The Formula One Circus is gearing up for the annual tour in North America. Next weekend we will be in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix and the following week the Unites States Grand Prix takes place in Indianapolis.

The Canadian Grand Prix is close to the top of everybody´s list of favourite races. The circuit on the Notre Dame island in the St. Lawrence river is one of the most spectacular in the calendar and the city of Montreal is one of the most interesting we visit all year.

Montreal takes its name from the Mont Royal mountain and was founded by French explorers in 1642 as Ville-Marie-de-Montreal. Today the city, with more than a million inhabitants, is the capital of the French speaking province of Quebec. It is situated between a branch of the Ottawa River mouth and the St. Lawrence River, and the weather feels almost “Danish” - perhaps just a little more extreme: The winters can be extremely cold and the summers can be very hot. When Montreal took over the Canadian Grand Prix from Mosport Park near Toronto in the late 1970s, the race was held in October, when it was often cold and wet. After the race was moved to its present June date, the Canadian Grand Prix is usually a very nice weekend with lots of sunshine and pleasant temperatures.

Montreal welcome F1 like no other city in the calendar (OK - Melbourne gets very close!). The atmosphere in downtown is very lively, and some streets are closed off in order to host a big Grand Prix party with live bands, car shows and drivers appearances. There are plenty of hotels in downtown, but the owners know everything about supply and demand, and prices are sometimes just ridiculous in the Grand Prix weekend. That means many members of the “circus” are staying outside downtown, where room prices are more reasonable and it is still only a short drive to the Ile Notre Dame.


Before coming to Montreal in 1978, the Canadian Grand Prix spent seven years at Mosport Park (which organised the first Canadian Grand Prix back in 1967) and the Mont Tremblant circuit has also hosted the race on two occasions.

Back in 1978, the circuit was just “Ile Notre Dame”, but after Canada´s great F1 driver of the 1970s and early 1980s Gilles Villeneuve (father of current BMW driver Jacques) was killed in 1982, the name was changed to “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve”.

Panasonic Toyota Racing will introduce an aerodynamic update at the Canadian Grand Prix. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has a rather peculiar layout with long, fast straights - and almost exclusively slow corners. This means the Canadian Grand Prix is the hardest of the year for the brakes, and you will often see additional cooling intakes at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. As far as aerodynamic goes, the combination of long straights and slow corners usually dictates something close to medium downforce levels, but some teams may sacrifice traction and stability in the corners for a higher top-speed.

I will fly out to Canada on Thursday and have my first “Montreal diary” on-line on Friday!

The first practice day for the Canadian Grand Prix here in Montreal on Sunday saw third driver Robert Kubica fastest ahead of World Champion Fernando Alonso. Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli were 16th. and 19th. fastest respectively, but as usual on Fridays this year, the team was handicapped by not having a third car.

As I told you in my preview, Montreal is one of the most popular stops on the F1 schedule. It seems to offer the best of both the old and the new world with an almost perfect union between European charm and North American attitude. Earlier today I was told that Montreal has eighty distinct ethnic cultures, which also explains why the city has such an international feeling to it. Still, “international” is not what I would call the taxi driver who took me from Dorval Airport to my hotel in Downtown yesterday: He refused to speak English and I only speak very little French. And the French I do speak was not really enough, as his “Quebecois” did not at all sound the French I learned at school many years ago. A little frustrated, I mentioned my taxi driver to some of my French colleagues earlier today, but they told me not to worry; Even they have difficulty understanding the “French” (or should that be “Quebecois”?) some people insist of speaking here.

Still, Downtown Montreal is a great place - a bustling study in contrasts: Victorian brownstone nuzzle skyscrapers while the latest architectural marvels soar beside stately neogothic churches. And when night falls, the atmosphere gets even better when friends and colleagues meet for after-work cocktails on terraces, in bars or in the streets: During Grand Prix weekend, Rue Crescent is closed for traffic and transformed into a big “party zone”. Rue Crescent is also where two of my favourite restaurants in Montreal are; the Hard Rock Cafe and “Newtown”, the club/lounge/terrace/restaurant owned by a certain Jacques Villeneuve. (“Newtown” is “Villeneuve” in English - get it?)

The reason I tell you about Montreal and my taxi driver is because I would like you to know why Montreal is such a popular city with the F1 folks. AND - because this has been a fairly quiet F1 weekend so far with not much to write about. No important news stories has “broken” so far, and the paddock seems be in a sort of “waiting mode” - waiting for the silly season to kick off properly. “Silly season” is the time of year when happenings in the paddock (“who goes where for next year”) seem almost more important than the actual driving on the track.

This year the silly season is likely to get even sillier than usual because a lot of driver contracts expire after this season, and this will give us journalists a lot to write about. But not just now - at the moment, all seems quiet, but in the comings months a lot of things will happen on the “drivers market”. In the Panasonic Toyota Racing camp, it is a wellknown fact that Jarno´s contract expires, but I have absolutely no idea whether he will stay or not.

“But continuity is the key to success in F1,” he told me recently.

Qualifying here on the Ile Notre Dame in Montreal produced an interesting grid, which promises an exciting Canadian Grand Prix tomorrow. Fernando Alonso has pole position with Giancarlo Fisichella second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Panasonic Toyota Racing drivers Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher impressed with fourth and 14th. fastest time respectively.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is notoriously hard on the brakes. Overheating is not the primary concern, as the long straights give them ample time to cool properly, but disc and pad wear still have to be monitored very carefully as they have to absorb significant braking energies around each lap.

On each lap, the brakes must reduce the speed of the car from more than 300 km/h to little more than 100 km/h FOUR times - and each time this happens in between two and three seconds! The first time is just after the start-and-finish line, when cars travel at close to 315 km/h before they have to slow down to app. 130 km/h for the left-hander which leads immediately into first hairpin. Halfway round the circuit (at “Corner 8”) the cars again arrive with close to 310 km/h and have to slow down to 110 km/h - in little more than two seconds. The final hairpin at the far end of the circuit offers a great overtaking opportunity - but also calls from a deceleration from app. 300 km/h to 65 km/h. The fastest part of the circuit, where cars reach close to 340 km/h is the run down to the final chicane, where cars brake down to 120 km/h (in something like 2,5 seconds!)

“It is the contrast between the high-speed sections and the slow corner speeds that gives the brakes a very difficult time - this is simply the worst circuit of the year for the brakes,” Panasonic Toyota Racing´s Senior General Manager Chassis Pascal Vasselon confirms.

All this puts the brakes under a lot of pressure, and in the past we have seen brake failure cause some very big crashes here in Montreal. Therefore it is extremely important to look after the brakes, and wear levels are monitored in real time via the teams´ telemetry systems. According to the read-outs engineers see on the computer screens in the pits, the drivers may be asked to adjust the brake balance forwards or rearwards during the race.

“Last year we had a cooling situation which was marginal on Jarno´s car, but after a few laps we lost the telemetry data to monitor the wear and the temperature,” Pascal says of the problems Jarno Trulli had in last year´s Canadian Grand Prix.

Interestingly, NOT braking to the absolute maximum may be an advantage here at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve:

“The wear rates relative to the surface temperatures of the disc is a very non-linear relationship, so sometimes, with just slightly lower brake pressure, which only slightly affects performance and lap time, you can make a bit difference to the brakes,” Pascal explains.

Tomorrow I will put the brakes on the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix with my final report from Montreal!

The Canadian Grand Prix saw Fernando Alonso win in front of Michael Schumacher. Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli finished sixth
while his team-mate Ralf Schumacher retired shortly before the end.

In the paddock below the media centre the mechanics are now busy
packing up, because in a few days time we all have to be in
Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix. As soon as I have
finished this diary story I will hurry to the airport, because I fly
back to Denmark for a couple of days in the office before flying out
to Chicago and on to Indianapolis on Thursday.

These “back-to-back” races are hard work for everybody in F1 and it is
somewhat ironic that we work so hard right now when so many “normal”
people are getting ready for their annual holiday. Still, we can
always dream, and that is exactly what the four Panasonic Toyota
Racing drivers have been doing in the latest issue of the Toyota
magazine “One Aim”: Here they talk about their favourite holiday
destination.

“The place that I have visited the most - when I have had a week off
during my travels around the world - are the Maldives. The islands are
a wonderful location in which to unwind and relax. Back in the days
when we had a one-week gap between the Australian and Malaysian Grands
Prix, I used to stay there rather than fly back to Europe,” Jarno
Trulli says.

His team-mate Ralf Schumacher says: “If I am heading far afield I am a
big fan of Dubai. People imagine that it is always scorching hot in
that part of the Middle East but Dubai actually has a pleasant climate
outside the very hot summer months. Contrary to some reports I don´t
own a place there - but I do like to visit because the hotels are
great and the hospitality is excellent.”

While Jarno and Ralf have to travel a long way from their European
homes to reach their favourite holiday destinations, third driver
Ricardo Zonta from Brazil prefers a location closer to home: “My life
going to all the races and tests means that I spend most of my time in
Europe, so whenever I have time off I always like to return to my home
country. One of the best places for me to have holidays is in the
south of the country, where there is a small town called Praia do
Rosa. It has got a beach that is very natural and there is relatively
few people around, and I first went there five years ago and ever
since then, I have tried to go there for a week every year during the
Brazilian summer.”

Test driver Olivier Panis also prefers holidays close to home: “I have
a flat in Bandol on the south coast of France and I also moor my
powerboat there. That is more for fun than fitness, but I like
jet-skiing and other water sports,” he says.

Back to the real world: My preview for the United States Grand Prix
will be ready in a few days!