta love those Ricciardo clicks. Make anything up for the traffic”
Can you please explain how “GREEN NOTEBOOK FROM SESAME STREET” and the first few lines of this blog that revolve around one of Joe’s famous travelogue facts could possibly be construed as ‘clickbait’ – enticing people to click on title in order to read something controversial/interesting about RIC?
No? Didn’t think so!
That’s a silly thing to say. ‘Shows you don’t understand what goes on here.
Potato Paddy, the number of times Joe gives an “opinion” that turns out to be totally wrong you can safely engrave on the top of a pin head. Click bait, usually has a sensational headline which turns out be bullocks and then the headline repeated over and over. Except the comments, you are hard pressed to see the same sentence repeated. These past are not news they are prose interspersed with motor sport fact.
Hi Joe, excelent writing as always!
I’m wondering if Gasly chooses to stay in Enstone then who will Audi opt for? As Bottas himself believes, the team is not seriously considering to keep neither of both drivers.
Roger Benoit, from Blick.ch, reports that the team might then look for a new talent like Drugovich or even Maloney.
What is your vision about that? Thank you
I have not heard that but Roger is well-connected at Sauber…
Thank you for the reply! I follow his publishings and he’s now mentioning Gasly as Audi’s main target and if Gasly stays in Alpine they may go for Drugovich. His last article also mention Lawson if he fails to take Ricciardo’s seat.
I’d agree with all of that. Bottas only comes into it if Gasly says no. They could go for a youngster but it’s riskier…
So Ocon turned down Audi or is it Audi that is not interested? I assume the former as I recall at the beginning of the season he was rumoured to be plan B for Audi if Sainz didn’t sign.
I believe the former
Wishing you many happy miles ahead with the new Toyota.
Joe, thanks as always for the update and news, so sorry to hear about the Prius, you really got the best value from that 300,000 miles or 482,000 kms is phenomenal mileage, enjoy your new car.
Joe, it appears McLaren and Mercedes are doing better technically. However, racecraft appears to need more work. What would the teams being doing to remediate this? Or is strictly driver inexperience?
Ever since Jordan days through all the various iterations to now with AM still, race craft has been the teams Achillies heal. It’s not the drivers it’s a combination of the team back at base c/w those on the pitwall just not cutting it. IMHO.
I was in/on St Helena earlier this year, plenty of parking available so not a bad choice tbf.
New or preowned Toyota?
Must confess that the Prius story was what I hoped to read in this weeks Green Notebook.
Pre-owned Auris. Acquired in less than 24 hours…
What year Auris? Also glad to see you staying with a Toyota hybrid. They’re not perfect, but work hard at trying to be.
2018
Hi Joe, what model of Toyota is your new car? Great Green Notebook as ever!
Auris
Joe, huge discussion of Engines in the notebook so I will add to it. If you look at Ilmor to Merc early days the best description of them was “Chocolate Teapots”! Time made the Merc a great engine and they carried that knowledge into the Hybrid era. McLaren then renewed its taste for chocolate tea with Honda. When Honda went to RBR the time element worked out again for reliability and power. Renault have not forgotten how to make a reliable engine, they just lost the plot for improving power. It is so long since we had a new engine builder in F1 many wont know what an engine built from Cadburys is like!
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History makes me suspect that RBR and Audi are heading to an era of going down the straight with more smoke pouring out of the back than a Red Arrows fly by… Which suggest with the new rules, the battle is Merc power vs Ferrari vs Honda power if Renault are gone! If bench testing alone could get it done, Honda would have won right away with McLaren.
PS Sorry about the Prius engine going all confectionary beverage holder on you, so what model of Toyota is the replacement? Why not another Prius?
Auris
I grew up in Montreal from 1952 to 1981. During that period we experienced so many exciting events, one of which was the STOL port. A little early for its day but then the folks at Porter fine tuned the concept and today are riding hi.
So, empty the rowing basin, install a parking garage and pave over a landing strip. Could work.
What do you make of Redbull putting everyone at risk to prevent a safety car to get the win, very much like Flavio manipulativing the safety car to get the win, how long do you think Horners ban be for manipulating the safety car and putting lives in danger to get the win?
It’s called racing…
Whom, Flavio or Horner, both manipulated the safety car, but only one put lives in danger. One told thier driver to crash, the other told thier driver to carry on driving regardless of the danger to others?
or you saying flavio is worse because…. well because he didn’t put lives at risk by manipulating the safety car, but you like him less than you like Horner.
A driver deliberately crashing to cause a safety car which would benefit a teammate is a uniquely bad thing to do. A driver dragging a damaged car back to the pits, with the odd bit falling off in the process happens regularly.
IMO you need to get a grip on what is truly dangerous beyond reason vs what is pretty normal in racing series that are famously safe. You seem rather confused about what comprises actual danger that warrants intervention.
I’m guessing that you also view one or more current tracks as intolerable deathtraps and believe it’s proper to have red flags left and right rather than simply enforce double-yellows. Of course, I could be wrong about this… but am I right? 😉
A great read (as always) whilst Le Mans practice plays in the background. Interesting to see how the ex-F1 guys get on compared to the others.
I went to Montreal for the GP this year as I now live in Vancouver and it’s just a 4 hour flight away.
Having been to Spa, Silverstone (many times), Monaco, Monza before, this was hands down the worst fan experience I’ve ever had. It was a schlep and logistical challenge to get in and out of the circuit without using a car. Once in, just getting around the circuit was really difficult, there were muddy bottlenecks everywhere, a lack of useful information to plan with before the race and no-one seemingly directing the foot traffic.
I was very glad I wasn’t General Access as well, I saw a horror story of fans that had been in a section on the start finish straight since the gates opened and just before the race the organisers came and put sheeting up on the fence to block the view.
On the Saturday despite arriving an hour and a half early at the track, we still missed the start of FP3 and almost missed our 8:30 dinner reservation in the old town due to delays getting out of the circuit.
Maybe I’ll try Mexico next year.
Tracks have been doing tarps for years. If memory serves me correctly can’t you take the subway in and walk to your seat?
You can take a Metro to the island but not if you are staying out in the country..
Fine to have a tarp if it’s there when people are looking for where to stand. Letting people grab the spot, sit there all morning and then cover it up just before the race isn’t great.
It also apparently hadn’t been covered up in any previous sessions.
The metro is good (although the queues huge) if you happen to be in the right bit of the city to take advantage of it. Still difficult getting to your seat even from the metro stop (I got the boat the first day that comes in next to the metro)
Ha…stayed in Chateauguay in ’19…Good choice! Stayed in the Notre Dame community in ’22, and in Blainville (maybe 20km west of Laval) last year.
I missed the race this year due to my company losing our contract so late…by the time my new company picked me up, the lodging prices were astronomical.
Already trying to secure lodginf for next year…best to believe I’m looking 30-60km outside the city.
Hi Joe,
Great observation’s on Montreal GP logistics , I was at the first one in 78 and many more since
it’s has always been a bit theatrical and we would tolerate it at the cost of a GP weekend back then
However being a racing fan is now a very expensive weekend at the Canadian GP
With the same logistics issues and more fans than ever last weekend
It would be nice to feel welcome for what we spent over a weekend per fan?
I feel it’s better value to go to a European F1
Montreal appears to have a lot of incompetent security staff working this event each year
The organization is lucky we love the sport for now
Joe, since you endure plenty of abuse you probably don’t remember my rant at DT 10+ years ago (for which I apologized) when he referred to the oppression he endured, leaving the Montreal course, through all the “cattle”. As one of the cattle I was not happy.
And now, years later, you know what we, the public have had to deal with.
I’ve been going since 1992 and it gets worse and worse. This year – I didn’t go. The mud, the constricted access is absurd (though the prices have doubled). The best part of last-year’s event was when the crowd burst out from the ropes (preferring the VIP’s vehicles) in order to get to their seats in time. Joyous times, though the MIB reset them fairly quick.
The most egregious, but typical, example of the organizers’ attitude to spectators this year is when they blocked off one of the vanishingly few good viewing areas with plastic blinding material right as the action started. Why? Just because? This blocking of GA viewing has crept up year after year (I try and do a traditional track walk but it’s becoming impossible)
Note that Montreal General Admission is, to me, a crime. There is so little available viewing; you just cannot watch from GA without being there at opening time and grabbing a place by the fence where you can see helmets speed by. I’ve experienced Silverstone, Brands, Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio and more. This place (Montreal) is bad for spectating (unless you spend a lot to stumble through mud and crowds).
As noted, I have a 30+-year history of the Montreal Canadian Grand Prix. Recently they were forced to put money into the garage and paddock. OK. But the disdain for the public is too much.
It seems that under the current regulations the field really is converging. There now seem to four teams (and seven drivers) capable of winning races. The rest of this season looks to be very competitive even though MV has big head start. It seems to set up the possibility of a cracking battle in 2025, maybe even approaching the levels of 2021.
But then F1 will throw the dice and introduce new regulations that always seem to spread the field back out – with the real possibility of single team domination returning.
If the rest of 2024 shows real competition at the front with the prospect of more in 2025 why fix something that isn’t broken? Another close title chase would make the F1 product even more compelling and entertaining – and more profitable for everyone. The current regulations were delayed by a year and it paid off tremendously for F1. Is there thought in the paddock toward delaying the next set of regulations by a year?
As you wrote “Change is something that F1 has always thrived on…”, but why kill the golden goose when you don’t know for sure that the next ugly duckling will become a swan?
I agree. We are finally seeing convergence leading to extremely tight qualifying times and great racing. As history is likely to repeat itself, the new rules will once again harm the show.
It seems that the FIA and Liberty are prioritizing pleasing manufacturers over the fans.
That is not a sensible conclusion
is it great racing though? It still is too dependent on weather and circuit layout. Circuit GV throws up the odd double six every couple of years
Let’s see what Barcelona gives us but i bet it won”t be great.
Compared to the mega competitive hypercar category at Le Mans…..
Which is ruled by BOP…
BOP gets reviewed fairly regularly so that any car that everyone gets a fair crack.
FIA have already needed to think about how WEC is going to accomodate entries next year because of the huge interest from manufacturers and also privateers…
F1 has decided to turn away interested parties even those who are willing to invest the enormous budgets just to get on the grid.
if I was the CEO of a manufacturer and a racing division boss presented two proposals to me, one for an F1 programme and one for WEC Hypercar, I think it would be difficult to argue against the WEC (at the moment!).
Hi Joe,
I am delighted you’re staying with Toyota, arguably the most reliable auto brand.
It’s a pity the parent company doesn’t re-enter F1 with the Lexus brand. Maybe there’s a brand value mismatch. Or maybe their Toyota experience put them off F1 forever! I would have thought Lexus would be a better fit to compete against premium brands Mercedes and Audi in F1 than hypercars in the WEC with the Toyota brand.
Always enjoy your Green Notebook thank you. They remind me of Denis Jenkinson’s Letter from Europe, which I read avidly as a teenager desperate for news of my New Zealand F1 heroes. Motorsport arrived 3 months late via surface mail! A far cry from the instant digital media of today!
Maybe they will come back one day, having learned lessons first time around…
Maybe the lesson they learnt was not to come back…
According to F1 photographer Kyle Illman, Esteban Ocon confirmed in one one of his media interviews/briefings that he had signed to drive for another team . The rumour is that the team he’s signed for is Mercedes but that does not correlate with the narrative of many other sources of Antonelli getting that drive. Do you think Ocon to Merc for 2025 and delaying Antonelli’s arrival until at least 2026 could actually happen Joe?
I assume you would be surprised if Merc went for Ocon in 2025. I would have thought Ocon to Haas was more likely but Toto opted for a cautious approach with another young driver in George in years previous with Russell doing 3 seasons at Williams prior to his 2022 Merc move so I be a little surprised but not shocked if Wolff opted for experience.
He will join Haas
Correction: Kym Illman
One wonder why Renault would hang on to Alpine if they don’t intend to run their own engines? Team value? Branding?
If its only reason is to flog the Alpine brand, surely a further share sale is on the cards? To Andretti perhaps?
Luca de Meo says no
Mandy Rice‐Davies: ‘Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?’
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that nothing related to Renault and F1 makes much sense as it has been the case for a fair while now!
Not much mention of what was a fabulous race – I was fortunate enough to see it live (flew in Friday, flew out Sunday). Access to the track is crap though – we were sat by turn 1 & 2. There is an access road right behind this but unless you had a car, you couldn’t exit the circuit here. Which meant a 2-3km walk through the park and then a long walk in the pouring rain across the St Lawrence. It took around 2-3 hours to get back to downtown. Loved the city and what a race to watch 🙂
Hi Joe,
Been a while since I said a “Thank You” to you – “Krup khun krap” – no its not a nasty! Last . time we spoke I was living in Hong Kong, now for 5 years in Thailand. I loced the race in Montreal, in part because of the way I watched it, an old Canadian buddy, ex decent standard motocross guy had his TV provider down, such is life in the forests near the mining towns, so I video called him, put my phone on my armchair, and pointed it at my TV, I sat on the floor and we had a natter while we watched the race. Wonders of tech, eh?
One thing I noticed, I’m not a Max fan, but sure to a certain extent those behind him (Hello, George!) lost their own races, that was a remarkable performance, imho. “If you can hold your head.. while” But he didn’t look very happy, not as happy as he normally might, you throw in Ferrari well down, and Merc, Mc, suddenly so much closer, Christian’s predilection for bending the rules and asking or being asked questions of lawyers after…
Maybe I’m imagining things. the teams of course are all getting closer at the end of this cycle of rules, eh?
Anyway, merci beaucoup – it was a race to remind me of the love of the sport, which has been somewhat missing of late.
So……………….
Now that Antonelli is joining Mercedes, and the game of musical chairs concerning the drivers lower down the grid not affecting those further up it, can we safely assume that Verstappen will be staying at Red Bull? (it’s my opinion that he never was going to go anywhere but that’s just an opinion………………).
We can see at the end of 2026
I remember working at the first GP in Montreal. It was cold (snowed) and the access was almost traffic (human) free and all the teams were given a nice book by the circuit with all the information you would ever need. I wish I had kept mine.
I worked the race that year too with the gang from the Motorsport Club of Ottawa under the direction of the late Bob Armstrong. The original control tower was quite the dinosaur. Lots of beer afterwards.
That Prius served you well! Sad to see it’s gone. Epic milage though what an advertisement for them!
It’s a shame that he put a qualifying engine in it for the drive home 😉
I’m not sure I would be keen to open any packages from Flavio left by my doorstep.
Joe, thank you for another great column, love reading these! Sad to hear about your experience in Montreal this year, unfortunately it only reaffirmed my decision not to attend. It started with the prices – we were quoted a Grand Prix package for 4 people, silver seats, hotels, transfers… $16,000!!!! And to see the reports that the bridge continues to be an issue, mud, rain, etc. no thanks! Went sailing instead and watched the GP when I got home on Sunday!
Montreal used to be one of the BEST GPs to attend, but the experience has gotten progressively worse over the years. They really have not done much to the circuit to warrant the increased prices, the access is still terrible, there’s virtually no GA where you can see the race and in the last few years they closed off the area alongside the rowing basin & behind the grandstands. You feel herded like cattle into an ever narrowing spaces. The city itself has gotten progressively dirtier and dingier, many of the places we used to attend closed and there was definitely an element of vagrancy that made it feel unsafe. 1990 to 2019 with only a couple of missed years in between.. it’s been a good run, great memories but I don’t think I’ll go back unless they fix things
Wait what, Renault isn’t making an engine for 2026? Just call it a day and sell the F1 team, that would be beyond embarrassing for Alpine.
Not selling the team.
RIP Prius U R wiv da angles now
Also, Briatore? I just can’t get my head round that one.
Nobody can…
Given the proposed changes in Concorde requiring new entries to only be eligible if made from a manufacturer (see FIA president’s recent comments following new FOM love-in), and the established fact that manufacturers take years to come up to speed and are more at risk of pulling the plug without notice, what is the likliehood of new blood, with new facilities etc, ever coming in?
Does such a requirement make sense given all the competitive teams are privateers? RBR is private, Mercedes is 66% private, Ferrari is Ferrari, etc. Only Alpine is a manufacturer, and Audi to join, both at the back.
Wouldn’t you think, that to be considered likely to be competitive, you would need to NOT be a manufacturer?
Or is that the intended catch 22?
And if we are limited to manufacturers, does that mean the doors are now only open to Stellantis, Tesla and China?
All very good points and questions…
I attended the Canadian GP with my son a couple of years ago and we took the little ferry from old town to the island. It was very stress free and much more pleasant than the overcrowded metro!
Also, as a long-suffering Williams fan, the possibility of having Sainz/Albon for 2025 is a dream come true! Perhaps the best driver pairing we’ve had for 20 years.
I’ve heard of this boat, but it’s a very long way from the paddock…
Joe is there any chance Theo Pourchaire could get an Alpine drive?
He’s a Sauber driver. Alpine has a junior team.
zero i think. He’s thrown his lot in with the Mclaren Indycar programme now anyway.
certain outlets rave about Doohan but i’ve not seen a stand out in the making.
Martins is the fastest Alpine junior but is having a shocker of an F2 season.
Great article, thanks Joe!
As a Torontonian, I cannot see a viable path to an F1 race here. The IndyCar race is a village fête compared to Montreal, and locals have been trying to get that canned for a while. Add to that Mayor Olivia Chow’s current municipal budget woes and the abysmal state of our public transit…yeah. As bad as Montreal is I don’t think Toronto would be any better, even if there was public will.
There is Mosport/CTMP as well (which is a truly fantastic racetrack of the Old School – a FAST and demanding circuit with huge elevation changes) which had F1 history but would the facilities would need hundreds of millions to upgrade. Who would put the money up for it I wonder?
Would love to hear if you have any more thoughts to share on the Toronto subject! I went to the recent F1 exhibition here…it was pricey but well attended and engaging.
I don’t think they looked at the IndyCar track, but they have looked at other possible ideas.
F1 at Mosport again would be fantastic. Great track and a beautiful setting for camping.
But, it isn’t flat, boring and surrounded by distractions for the short attention span crowd. And, of course, they would like to replace campers with those that would never think such a thing.
100% agree. On multiple occasions, I have gone to Mosport as an employee of a certain large automaker that sponsors a yearly headline race there (which happens to currently be trying to get into F1, as it happens) …watching cars battle for grip and overtaking at Turn 5 is a sight to behold. Even the NASCARs! Alas, I remain pessimistic about the possibility of F1 ever going there.
Bowmanville (the nearest local municipality to Mosport) has been fighting for GO Transit (intercity rail from Toronto) for over 30 years: it would be a necessity to organise a way for people to get to the race from Toronto Pearson airport without resorting to renting a car, and GO Transit is pretty much the only way to efficiently achieve that. But our successive Ontario provincial governments are more interested in cronyism and being as incompetent as possible than making our lives better/developing the sort of infrastructure that could support a world class motorsport event.
I am curious if anyone in F1 has looked at Area 27 (a new track in BC, though that would also need a lot in facility upgrades)…
All in all, I am of the opinion it would take a well-connected, deep-pocketed and passionate advocate for motorsport to make a well executed Toronto area F1 race a reality. May they materialise some day!
Wasn’t there a decent Vancouver street circuit in the CART days?
Could that be an alternative ‘destination city’ Grand Prix for Canada?
Not after the Formula E debacle
Lol, ah maybe not then!!
I immediately thought of Mosport but would hope they don’t ho there as it would ruin a great circuit
thanks for this notebook, interesting and fun as usual, just a shade of sadness for your Prius , Joe .
I understand you dont have what you consider a reliable information about Newey’s whereabouts , but what are your feelings / sentiments about his next (or just to be disclosed) decision?
I’d be astonished if he moved to Italy. If Ferrari wants him for more than window dressing he would need to be in Italy. He lives near McLaren…
Remote working if far more practical these days than when John Barnard attempted it. Although whether that would work well enough for Adrian Newey as he uses pen and paper is not so clear…
As you say I guess it depends on how much input they want him to have (and how much he would want). Also, wonder how that would impact on Rory Byrne as I believe he is still involved with Ferrari?
Someone with deep pockets should buy Canadian Tire Motorsports park (aka Mosport), and spend some money extending the track and revamping the place. It could be great.
Haven’t been to Montreal to watch a race since Villeneuve (aka Uncle Fester) showed up for Williams and the organizers decided to start jacking up all the prices back then.
Maybe Stroll Sr.? He owned Mont-Tremblant Circuit at one point and seems to like dumping his money into racing.
I am more and more getting the feeling that Audi thought it would have drivers lining up and throwing themselves at the opportunity to drive for them and now is starting to realize it isn’t turning out that way at all. While most of the drivers currently on track are/remain there on merit, ending up with two that are used to running in the lower half of the results or one that is new to F1 will be interesting in whether the drivers point the fingers at the new team or the new team points the finger at the drivers if (when) success isn’t instantaneous. That may well work out to be best for all concerned, actually, at least for the first few years.
Good to see you are mobile again!
Thanks Jim
I think I the point….
I’m confused about what the role/goal of the 2nd RB team is these days.
Is it still expected that having one entity running two teams soon will be prohibited? If so, when is this expected to take effect?
p.s. Your new-to-you Toyota has the Prius engine… but is it a Prius? If not, what is it?
p.p.s. Are you keeping any scrap of the Prius as a memento? Or is just a dead appliance that leaves no emotional residue?
The two team thing will probably happen in 2031. The car is an Auris. I will take a picture or two of the Prius.
Oh dear. Please ignore my earlier question about the particular Toyota model you acquired.
I never heard of an Auris before… but I have now… several times 😉
Sorry if I’m being too nosy, but I do wonder how you put these things together. Do you first have an outline of sorts, arranging the points to cover? Or do you just start typing with a few things in mind and let it wander where it may? (Or something else I haven’t thought of?)
I just let it flow…
it occurs to me if Andretti want to prove their worth they should lobby Indycar to allow them to make their own car, like Penske did back in the day. If they can win with it, they might have a case that they’ll not drown in F1
If that happened, Penske and Ganassi would probably follow as the Dallara is obviously a compromise car. It would cost everyone a fortune…
After Ganassi’s withdrawal from running the Caddy hypercars, is it likely Andretti will take over the programme next year Joe?
I know they currently run a n IMSA team for a different make but i’m just guessing it might futther strengthen their relationship in light of the F1 entry attempts?
I don’t know but it makes sense…
The apparent smart money is a split programmer, WTR with Andretti in IMSA and JOTA in WEC.
I see that as a bad move, there are economies of scale running both programmes outside of just raw data. They said there was no BOP at Le Mans and if we take that as true tge BMW programmer was way off, yet the base package is descent as it runs well in IMSA run by Bobby Rahal. You coukd also see there was no information sharing between Ganassi and Action Express either.
There’s rumours that Toronto-Montreal might joint bid for the 2036 Summer Olympics so it might be important to keep that rowing basin yes they could do that part in Toronto off Lake Ontario but why would you when it is already built.
I can’t believe Renault is in trouble. Joe told us a couple of months ago everything was jolly and they were thrilled with all the Alpine sports cars they were selling.
In Indycar, Andretti are a Honda team though and not Chevy. But then so is French Fries Ganassi, but they run a GM brand in IMSA.