Has F1 outgrown Montreal? This pundit gives his thoughts

F1 News

Brundle on Canada weekend being least enjoyable as a venue
12 June at 12:30
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  • Ben Stevens

Despite the Canadian Grand Prix giving us one of the most exciting races of the season so far with five cars battling for the lead at one stage, Martin Brundle has hit out at the organisers of the event. The Sky Sports F1 pundit has labelled it as one of the "least enjoyable" as a venue after multiple issues for fans and paddock personnel. 

What happened in Canada? 

In his Sky Sports column analysing the whole weekend, Brundle finished his article with this: "I've been visiting the Canadian GP in Montreal since 1984, and this year was undoubtedly the least enjoyable in terms of the venue. The popularity and scale of today's F1 has outgrown the facilities, and the rain turning accesses into mud didn't help. The police and security appeared increasingly aggressive and unhelpful to boot, it was a logistical mess." 

The issues for the promoters and organisers of the event began on Friday morning, when fans were told they weren't allowed to enter the track, being told that FP1 and FP2 were both cancelled due to the heavy rain. This included Jacques Villeneuve, who was part of the Sky Sports F1 team alongside Brundle for the weekend. 

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali also met with team principals on Saturday morning and apologised about the working conditions for the teams, which involved leaky tents and media booths, flooded hospitality units and only a muddy track linking an overflow car park to the paddock. 

The situation only got worse on Sunday, as authorities decided to put up black mesh along the wire fence on the start-finish line. This meant that general admission ticket holders, who had been standing in the rain for hours, suddenly had no view of the race, just an hour before lights out. 

The Canadian Grand Prix enjoyed a record attendance of 350,000 spectators across the three days, and has a deal to remain on the calendar until 2031.