Top 10 Canadian GPs since 1967
Let’s hope it’s raining in Montreal on Sunday, when they signal the start of the 41st Canadian Grand Prix.
Otherwise, there will be few – if any – surprises.
Gone are the days of engine blowups that changed the face of a Grand Prix in a heartbeat – as happened in several Canadian GPs over the years.
Gone are the days of drivers losing their tempers and throwing punches – as happened at least once in Canada.
Gone are the days of drivers leading a race, only to spin out after missing a shift – as happened on occasion.
And why has it come to this?
Technology has taken over Formula One and nothing – absolutely nothing – is left to chance. Even the drivers are like computers. I did an interview with Jenson Button, the world champion, a few days ago in which he discussed how the weight of an extra 2.5-kilos of fuel in the tank of his McLaren can add a tenth-of-a-second a lap to his times.
A tenth-of-a-second a lap!
So hope for rain – or a huge upset, such as Michael Schumacher regaining his form and winning the first race of his comeback.
Or Robert Kubica of Poland winning his second consecutive Canadian Grand Prix after surviving one of the worst crashes in Canadian GP history.
McDONALD: GRAND PRIX SHOULD COME TO TORONTO
The race wasn’t held last year, of course (it wasn’t held in 1987 or 1975, either), which means the 2008 winner, Kubica, is the defending champion. In 2007, although he wasn’t hurt, he suffered through a God-awful accident that fans of the sport are still talking about.
To return to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve a year later, in ’08, and then go on to win his first-ever F1 race, was a remarkable accomplishment. It makes that 2008 Grand Prix one of the most interesting and significant ever held in Canada.
You want interesting and significant? How about 2005, when that year’s Canadian Grand Prix was the most watched F1 race that season and — get this — was also the third most-watched sporting event in the world that year, behind only the Super Bowl and the soccer UEFA Champions League final.
Or how about 2001, when Ralf Schumacher – who won the race in a Williams-BMW – and his brother Michael – who finished second in a Ferrari – became the first brother act to finish first and second in a Grand Prix. The boys did a repeat in 2003, except that Michael won that year, with Ralf second.
Here, then, in descending order, are my Top Ten picks for most thrilling or significant Canadian Grands Prix – with Kubica’s amazing comeback being No. 10:
9 1967 — Although there had been sports car races at Mosport called the “Canadian Grand Prix” going back to 1961, Centennial Year was the first F1 World Championship race held in Canada and the legends of the game all came: Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Chris Amon, Jackie Stewart, Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt, Jo Bonnier and the rest. Canadian champions Eppie Wietzes and Al Pease carried our flag. A mammoth crowd showed up at Mosport on a miserable day to watch Jack Brabham win.
THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX IN PICTURES
(This could be a tie, but Mosport was first so it gets the nod. However, the following year, the GP was moved to Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant in the Laurentians north of Montreal. Three things stand out in my memory: some of the trees had started to turn so the mountains were ablaze in colour that September, making Le Circuit a spectacular setting for a Grand Prix; Prime Minister Trudeau arrived aboard a large Armed Forces helicopter that landed on the main straight — which was really very exciting — and he then dropped the flag to start the race; Denny Hulme won and John Surtees and Pedro Rodriguez were in the lineup with all the other F1 regulars of the day but the star of the show was Toronto’s Bill Brack, who could have either won or challenged for the win if his Lotus had held together.)
8 1973 — This was the race that took organizers about an hour after it ended to decide who’d won. It was also the first time in the history of F1 racing that a pace — or safety — car was used and this just added to the confusion.
There were accidents and it had rained, meaning cars were continually entering and exiting the pits. At one point, there was debris on the circuit (François Cevert and Jody Scheckter had crashed). Two ambulances, a tow truck and a couple of dozen racing cars were also out there. This was when the pace car was sent to settle things down — except it pulled out in front of the wrong car, which totally messed things up!
At the end of the day, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Oliver and Peter Revson all claimed victory. In fact, when Fittipaldi crossed the finish line, his boss — Team Lotus founder Colin Chapman — threw his hat in the air to signify victory, even though starter Wallie Branston had not waved the checkered flag.
After an exhaustive review of lap charts by the timekeepers, Revson was declared the winner, with “Emmo” second and Oliver third.
There are still people who were there that day who insist that Jean-Pierre Beltoise, who officially finished fourth, was really the winner.
7 1977 — Walter Wolf, an Austrian who took out Canadian citizenship and went on to become a multi-millionaire, got into Grand Prix racing in 1975 and worked with partners through the ’76 season. For 1977, he went it alone and hired Jody Scheckter to drive for his Wolf Racing team. Scheckter went out and won the first race of the season in Argentina, which surprised all the experts.
At Mosport that October, Niki Lauda left Ferrari in a huff on the day that Gilles Villeneuve made his first start for the famous Italian marque. Ian Ashley was nearly killed in a horrible Friday morning practice crash. Mario Andretti was the race favourite and by the 60th lap of the 80-lap race had lapped everyone in the field! James Hunt collided with his own teammate, Jochen Mass, and punched a marshal in his fury.
With three laps to go, Andretti’s engine blew up. Half a dozen cars behind him spun in the oil, including Villeneuve. When the smoke had cleared, Scheckter was the winner. Walter Wolf, the first Canadian to own an F1 team, had won the last Canadian Grand Prix to be held at Mosport.
6 1991 – Nigel Mansell (Il Leone) was one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, but also one of the greatest showoffs. A late bloomer, it took him five years before he won a Grand prix but after that he either won or was a threat to win every race he entered.
At this particular Canadian GP, he and Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese were the class of the field. In fact, they qualified first and second, with Mansell behind Patrese. At the start, Mansell beat his teammate to the first turn and led the entire race — until the last lap.
As he crossed the start-finish line with one to go, and leading literally by a mile, Mansell started waving to the crowd in the grandstands at the first turn. Then he waved to people in the other grandstands and to the people who were lined up along the course all the way down to the hairpin — where he stalled his car!
He’d been so busy carrying on that he let the engine revs get too low and the car stalled out. His arch-enemy Nelson Piquet passed his stationary car and went on to win, giving Mansell and his dead car a cheery wave of his own as he drove by.
5 1995 — Talking about the hairpin, that was the scene of one of the most delightful and endearing moments in F1 history.
Jean Alesi had been driving in F1 for five years, or so, and had never won a race. He’d been close, but no cigar. He arrived in Montreal driving the No. 27 Ferrari, which was Gilles Villeneuve’s car and number. Alesi’s style of driving, wide open and balls to the wall, reminded many of the legendary Canadian hero.
Wonder of wonders, Alesi won. Pandemonium set in and spectators rushed the track, forcing organizers to throw the black flag so all other cars would stop racing before reaching the start/finish line. They didn’t want anybody hit by speeding F1 cars.
Alesi stopped at the hairpin, stood up in his car and bowed to the wildly cheering crowd. Michael Schumacher stopped to pick him up and gave him a ride back to the pits. It proved to be the popular Alesi’s only Grand Prix victory.
4 1979 – This race featured the closest finish in Canadian GP history with Allan Jones winning in a time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 6.892 seconds with Gilles Villeneuve second in a time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 7.972 seconds.
It had been that way the whole race, with Jones starting from pole and Villeneuve beside him on the front row. Villeneuve took the lead at the start and held it for the first 50 laps of the 72-lap contest. Then, at the hairpin (everything seems to happen there, doesn’t it?), Jones went down the inside and outbraked Gilles going into the corner. Try as he might, the man Speed TV announcer Bob Varsha calls the Patron Saint of Canadian Motorsport couldn’t get back past and Jones went on to win.
It was as close as paper on a wall but the huge crowd wasn’t disappointed.
One postscript: Walter Wolf brought a car to Montreal for what would be his team’s last race in Canada. Keke Rosberg was the driver and he went head-first into a barrier during practice, damaging the car beyond repair but not himself. The team didn’t have a spare, so left. Wolf hung around to cheer on Villeneuve.
3 1976 – There is courage, and then there is courage. Niki Lauda crashed horribly at the Nurburgring at the first of August. He was so badly burned that a priest administered last rites. Two months later, he was racing at Mosport. He finished eighth; James Hunt won. Astonishingly, Lauda went into the last race that season at Japan only three points behind Hunt in the championship. It rained so badly that Lauda took his Ferrari to the pits, refusing to continue. He lost the championship by a point.
2 1996 — Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles, was in his first season of Formula One driving a Williams-Renault. The previous year, Jacques had won both the Indianapolis 500 and the CART championship, so his credentials were impeccable.
In his first Grand Prix at Australia, he’d won the pole ahead of his more experienced teammate, Damon Hill, although he finished second behind Hill in the race. By the time Canada arrived in June, he’d already won a Grand Prix — in Germany earlier — and was second in the championship behind Hill. Hopes for a victory were higher than a kite when Jacques arrived in Montreal.
The first letdown of the weekend was that Hill stole pole at the last moment. Jacques had it with a time of 1:21:079 and Hill was on his last lap when the checkers waved. It was as if a big balloon lost all its air when the crowd heard Hill’s time: 1:21:059.
Jacques gave his all in the race but Hill beat him into the first corner and Jacques settled into second and that was it for the next 69 laps. Every time Jacques arrived at the hairpin, the grandstands exploded with the waving of little Quebec flags but despite the crowd willing him on, he had to settle for second.
It was the best finish Jacques Villeneuve ever had at Montreal during all the years he was in F1.
1 1978 — Gilles Villeneuve was nearing the conclusion of his first season with Ferrari when the Grand Prix circus arrived for the first race at the new track on Ile Notre-Dame in the St. Lawrence River at Montreal that October.
Despite huge promise, Villeneuve had not delivered. His first race with Ferrari, a year earlier at Mosport, had been passable but nothing near the performance he’d put in when he’d done a one-off for McLaren at the British GP earlier. Then, in his second race, at Japan, he’d collided with another car and vaulted the wall, killing four spectators (who were in an illegal area) in the process.
In the 1978 season, he’d crashed at Argentina, been leading at Long Beach when he crashed, and so on. He was colourful, dashing, passionate and romantic and the tifosi loved him. His boss, however, was not amused. Il Commendatore, Enzo Ferrari, was looking for results and he wasn’t getting them.
But Montreal inspired Villeneuve. Trudeau was there again (interesting that he never attended a Grand Prix at Mosport), and more than 70,000 spectators were hoping with all their hearts that their hero would do well.
Villeneuve qualified third and was second by mid-race. When leader Jean-Pierre Jarier pulled into the pits when his Lotus lost oil pressure, Villeneuve went into the lead and was never headed. He won his first race, at home. The crowd went wild, yelling and cheering and crying tears of joy.
I still get a lump thinking about it.
Oh, and do you know who came second? Jody Scheckter, driving for Canadian Walter Wolf.
First and second. A perfect day.
Norris McDonald writes
an auto racing blog at Wheels.ca.
Grand Prix on TV
TSN is providing Canadian television coverage of this weekend’s Grand Prix, as is the U.S. Fox television channel. Here is the weekend schedule:
Saturday:
Qualifying – 12:55 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Sunday:
Race – 11:55 a.m. – 2 p.m.
(The Grand Prix will be repeated at 4 p.m. on TSN2)
Other racing:
NASCAR Michigan 400 – 1 until 2 on TSN2, then from 2 until 4:30 on TSN
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