F1 Canadian Grand Prix

The Canadian Grand Prix takes place at the Circuit Gilles-Villenueve in Montreal, Canada. For more than four decades, Formula 1 has made the trip to the man-made Notre Dame Island created in 1967 for the Expo 67 World’s Fair.

The area was used for the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics and then reorganized to create a track. The first Formula 1 race was held there in 1978.

Formula 1 racing in Canada began in 1961 with races at the Mosport Park (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) in Bowmanville, Ontario. That circuit would host races every year through 1977 with few exceptions; the 1967 and 1969 Grands Prix were held at Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec and no race was held in 1975.

The first Formula One Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was held in 1978.

At the time, the track was called the Circuit Ile Notre Dame. Canadian Gilles Villeneuve won his first race at the circuit in a Ferrari in 1978. Following his death in 1982 during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, the circuit was renamed in his honor.

Despite multiple Canadian drivers entering Formula 1 in the following years (including Villeneuve’s son and 1997 world champion Jacques), Villeneuve remains the only Canadian to have won his home race.

The Canadian Grand Prix has been a part of the Formula 1 calendar with few exceptions. Races were not held there in 1987, 2009, 2020, and 2021. The layout has remained largely the same since 1978. The start/finish line was moved in 1988, a chicane was temporarily added for 1994 and 1995, and the iconic L’Epingle hairpin was tightened in 1996.

Seven-time world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are tied for the most Canadian Grand Prix wins with seven each.