Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Track check

The F1 circus moves to the Americas for the first of three grand prix to be held across the Atlantic this season: the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal. Named after the legendary Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, the circuit is a fitting tribute, as it has offered some exciting races with lots of on-track action through the years. With the degree of competitiveness in this year’s grid, it would be safe to say – “expect some fireworks”.

The track is located on an artificial island in the St. Lawrence river, and is actually a public road throughout the year. This, and the close barriers throughout the track mean that it essentially is a street circuit, but is also wide enough and challenging enough to allow lots of wheel-to-wheel racing throughout. The Canadian Grand Prix will be run for 70 laps around this 4.361 km long circuit. The most incident prone spots being the pit exit, the exit at turn 5 and the Wall of Champions. The wall gets its name from the fact that no one, not even the greatest champions have managed to perennially avoid hitting this barrier at the final corner. It got the moniker after the 1999 race, when Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve all crashed into the same wall. Of the modern class, Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Vettel and Kamui Kobayashi have all had their own trysts with said wall. Having got the introductory glances out of the way, let’s get ourselves a bit more acquainted with this floating racetrack.

Sector-1: Round and Round we go…

The lap starts with a quick dash into a very tight left hander, with a drop in elevation at the braking zone. Getting the car slowed from 6th gear to 2nd gear is a challenge in itself, and makes for an overtaking opportunity for those with brave hearts and precise lines.

Turn-2 “Virage Senna” is a 77kph 1st gear 180 degree corner that opens up at the exit, and leads into the fast infield section. The pit lane exit goes right around the outside of turn-2 and lets cars exiting the pits carry a bit more momentum at times, than those exiting turn-1 on the track, making for some great wheel-banging action during the pit stop windows. The exit of turn 2 opens up into a short shoot into the fast left-right chicane at turn 3-4.The cars need to brake from 5th gear, 250kph to 3rd gear, 150 kph for this sequence, which leads straight into the left handed kink at turn-5. It is very easy to push too hard or brake too late or to just not decelerate due to brake wear at turn-4, and get your rear suspension wrecked in the wall at turn-5. A crash here is the norm each year, and the safety car is never far behind. Turn 5 is also the first sector marker.

Sector-2: All about precision

The pace quickens in the second sector, but raw pace isn’t enough for a great lap time. Precision matters, as the sector consists of two slow turn sequences followed by two long straights. The lines taken and momentum carried through the corners along with the traction available from the engine need to be absolutely spot on for a quick lap time. The sector starts with the long drawn out chicane at turns 6-7. The cars brake from 5th gear, 250 kph to 2nd gear, 90 kph for the left handed entry at turn 6, and are up to 155 kph by the time they exit through turn-7. Get a good exit from turn-7, and the cars are flying off into the distance, frantically up-shifting to 6th gear, upto 290kph before braking hard as they pass under the bridge, for the 2nd gear, 120kph entry into the second chicane at turns 8-9. The entry here is surprisingly narrow, as there is barely one quick line through here in the dry, but the exit opens up quick. This is not the safest place to attempt a pass, but probably easier to make one stick. It is again important to get a good exit, use all the road, yet stay off the wall that is very close at the outside of turn 9, and go full throttle to the end of sector 2.

Sector-3: Pedal to the Metal!

The cars enter sector 3, flying at 290 kph in second gear, and immediately brake hard, slightly downhill for the slowest corner on the track – the first gear 50kph hairpin at turn-10 “L’Epingle”. This, as you would imagine is the best overtaking spot on the track, and does routinely provide a lot of slip-ups, trip-ups and cheeky passes. The extreme braking like what is needed for this corner puts the brakes under a lot of duress, causing severe overheating and brake wear. Brake failure here is very probable, and so there’s a rather large run-off area at turn-10. The cars might use a lot of their KERS here as they squirm through the tightening exit of the hairpin, but by the time they pass the right kink at turn-11-12, they are already going at full blast, flicking up through the gears on an all-out dash across the back straight, the “Droit du Casino”.

Last year, the circuit had two DRS zones, one on either side of turn-10, but this time, there might just be the one DRS zone along the back straight. The cars routinely clock speeds in excess of 310 kph at the speed trap just before the braking zone for the final chicane at turns 13-14.

The final chicane is a fast right-left kink, hard to spot, and easy to get wrong. Getting it spot on gets you a super fast lap time, but the price to pay for a mistake is just as high, for here lies the infamous “Wall of Champions”. The smallest mistake like braking too late, taking too much kerb, accelerating too early can lodge the car smack into the wall at the outside of turn-14. Survive this corner, and you’re back on the start-finish straight.

Techincal Jargon and some strategy

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is an exception in many ways. This is the first anti-clockwise circuit on the calendar, meaning different sideways forces acting on the drivers and tyres than what they are normally used to. The extremely fast, yet stop-start nature of the track means that it is particularly hard on the brakes. Almost all teams will have special brake ducts and brake-disk cooling mechanisms deployed for Canada because break wear is just such a big issue around here. The track layout rewards engines that can provide the maximum acceleration in low gear and rev range.

Most teams will run a similar setup as Monaco as time lost due to lack of downforce in the slow corners largely outweighs the gains of a low downforce setup. Tyre wear generally does not play much part here, as there aren’t any real fast corners on the track and so tyre strategy will probably not win anyone the race, but it can certainly lose the race for someone. Expect a 2 stop strategy for most of the pack. It would be a major surprise to see someone do a one stopper, specially as the tyre compounds to be used are the soft and super soft ones.

Last year’s Candian Grand Prix was a crazy race, with a 2 hour rain delay, and Jenson Button coming through from the back of the field, to take advantage on the only mistake Sebastian Vettel made in the whole of the race: a slide at turn 6-7, and claim a famous win. Equally famous was Lewis Hamilton‘s maiden race win in 2007, mastering 3 safety car periods in a start-to-finish dominance of a damp Canadian Grand Prix, just the 3rd race of his F1 career. He will love to reprise that, and become the 7th man to win a race this season. So will Michael Schumacher, who holds the record for the most wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve: 7 to date. The Lotus team of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean will also be hoping for some luck this time around. They have shown that they have the pace in qualifying as well as in race trim, but they just haven’t put it all together when it has mattered, and with two Ferraris on a resurgence, their chances get slimmer by the day.

All in all, expect a weekend of tough racing, lots of skirmishes, a few safety cars and a whole lot of excitement. I for one will be keeping a close eye on the list of skid-mark signatures on the Wall of Champions.