Canada Moment in History

The Canadian Grand Prix is the home race of the F1 Newsletter and the staff likes to attend the race each year. The majority of the staff will be attending a wedding this upcoming weekend, however, so we will have to enjoy the race by reliving last year’s epic trip.

Old Montreal near our flat

The year was 2016. The scene, Montreal. The lads had arrived in town shortly after noon eager to grab some grub and watch qualifying. Post checking into our sweet Airbnb flat, and true to tradition, the crew beelined it to St. Hubert on Rue Sainte-Catherine. Amazingly, and without the use of a smart phone, Scott Strong managed to find us on a street corner after flying into the Pierre-Eilliot-Trudeau airport. The poutine was hot and the pints were cold. Qualifying flew by with Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel grabbing the top three spots. Everything was set for go fast day.

Fast forward to Sunday morning. A few of the boys were a bit slow starting their morning, but after showers and crappy Keurig coffee, the crew was on their way to the track. Rob, Charlie and Scott jumped in one uber headed north to the Jacques Cartier bridge. Andrew, John and Grant jumped in a second uber headed for the Pont de la Concorde. Now before we go any further, it is important to know that the city of Montreal had a bit of an issue with Uber. The taxi union had negotiated a ban on Ubers dropping off and picking up patrons of the race. As it turned out, the officials on the Jacques Cartier bridge didn’t get the memo so after waiting at the race entrance for 15 minutes, cab 1 started to wonder where cab 2 was. As it turns out, cab 2 was being taken into the industrial part of town. It wasn’t until after driving ten minutes in the wrong direction that the French speaking Uber driver confessed to not being able to drop cab two off at the race. Luckily, Grant spun up enough French to get them back a nearby taxi stand. Crisis one averted.

Once the group was reunited we headed into the race and to our seats in the “gen-pop” grandstand. Weather-man Rob had told the group that we were more than likely looking at 60 degree partly cloudy weather, so when it was 50 degrees and rainy it caught a few of us off guard. To say the Ferrari challenge and drivers’ parade was a bit punchy would be an understatement. Thankfully, when race time rolled around, the rain had stopped and the temperature was tolerable. Crisis two averted!

Finally, a bit a racing. As predicted the Mercedes dominated the race, but the race was top notch. As a quick aside, if you have not yet attended a Formula One race in person do it. You won’t regret it. But back to the race. A few of the highlights included Vettel weaving his way though the field, Tom Brady’s attendance and Verstappen holding off Rosberg in the final few laps. Not everything was hunky-dory, however, as at one point during the race, Scott and Andrew slipped away for some delicious poutine. Andrew and Scott are good mates though, right? Wrong. Instead of getting poutine for everyone, they selfishly gobbled down two large portions of poutine before returning to the seats empty handed. Well, luckily John and Charlie came to the rescue with a few extra orders. Crisis three averted.

So that is it, right? The story is over? Guess again. If I was to stop here I would be leaving out the final and most egregious crisis. Of course I am talking about Monday morning when the group is really dragging and about to embark on a five hour drive home. Mr. Scott wanted a ride to the airport. Little did we know that a ride to the airport included 3 hours of traffic. And that is how a five hour car ride becomes an eight hour car ride. Crisis not averted. But no one is carrying a grudge. As they say, all is well that ends well, so gentlemen, time for champagne!

The boys go to Canada

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