Review

Ask the average Canadian sports fan who Lewis Hamilton or Filipe Massa is, and you’ll get a blank look. Sadder still, ask them about Gilles Villeneuve, one of Formula One’s greatest all-time drivers and Canada’s most prominent sports figures and the majority will continue staring at you perplexed. In a nutshell, this is why the Canadian Grand Prix, part of the F1 calendar since 1967, was canceled yesterday, and why getting it back to Montreal, despite the enthusiasm of Quebecers and favoritism expressed about the venue by F1 teams and drivers, probably won’t happen anytime soon.

Gilles’ son Jacques Villeneuve did much to raise awareness of the world’s preeminent motorsport series in Canada, having beaten the famed Michael Schumacher to take the 1997 F1 Championship, but the Montreal native moved from Williams to BAR Honda the following year for a lucrative contract, making him one of F1’s richest drivers and simultaneously one of the world’s wealthiest sportsmen. Unfortunately the move, in retrospect, soured his career as he languished at the back of the pack in a noncompetitive car. With Jacques out of contention for points most races, Canadians became disinterested in a sport filled with unknown European and South American names. The same scenario has played out here in the US, with drivers like Phil Hill and Mario Andretti.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA), F1’s governing body, makes no comment on why the race doesn’t appear on the 2009 calendar, although a new race in Singapore this year, the addition of Abu Dhabi (interestingly with a population much smaller than Montreal’s) next season and plans for an Indian race by 2011, plus Bahrain, Turkey and China added to the calendar in recent years, says a great deal without the FIA’s sex scandal embattled leader, Max Mosley, or for that matter F1 commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, who stands to gain the most financially, having to move his lips. The series, looking for growth markets, is expanding into areas on the rise, with large populations eager to snap up F1 and team paraphernalia, and North America is hardly the financial force it once was.

The US lost its F1 race in Indianapolis last year, and the Canadian race has been questionably precarious since, the Montreal event having been dropped ten years prior, reportedly due to a sponsorship dispute between Labatt and Molson, only to be reinstated a year later thanks to much lobbying by local government officials and business people. This year’s race was mired by a track in obvious need of repair, which no doubt cast a negative light on the series’ return in 2009. Still, does Montreal have a fighting chance for a third kick at the can?

The Montreal Gazette reports that spokesmen for Montreal’s top hotel and restaurant associations are trying to save the race, which results in the most lucrative weekend for tourism dollars each year. It’s been a tough year for tourism in Montreal, just like it has been for the rest of Canada, with William Brown, executive vice-president of the Hotel Association of Greater Montreal, reporting a 66.8 percent occupancy rate for the first nine months of 2008; the lowest number since 2003. Those figures could be worse next year, as the Grand Prix weekend pushes occupancy rates up to an average of 94.6 percent, reason enough to put up a solid effort to keep the race.

The loss of the Grand Prix “is a very important, serious blow,” Brown told The Gazette.

In total, tourism officials estimate the loss of the race will be a $75 million hit to Montreal’s challenged economy, while François Meunier, vice-president of the Association des restaurateurs du Quebec, says approximately $20 million of that gets spent in local restaurants, one of which, Newtown, is owned by ex-F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve.

Meunier told the Gazette that the removal of the race weekend could cause greater fallout in an already slowing economy, and in a bid to rally support for the cause reminded government bodies about tax revenues collected during the Grand Prix.

“We are hoping that there is time to change their (the FIA’s) minds,” commented Meunier.

To be fair, Quebecers shouldn’t be lumped in with English speaking Canada for not knowing the names of motorsports’ most popular drivers. Enthusiasm for F1 and racing in all respects, not to mention just about anything automotive, has always been strong in Quebec, and probably won’t wane too much with the loss of their Grand Prix.

There are pockets of Formula One diehards throughout the rest of Canada too, getting together in the middle of the night to watch the big screen at accommodating restaurants, pubs and sports clubs, as there is throughout the US, despite no Grand Prix being run on North American soil and no North American drivers taking part in the series; American Red Bull driver Scott Speed lost his seat last season.

The problem is that these pockets are just too small for a reasonable business case to be made, needed to substantiate the billions of dollars spent each year on the sport, and interest the high-level sponsors needed to pay for it all.

Speaking of money, the new Abu Dhabi weekend will finalize the 2009 championship, which means that 18 races will take place instead of the expected record-breaking 19-race season. The FIA has moved the Turkish grand prix forward to June in order to fill the void in the calendar left by the removal of Canada’s race weekend, resulting in a three-week summer break. The Belgian Grand Prix is now scheduled for the end of August while the Italian race gets moved back to September 13.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Ile Notre-Dame will continue to be used for many top-tier racing series, although the track, named after the revered Ferrari driver, won’t be the same without the series he devoted his life too. In 1978 Gilles won the inaugural race here after the Canadian Grand Prix was moved from Mosport Park outside of Toronto, but sadly four years later died from injuries sustained in an accident during a qualifying lap of the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. The track was renamed in his memory shortly thereafter.

Before lamenting the loss of the Montreal Grand Prix, however, it’s important to remember that Mosley and Ecclestone have pulled the rug out from under a number of races in recent memory, which have now been reinstated. France’s Grand Prix at Magny-Cours was gone from the calendar and is now back on, as was the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps; considered one of the most entertaining events of the year. Even Britain’s race has been under scrutiny in recent years, with Silverstone only on the schedule for another year before being moved to Donington for 2010. While the trend points towards emerging markets, there’s still a chance the powers that be want a presence in North American, and for this purpose Montreal would be the smartest choice. In other words, if enough money greases Czar Ecclestone’s hands, the show may go on.

For those pockets of North Americans still interested in Formula One despite being snubbed by Mosley, Ecclestone and company, the revised 2009 calendar is as follows: