The Formula One paddock has been all smiles from the first minute the teams arrived at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to prepare for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The 70-lap race returned to the F1 calendar in 2010 after a one-year hiatus due to a dispute between the former promoter and F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone. A deal was struck with a new promoter group late last to bring the race back, prompting eager anticipation in the paddock over the return to Montreal.
That’s because traditional June race in Montreal has long been a favourite on the F1 circuit with drivers, team personnel and the press corps that follows the series.
Almost every driver on the grid who has been to Montreal previously sang the praises of the city on the St. Lawrence River.
“I love it here,” said Lewis Hamilton, who won his first F1 race here in 2007. “The city is fantastic. It is one of the best and youngest and most fun cities to be in throughout the grand prix calendar, so I am really happy to be here and looking forward to a good weekend.”
And on track, things are always challenging, which increases the drivers’ enjoyment when they aren’t sampling the city’s charms.
“I like it when the walls are close and when there is very small margin for a mistake which is always more challenging and it gives you, at least for myself, more fun to drive,” said 2008 Montreal race winner Robert Kubica.
'I know two French words — bonjour and merci — so maybe that’s why everyone is so nice to me because I can’t speak French but I try' – Brian Vickers
The Montreal buzz also attracted Red Bull`s NASCAR driver Brian Vickers who made the trip to Montreal for the weekend’s activities and to see what all the fuss was about.
Vickers is on six months mandatory rest and rehabilitation after doctors found blood clots in his legs and lungs. He can’t drive due to the blood thinners he takes to rid his body of the pesky clots.
But it didn’t take long for Vickers to discover that Montreal was a good choice for his first F1 race outside the U.S.
“I love Canada, but this is my first time in Montreal and so far it’s been a great experience. The track is beautiful, I love the fact that it’s on a island, you go across the bridges, it has the river and the city in the background — it’s a really neat design,” said the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota driver, who visited the paddock twice when F1 ran on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I know two French words — bonjour and merci — so maybe that’s why everyone is so nice to me because I can’t speak French but I try. I’m excited to be here and obviously I’m upset about not being at Michigan [for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race] but this is a pretty close second.”
Unfortunately, Vickers' first experience of the track went a bit awry after he took a wrong turn as he headed for the paddock and found that it was a long way to walk around the track. “Thank goodness that a cute Canadian girl picked us up in a golf cart and brought us the second half of the way or we wouldn’t have made it for practice,” he said.
And after hearing their city fall silent in June last year, Montrealers seem to be giving F1 a warmer reception than usual.
“What I have noticed coming back this time is that, I think having lost it, the city really appreciated what it had lost and it seems to be even more into it than it was before,” said veteran F1 journalist James Allen. “This is just a fantastic city. If you think of all the places F1 visits, Melbourne is quite good, but it doesn’t give itself over to a grand prix the same way Montreal does.”
Everywhere you look there’s something race-related going, as the city closes several streets in the downtown core for all-weekend parties, holds grand prix-themed events all around the town and generally imbues the entire island of Montreal with grand prix fever.
“It’s not just the fans that come to the racetrack but it’s the entire city. It’s all about racing and cars and people celebrating the fact that F1 is in town. That makes all of us want to come here,” said Otmar Szafnauer operations chief at Force India.
“Canada is definitely one of the top places and, in addition to the city, the friendly people and the atmosphere, the racing always seems to be good here.”
Getty Images for Red Bull Racing
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