The Circuit Gilles Villeneueve, on Montreal's Île Notre-Dame, will remain the host of the Canadian Grand Prix until at least 2024, after a new decade-long contract was confirmed just before qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
City officials, the Montreal tourist board and provincial and federal governments have come together and pledged to invest a total of CAN$187 million to retain the race. The city will also invest CAN$12.4 million towards the race contract, with the government of Ottawa stumping up CAN$62.4 million and the provincial government pledging CAN$49.9 million. As part of the deal the circuit's ageing and cramped pit and paddock facilities, which back onto the rowing lake built and used for the 1976 Olympic Games, will undergo a makeover. The upgrade work will cost CAN$32 million, which will be paid for by the city and completed in time for the 2017 event. The race will continue to be promoted by Octane Management, led by François Dumontier. Montreal mayor Denis Coderre told the Montreal Gazette: “It is essential to invest in events with the importance of the Canadian Grand Prix. As I have said over and over again the Canadian Grand Prix is part and parcel with Montreal. It is one of the big international events that builds on Montreal’s outstanding international reputation and ranks it among the world’s great cities.” Coderre added that the race weekend generated more marketing value for the city than four entire seasons, including play-offs, of the Montreal Canadiens, the city's National Hockey League franchise.
A Newey contract
On a weekend when Red Bull Racing returned to the top of the podium, the Austrian-owned, Milton Keynes-based team was also able to celebrate securing the signature of Adrian Newey, generally agreed to be the sport's most successful and talented designer, on a multi-year contract. But while Red Bull have succeeded in keeping Newey out of the clutches of Ferrari, who are believed to have made the Briton a substantial offer to move to Italy, it has failed to convince him to retain a total focus on Formula One. Newey will be tied to Red Bull, but will work on a variety of projects – the energy drinks giant is believed to be building a new Red Bull Technology unit near the Formula One team's base. He will assist with the design of the 2015 Formula One car, but then play a mentoring and advisory role only. Speaking in Montreal, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner was staying coy on what the new projects might be, saying only that “it's some exciting stuff being looked at”. Speculation persists that Newey may fancy the challenge of the America's Cup. While there have been suggestions that he may team up with Ben Ainslie, who is due to launch his own challenge in London on Tuesday, how about a Red Bull challenge, designed and led by Newey and the enticing possibility of Ainslie versus Newey in the 35th Cup? Sailing would certainly not be completely new territory for Red Bull: it has an Extreme Sailing Series team and sponsored last year's Youth America's Cup.]
Timetable tinkering
That Formula One teams need to cut costs is no secret. How to do it, however, is, as ever, presenting more of a problem, with a split between what will save cash for the bigger teams and what will work for the smaller, less well-funded organisations at the other end of the pit-lane. The latest suggestion doing the rounds over the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, which at first glance seems akin to sticking a plaster on a broken leg, is to revise the format of Fridays, and reduce track time on the first day of a weekend from two 90-minute sessions to one. The session would be hosted late in the day, perhaps as late as 5pm, theoretically opening up the opportunity for teams to arrive on Friday morning and save money on hotels. The bigger teams, presumably trying to think like a small team, think the idea has merit; the smaller teams, some of whom have come to rely on the multi-million dollar sums they can charge to put a reserve driver in the car during Friday practice, have a rather different view.
Haas shoots for 2016
American entrepreneur Gene Haas was a visitor to the Formula One paddock in Montreal at the weekend, meeting with various teams alongside his technical director Guenther Steiner as he plots how and when to launch his new team. The 'when' appears to have been confirmed, with Haas now saying that a 2015 debut will be impossible and that his new target is to be on the grid with his all-American team for the start of 2016. The Nascar team owner, who is looking to Formula One as a way of building the global profile of his Haas Automation machining company, is pushing ahead with his ambition to run and base the team from North Carolina, a plan dismissed by some as impractical given the potential staffing issues with all 11 current teams based in Europe. Technical deals are still being sought with a chassis manufacturer, likely to be Dallara, and an engine supplier, likely to be Ferrari. For all the scepticism, Haas is certainly talking a good game: “We're Americans, we're racers,” he said. “We know how to do this. A lot of people think we don't know how to do this, but we're stubborn, we'll stick with it and we'll get the job done.”
Quote of the weekend
“What's lacking is the common sense of doing something for the sport”
A frustrated Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn reflects on the lack of agreement amongst the 11 teams about how best to cut costs.