Who doesn’t love the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix? I will tell you who, the growing list of drivers that have ended up in the “Wall Of Champions.”
Mosport and Mont-Tremblant shared the Canadian Grand Prix from 1961 until 1977 but in 1978 the race finally found a permanent home at the Ile Notre Dame circuit in Montreal, Quebec. Instantly the race became one of the most popular of the season as the new venue proved to be one of the most exciting of the year.
Montreal’s new circuit had a dream result as the local man, the legendary Gilles Villeneuve won the race for Ferrari. The race became a who’s who of winners with Alan Jones and Nelson Piquet winning the next two races. In 1980 however a huge start line accident saw the end of Jean Pierre Jabouille’s career. Piquet won the race in his spare car but Jabouille badly broke both legs, an accident that ended his career.
In 1982 the race became famous for all the wrong reasons. Villeneuve had been killed a month before the race at Zolder in Belgium so the organisers re-named the circuit the “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve,” the name it is still known as today. The race itself was a tragic event as after a start line pile up Ricardo Paletti was killed when his car became engulfed in flames. Professor Sid Watkins extricated him from his car and he was flown to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Over the years the race has been know for strange incidents such as Nigel Mansell’s Williams breaking down on the final lap just as Mansell was waving to the crowd to celebrate an “easy victory.” In 2011 the weather caused chaos and Jenson Button won Formula One’s longest ever race.
It’s also had it’s fair share of nasty wrecks with one of the most memorable been Robert Kubica whose car broke into numerous pieces in a violent wreck in the 2007 race which happened to be Lewis Hamilton’s first win. A year later Kubica won the race in what was his only Grand Prix victory.
So to the Wall of Champions. The final corner used to have “Welcome To Quebec” painted on it, and what a welcome it’s given. It has a habit of collecting World Champions and champions of lower formulae as they push to get their cars onto the start finish straight. The list of “victims” includes ”
Michael Schumacher
Jacques Villeneuve
Sebastian Vettel
Nico Rosberg
Jenson Button
Damon Hill
Juan Pablo Montoya
An incredible list! Jacques Villeneuve never did manage to win the race and his father remains the only Canadian to win it.
The Canadian Grand Prix is one of the highlights of the season with notably exciting racing and unpredictable weather. Daniel Ricciardo gained his maiden win in 2014 proving that at Montreal, anything can and will happen!
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