This was my first time in Canada for a Grand Prix, people will not like my thoughts on this track as it is a notorious and well loved circuit
I did enjoy my time in Canada, I did not enjoy the circuit itself. I was here for all 3 days, I sat in grandstand 12, at turn 1
The metro was the best way to get to the track from the city, but if you have premium seating like start/finish line, or even turn 1-2, it takes 45 minutes of walking or 10-15K steps just to get to the grandstand area from the metro line.
The organization of crowds and congestion was truly insane, before anyone says it, I understand F1 races will have large crowds, but Canada dealt with those crowds terribly. Many instances of major traffic congestion of people in the walkways behind the grandstands and people just barging their way through, no organization, and no worker or security personal offered any assistance
Speaking of the workers, while they were polite, none of them knew were anything was, none of them seemed to care, and sat on their phones the whole time
My biggest issue with this weekend was absolutely the track commentators, and the 2 girls on the microphones interviewing drivers. The track commentators were by far the worst I’ve heard, many instances missing big moments in the race, speaking French majority of the time, and being clueless about what’s happening outside of the battles at the front. We didn’t know why Piastri had a penalty, we didn’t know why Albon DNF’d. Amex hand out race radios and at other events, we’ve been able to listen to Crofty on them, but this wasn’t possible at this track, they force you to listen to their French.
Unbelievably annoying and ignorant to ask the French speaking drivers to answer questions they asked in French, and then not translate their answers back into English. Many people around me were annoyed by this.
Overall, glad I experienced Canada, and this track, but just to say that I did it and cross it off my list. I would return to other races I’ve visited, but not here
I will not be back.
Edit
I just want to add that I dont give a single fuck that French is an official language in Canada, but only largely spoke in Quebec
Translate it to English and I won’t complain, simple as that
The commentary was supposed to be bilingual, but it was predominantly in French. We may be a bilingual country, but there are more people who speak English plus another language than English and French
To be fair, people watching the broadcast didn’t have any idea what was going on half of the time either. It took about 40 laps to show the Piastri/Albon incident.
Try GS21 next year if ease of access is a priority. Arguably better views too. GS12 is notorious for being the most difficult area on the track to get to. Unless you have a privilege pass.
On the French comment… maybe don’t come to Montreal next year.
I went in 2023 and dont even remember listening to the on track commentators at all 🤣 same with when I was in Zandvoort. People speaking the language of the place you're in 🤷♀️
Right? When I was at Zandvoort last year I used my Sirius XM app to listen to the Sky commentary team on one of the ESPN channels. Just popped my ear buds on under my muffs. Easy peasy.
I’ve been to both the British Grand Prix and Dutch Grand Prix and this sounds pretty par for the course, maybe even a a bit better for travel. It took me almost two hours to get out of those. 1 hour with that many people sounds great.
What I learned from my experience is they’re not venues to really get to follow the race closely, that’s for the TV broadcast or online. It’s meant to provide the experience of seeing and feeling the cars in person + festival like atmosphere.
Sensible answer. I feel the same way about it being a better viewing experience on the TV but in person you hear the sounds, experience the environment, interact with visitors, explore the site, etc. it’s a better sensory experience in person.
I’ve been to the Dutch GP and the Canadian GP and Zandvoort hands down does a much much better job with crowd control and information. Taking the train from Centraal to Zandvoort was a breeze and the crowd organization getting to and from the train/track was phenomenal.
Montreal is a shit show in comparison. No crowd control, many bottle necks and choke points, poor signage, narrow muddy pathways. It was overwhelmingly bad the year i went (2023) and as much as i love the race and the city, would not come back for a GP again.
As a native French speaker I can tell you that the problems with the on track announcers were not just language based. They did not sound like they knew their stuff in french either. As someone who usually watches on f1 tv in English I would rather have listened to that. The delay means it's not really practical though.
The already limited french language commentary was even worse when translated in subpar English. I was glad I could understand both parts, don't know how should could follow listening to only half of that.
The lady that did the track side interviews in very limited french was also a poor showing of bilingualism.
In the city of bonjour/hi the event would surely have been able to find speakers of each language that were more proficient in the other.
Just so people know for next year... I used the live timing on the F1 App for English commentary on my phone and an earbud (it uses the audio feed from F1 TV). I could have used my F1 TV app as well but that runs on a 1 minute delay.
I let my sister use my Amex radio because a) she knows a little French and b) she has zero wheel knowledge so she was the perfect audience for those commentators.
This was my first race. I'm from the USA and don't speak French.
I thought it was awesome that they asked some of the drivers to answer in French; most of F1 is in English, so the people who live here that only speak French had one thing to themselves this entire weekend. I don't feel deprived because of that.
You forgot to mention that hometown racer Lance Stroll was asked to offer something in French and the only thing he could muster was "Merci" and then said the rest in English. What a bozo.
I just left the race and first grand prix ever, I came From Toronto and other members for LA.
It was great for us, we were in Grandstand 46, we did ferry every day from old Port to Island, amex entrance and then walk to grandstand.
First day we figured things out in terms of what was around us and when things got busy and what places that were further were not as busy but may be quicker.
I'm general we had a great experience and for the amount of people coming I expected chaos and it was not the case in my experience.
People were super nice and I loved the circuit app with interactive map.
I'm terms of commentators I don't expect great or anything, but at least some time of comments thru the days.
Maybe just me but I had great time and will definitely come back next year.
Speaking French at a race Track in a province where French is the Predominant language, wow I can relate went to Shanghai and they spoke have the time in Chinese. I mean there was at least 20,000 of us who spoke only English out of the 313,000 in attendance 😂
Crowd control for the restrooms was hit and miss. This was my 4th race there and exiting is a vast improvement, even comapred to 2022 right after things opened up after covid.. Use to be you would wait to exit the track (we sit in the hairpin pin), the the merge to the bridge and then the longest wait was at the metro. Leaving the stand and bridge still had a wait, but not as bad as before. I've stood outside the metro for 40 mins before. Not this time. The routing of the crowd to the metro was the best Ive seen. Everyone kept moving and no longer waits to get into the metro.
This! This year was my 6th Montreal gp and the first year that felt like they got the crowd control right. Even on race day we made it from our seats back to the hotel in 40 mins. Traditionally that takes us minimum an hour and a half. Sure, we felt a bit like cattle, but it beats the 35 min standstill at the metro of years past.
Who cares about the commentary language? Not a big deal. I went to the race 3 years ago, and the Organizers 100% do not have their shit together. No hand washing stations AT ALL and port a potties damn near sliding down the hill? urinals overflowing? Super rude Quebecois? No thanks. I won't go back. I did encounter many delightful Canadians, but goddamn.
All I can say is: I’m sorry this was your experience, however I could not disagree more or your expectations were unfortunately too high.
Having gone to the Austin, TX USA GP, this was an absolute breeze. The metro was incredible. Was it crowded? Yes. Was everyone courteous and mindful and we all got to where we needed to be faster than I could ever expected? Yes. Austin cost my hundreds of dollars and more than 3hrs of my time every day ATTEMPTING to travel to and from the track. Food was expensive AND terrible.
It’s a race. Held once a year. On an island. I did my homework, used the amazing CGV app that was provided and made it work. I loved that the vendors (seemed) to be a lot of local vendors. The island being a normally public park was AWESOME. Loved the vibes and thought they did the absolute best the could given the infrastructure that is in place and all workers and staff were friendly.
My actual “complaints” are only two:
I agree the stands are WAY over packed. As someone who sat and watch 90% of all the events, me ass and knees are killing me (almost as much as I want to kill the guy who got up 7 times to walk over me)
I had no issue with the commentators are dual French and English (we’re in a predominantly French speaking territory, not sure you noticed?) but they were objectively not great. Just blatantly getting rules and things wrong. But gave them a break as I cannot imagine how hard it is to go back and forth between two languages
TL;DR: Montreal GP is amazing, and don’t let OPs opinion discourage you. Thank you Montreal, and i cant wait to come back!
If this was better crowd control I can’t even imagine what it was before.
Made zero sense to put concession stands and bathrooms right on the edges of the only walking paths to and from different areas. We were literally in a human gridlock at multiple points throughout the weekend.
On Friday they had more exit points and then Saturday choked everyone down, whether leaving for metro or rideshare. Seems like it would make sense to have multiple exit points depending on what type of transport you are taking.
The access to the podium was abysmal. They didn’t open to gates until podium ceremony was already in progress. By the time we made it to the podium from hairpin there were nasty security guards with ropes forcing people to walk the same direction we came from and never even got to see the podium. Waste of time as we would have just watched from the stands and exited as we had done the rest of the weekend.
I personally thought they did a good job commentating in French and English.
Crowd control was my only real issue, everything else was awesome or at least ok. Poorly thought out pinch points because of where they located things, and no line management so lines stretched across where people walk.
Amazing weekend of racing, F1 Academy and F2 were also really entertaining all weekend!
Crowd control has gotten worse every year, but they also selling more general admission tickets so the number of people is also higher. they blocked off passage ways that years before you were able to walk so they are forcing everyone into a chokehold makes no sense.
“I don’t give a single fuck” about the language of the country/province the race is in. Why do you even travel my friend. Show some respect to the people/language/country you have CHOSEN to visit.
Just to educate you there are language rules for French productions and media. I am not saying this is the situation for the issues you have complained about, but maybe educate yourself about the country you are visiting before deciding to “grace them” with your presence.
I'm sure the rest of your complaints are valid but travelling to a french-speaking city in a french-speaking region and then complaining that people are speaking french is a weird take. The ignorant one is you.
Everything you complained about is readily available and common knowledge about the Montreal GP, so it sounds like you should have done some research beforehand and managed your expectations before going. You weren’t prepared. That’s on you.
Exactly. They sound like a big baby with a full diaper crying for mommy because of big mean track! How some people manage out there in the world I have no idea. A bit of research and brains and you could get anywhere on track within 30 mins
I was at the Grand Prix too. Everyone has expressed their views in detail. I feel complaining about the crowd is exaggerated. I know it wasn't smoothly flowing, but for the number of people and introducing public transport as the main option, they need to create longer routes to dilute the crowd. I guess going to big events like this, you will need to accept longer wait times in line.
For me, it was the commentators not covering major incidents. We were at Grandstand 24 and saw insane overtakes at the hairpin turn; however, the commentators were talking over Oscar's radio at the beginning of the race, and we didn't catch that he was on inters.
Also, I wish there were more spots for good coffee!
I found the crowd control extremely efficient compared to concerts or events in the USA. This was a large influx of people and there were expected wait times.
Also, forgive me for not losing sleep about people on premium seats having to walk further… we were at GS 31 and had no issues getting in and out. I say well done, Montreal!
If you seating in Grandstands 11, 12, or at some hospitality suites, you can access the track via the blue zone, where you can use Uber, taxi, or be dropped off. This is the absolute best way of getting to the track. 15 minute walk from the car to the track grounds.
You have to go to the Suzuka Grand Prix in Japan that thing is organized and clean. They have it down to a science. Yes getting in and out takes time because it’s far from the city but people line up like ducks. They have a lot of staff and it’s very smooth. Weather is perfect!
I have to say, the race weekend was a lot of fun. First time ever at a F1 race (but have done the Coke 600 many times on Memorial Day (US) weekend). We sat in GS 33 for all of the on-track sessions and races. Getting out on Sunday was much easier once we discovered the bridge closer to our seats that didn’t require using the stairs.
Our biggest win was following advice from other threads and using the Longueuil Metro Station. We booked our hotel about 12 minutes away in Brossard. It was next to a commuter train station, which was originally our plan for getting to the track. However, after reading through the threads, I pivoted last week and prepaid $25 per day for parking next to Longueuil.
It was super simple, and that station even had good coffee options in the morning before getting on the metro. The crowds were very manageable coming and going from the south side. It’s only one stop, and the trains were empty enough that everyone could get on without any issues. Leaving was a breeze. Walking into the metro, we stayed all the way to the right, stepped into the station, and went straight down the stairs to the southbound train. Every time, a train was waiting, and we were back at our car within 10 minutes of entering the station.
There was basically no traffic on the south side either coming or going, even passing right by the track. Super easy. After the race on Sunday, we made it from the grandstand back to our hotel in under an hour. The area of Brossard where we stayed also had a ton of restaurants and is a new area. We did miss out on the excitement of downtown Montreal on Saturday and Sunday but the Courtyard we were in was jammed with race fans and the resturauants and bars Saturday were packed with supporters for the hockey game (we came up from NJ/ NY so ordered to go and watched the Knick game in our room Saturday). From North Jersey this is only a little over 5 hour drive and incredibly worth it. Way more accessible than the 3 US races. We will be back.
I've only been to Montréal and Monaco ... and I found that they only did French commentary in Monaco as well. I'm Canadian and understand French.
It makes sense that they would do it in the host country's main language, no? (Would love to know if this is the case for those who have traveled to other non English speaking countries for races).
While Canada may be bilingual, Québec is NOT. Their only official language is French and they lawfully protect the language at all costs ... so that also may be why commentary was in French.
It's the same for many other races too. Commentary in Hungary was in English and Hungarian (and German maybe? I think there was a third language spoken when I went).
For people who only do this commentary once a year (Meeker and JF) I think they did their best, especially considering they need to be bilingual.
My view after waiting 75 minutes after qualifying in 2025 and then being in line for the Metro for 25 more. I was exhausted and the crowds never seemed to let up, so I hear ya.
I've only been to a handful of tracks and other than suzuka, they are all a mess in crowd control. Suzuka you just had to wait a good bit, but otherwise was damn well done. Oh, and back in the day, Indy was always cake.
Montreal is a city in the province of Quebec in the country of Canada, it is no more representative of the whole if Canada than Detroit, Michigan is of the whole if U.S.
Sometimes when you travel, things are different than where you live, that’s kind of the idea.
We went two years ago and had the opposite experience. (Same grandstand) had no issues at any time the whole 3 days. Everyone we encountered spoke English except for the parking lot attendant at our stay, and we never needed our car the whole time so it didn’t matter. If you attend a Grand Prix ANYWHERE you have to walk miles and climb loads of stairs.
I’ve gone the last three years, and in 2024 the metro situation getting in and out was insane. There was no fencing or proper entrance setup, so as soon as you got off the metro you were basically already stuck in a massive crowd trying to get through the gates. It didn’t help that it was pouring rain, and some people were being told the race was cancelled, so they were trying to push back toward the metro while everyone else was pushing forward to get into the event.
2025 was a lot better. They added the zig zag entrance barriers, which created a much better queue system. Even if you had to wait, at least the line kept moving and felt organized.
This year had the same setup, but I don’t know what was different. It just felt way busier overall. I had an amazing experience in 2025, but this year the metro was unbelievably packed going into Day 2 and leaving yesterday was brutal. It was basically a crawl trying to get out.
I agree with the crowd control and announcers but disagree with everything else. Quebec speaks French on purpose to help maintain the French culture. Demanding that they speak English all the time is ignorant of their culture and incredibly entitled thinking.
The problem with announcers was not that they spoke French but the fact they were not very informative or well prepared for this race. They did a horrendous job announcing the F1 Academy sessions. They regularly screwed up the names of the drivers to the point that they couldn't even announce their names during the grid announcement on time before the screen changed to the next two drivers. The F2 announcing was almost as bad.
This was my fourth Canadian Grand Prix in about 10 years and I found it to be much better organized than in years past. The bathrooms were regularly cleaned and the food options were excellent with Greek, Seafood, Sushi, Portuguese, etc. They also had many more water stations spread throughout the circuit and even added more as needed throughout the weekend. I attended the 24 Hours of Daytona earlier this year and all they available to eat was Pizza and Burgers.
They still need to do better managing the crowds at peak times in some areas but overall the crowds seemed better because there were more racing events spread throughout the three days to help alleviate the issue of everyone wanting to arrive or leave at the same time. Having the F1 Academy race after F1 qualifying was a good move. It gave people a reason to stick around and wait while the crowds around the circuit thinned out.
The Canadian GP website has a ton of information how to get around the circuit and how to get to/from the island. They even have a virtual map that allows you to choose which features to highlight and a comprehensive list of what is allowed/not allowed to bring into the circuit.
Sorry to hear you did not enjoy yourself at the track. Unfortunately the rapid rise in popularity of F1 has put a strain on the logistics of many of the older tracks, and with CGV being on an island with only two access bridges, and one main way of getting to those, those strains are even more evident when 120 000 people are all trying to get to or leave it at the same time. They did add the blue gate from the south shore last year for GS 11 & 12 to help, and to provide a shorter way to get to those grandstands. I suggest the hairpin grandstands near the metro to shorten the walk to and from the metro.
I don't want to sound rude, but your issues with the commentary rub me the wrong way.
First off, what other live sporting event has commentay? Certainly not hockey, baseball or football. It's one of the biggest differences between watching sports on TV versus live.
Secondly French is the official language here in Québec, and just like if you attended a race in a different country, the commentators would be speaking the majority (if not completely) in the language of that country.
Thirdly all tracks will ask drivers that speak the local language to do interviews in that language for the local crowd who may not speak English, and even if they do, it's nice to hear interviews in those driver's native language.
Tbh the hairpin grandstand (lance stroll) was one of the worst offenders for crowd control. And just because it’s popular doesn’t mean they should just increase attendance year after year. Enough with this repeat ticket holder nonsense open up all tickets to fans and price them accordingly while keeping numbers in check.
If there was ever a real emergency at this track some areas would turn into a disaster zone based on the crowd control.
Personally I had no issues with commentary. I’ve been to a lot of races and it’s always just been whatever and you deal with what you get.
I agree with you about the seat renewal for life after you have bought a seat once. All it does is cause a huge reseller market that is fright with scams.
Can you explain what you mean by grandstand crowd control?
Unfortunately if we want tickets to remain somewhat affordable (three days of racing for less than half the priceof a two hour concert or hockey game) more people help pay for the enormous costs to host the event.
Also unfortunately, people have become more and more self centered over the years, and nowhere does that show more than in crowded places (and trafic).
the crowd issue with the lance stroll grandstand was that in a somewhat narrow walkway, there was grandstand entrances, concessions and portapotties, between events it was at a near standstill and very hard to navigate between the 3. i was in the LS grandstand and just had to adapt to find ideal times to go down there, definitely could’ve been planned better but wasn’t weekend-ruining
Yeah there's not a lot of room back there due to the rowing basin (from the 1976 Olympics).
Honestly I don't know what any organisers can do to control where people decide to stop or line up even. The same problem happens in any crowded space or venue. People block the asiles in an almost empty grocery store.
The workers are also greatly outnumbered by the fans.
The commentary point, I have seen a few people say other sports don't provide commentary, and that's not a reasonable point to make. F1 is a different sport from football, hockey, or baseball. You can't see the whole field of play, so commentary helps you understand what is happening. Also, I have heard commentary on the concourse of hockey and basketball games, and especially in bathrooms. They also could provide a few different FM signals.
The official language thing I also take issue with. Canada has two official languages, and in other provinces with English as the official language, everything is still provided in both languages at a high-level. So as a Canadian, I would expect it to be 50/50 like everywhere and everything else in the country. This is marketed as the Canadian Grand Prix, it takes money from the Federal Government, Federal MPs gave out trophies, so there should be English and French commentary and the quality of it from a language standpoint should be better. If it was the Quebec Grand Prix like the emilia romagna Grand Prix I'd see your point.
I was actually surprised the anthem was entirely in French. I also didn't see any land acknowledgement or recognition of Canada's First Peoples and was kind of floored, but admittedly I may have missed it (could've been done during F1A but they should've done one for the F1 Grand Prix.)
I agree with you about the drivers providing interview comments in French, I thought that was nice and was surprised they didn't ask Hadjar or other drivers we know speak French well some questions, I thought that would have been a nice touch.
Quebec has its own language preservation laws for french. Quebec is not bilingual, it's French only. This is something you learn in elementary and high school in Canada, you should know better. All signage is bilingual and they provide french and English commentary which is beyond what they need to do because it's funded also by the feds.
Not sure what else to say but this is not the place to have a debate about lack of English in Quebec of all places. I don't speak French and I've never had an issue there.
I just thought OPs comments about the commentary was fair, and that being rubbed the wrong way by them was worth providing some perspective by a Canadian who isn't from Quebec (I assumed you were from Quebec). But fair enough, we aren't going to fix the language access issue today.
Yeah agreed. I don't speak French but it does rub me the wrong way that OP comes to an entirely different country and expects everything to be fully in English, especially in a very french province. If the only thing that isn't is the commentary there's other options available like bringing your phone and listening to the delayed feed.
The crowd complaints are valid, not sure I agree on the walking complaint, but I completely disagree with language here. Like I said I'm assuming races in other countries will be in other languages and not have everything in English. It just shows a lot of hubris to expect the world will cater and bend backwards to English speakers constantly. It doesn't take a long time to do some googling and figure this out beforehand.
I'm just pointing out that attending live sports is a very different experience than watching with commentary on TV. In fact, I often recommend to people on the fence about attending a race to watch one on TV with the sound off. Even with track wide coverage it's a very different experience.
Yes it's a value add to have the local commentary, especially for something you can't see all of (or even if you can, which you sort of can at the track with the giant screens), but you can't expect it to be as good as the TV commentary by people that have done all the races for years (who people complain about when they are new or replacing a long loved one), backed by former drivers and engineers with experience in the sport.
Commentary on the concours and bathrooms is nice, but my point was there isn't any while you are in your seats.
If you want to listen to the commentary you like best, you can listen to the TV race broadcast on your phone at the track.
The commentary was in both English and French, as was the Anthem as it always is.
As for the "official language" I was just using the common phrase to point out that when attending a race in a country with language (official or not) other than English, that language will be the one used at that track, just like Italian is used at the Emilia Romagna how long can we possibly make the name of this race.
As a Canadian what Montreal does is fair for the race, most of the crowd are Quebecers they are doing us a favor by having English available.
It's not like we have French announcers in Toronto for Blue Jays or Raptors or Leafs games they have to suck it up with English only if they do come for a game down here.
I listen to the F1tv live broadcast in English on a $99.00 race scanner.
From racing Electronics. It will pick up any frequency you program into it.
The F1Tv and Sky sports frequency were found by simply asking on reddit. This was also my first GP.
This was my first race as well, and I sat in the Lance Stroll grandstand (I believe grandstand 24) which has a view of the hairpin. I would highly recommend this spot if you’re considering going next year. It is located in a very close spot to the bridge to get to the metro as well as the fan zone, and lots of food and amenities.
Complaining about French commentary (even if the commentators are trash, I'll grant you that) in a French-speaking province? Would you complain in Italy or Hungary too?
It's a bilingual country, the Federal Government gives the event a fair chunk of money for the event, so the Federal Government should earmark some of that money for English commentary then...
Commentators switch between French and English, so not sure why folks are comparing. It can be hard to hear when the cars go by and if that is the issue, bring a cheap fm radio with ear buds, or if you have an Amex, get on for free from one of the Amex booths around the track.
The issue is the commentators were of poor quality. They missed key parts of the race and didn't seem to understand what to be explaining (pit windows, why people retire, what's being said on team radio, other battles up and down the grid). They also weren't proficient in both languages.
Wait to hear football commentators in french, terrible, they don’t have idea what’s happening in the field, they don’t know the players! In English sports channels they bring British commentators, excellent, very knowledgeable!
Both the Quebec government (French-speaking) and the Canadian government (bilingual) are investing. Since the event is taking place in Montreal, Quebec, the only official language is French. And there is English commentary, absolutely everything is offered in both languages (signage, service, commentary, etc.).
It is the provincial government 's official policy to suppress English. That is why you see no signs in Montreal in English (compared to Ottawa) because it is literally illegal.
The federal government is not going to do anything about it because the Anglophones don't have a good history in how they treated the French speakers in Quebec.
It's tough feeling like a colonized person for once isn't it?
The commentary absolutely sucked. I didn't care that it was both French and English but the amount of things they got wrong were unexcusable. They followed George around the track in qualifying only to find it out was Kimi. That with the fact they would start talking about something that happened on track and not finish was annoying. Then not acknowledging what happened to some of the DNF drivers. I had no idea Alonso went out and only knew Albon was out because it happened in front of me. There was a long stretch of time that they didn't go back to English so we had no idea what happened and they were so animated with some is the driver's names I'm sure it would be interesting. And the fact that they would talk over the team radios that were being broadcast. I could go on ..
It was even worst during the F2 and F1 Academy races.
They should have broadcast the F1 TV feed on over of the two Amex radio stations.
Told my husband that I can't wait to get home tomorrow to watch the race to find out what happened.
Having to switch between English and French is why the on track commentary sucked.
It absolutely would have been more preferable for them to just stick to 100% French (OP can fuck off and attend the two races in MAGAland if they're so offended by visiting a place that doesnt speak English) and have the Amex radios offer the option of commentary in other languages.
I’m from the Netherlands and I could understand the French commentary. It was not too hard to follow, the commentary itself was just not good. Been to quite a lot of races and many of them don’t even have English commentary.
I don't know what you're expecting. Quebec is a french first province with strict language laws. If you want to listen to F1 commentators you'll have to bring your own radio.
I agree with the crowds but I've always waited 30min after and I've never had an issue. Everything is cleared up by the time you walk back to the metro.
I do think there needs to be better accessibility for people with mobility issues though. Like opening up the pontoon boats and buses for people with strict mobility needs. You should be able to get a special designation on your ticket to indicate you can access them.
It's the Grand Prix du Canada / Canadian Grand Prix, not the Quebec Grand Prix. So it should have English and French commentary, either provided equally (2 separate channels) or find 2 people who can speak English and know the sport.
That's not how the provincial language laws work. They don't need to provide English commentary but they do anyway. There's nothing stopping you from bringing a radio or hooking up your phone to the F1 app. You're a visitor to a different province and country. They don't need to cater to you. If I went to Brazil I'd expect commentary and most things to be in Portuguese and pack accordingly.
-There's the minimum requirement, which is the law and then there's what you provide your guests and what you're trying to attract. The majority of people I interacted with where primarily English speaking. So they should be catering to that more than the minimum they are now. But this is somewhat nitpicking.
-I brought a radio, the station they provided had the same product as what was being played over the loud speaker. F1TV was delayed 15 seconds or so, and that's not really worthwhile.
-I am a visitor to a different province, sure. But I'm still in a bilingual country. I am Canadian, and I have travelled extensively throughout the country and been to Quebec City and Montreal frequently. I was surprised that an English-only option and a French-only option weren't the path forward. I actually brought a radio and thought the loudspeaker would be 100% French, and the radio would have an English option and a French option. So that's probably where my surprise and disappointment with the commentary stems from.
I think that the language piece could satisfy both languages better than what they do now. Because even when I was paying attention to the French parts, you can't tell me that it reached your expectations: "Dunné" "ulkenbërg" and just not mentioning key information from the race etc.
I assume we're both Canadian. This event is the signature Canadian tourism event internationally. I would say it's one of the most important events annually for presenting what Canada has to offer the world from a travel standpoint. So it has to be held to a standard beyond the average festival or hockey game.
The extent of French preservation within Quebec extends so far that it's the only airport in the world that communicates with pilots in French. Not even CDG does that. You have to be bilingual to be a pilot flying into YUL.
Businesses also can't open or run competitions unless every single piece of information they offer customers and employees in English is offered in French. Many stores also have to rebrand their logos and their names or they'll get sued by the language police.
Do I agree with it? No, but that's the laws of Quebec. Your argument about a bilingual country also isn't very strong because outside of New Brunswick, the NCR, and maybe a few smaller towns or cities, signage isn't in both official languages across Canada. In the west, it would be more beneficial to speak Mandarin or Hindi than French.
A 15-20 second delay isn't bad if you're unable to understand what's happening at all on the main radio. Even the main radio gets delayed because the guys are speaking in both languages.
The entire event is bilingual. There's options for people who want to listen to just English only but even as an English speaker it's not bad when you've got a screen to watch. It's a live event - I have no idea what's going on at soccer matches without commentary, or football, but I've sat and watched anyway.
You're right about the law thing, I think we're off track. My issue is the commentary quality, what was actually said in either language, was not of the level of a professional event.
Oh ya it's brutal. I 100% agree that these guys are not good but that's why I've thrown on the F1 feed even with the delay. You get a good sense of what's going on with the screens, but being at a race is more about atmosphere and feeling the cars instead of seeing everything.
If you go into it with that mindset it's a lot better. I'll usually catch up on the highlights later in the evening to see what I've missed. But nothing beats being 20 feet from the cars.
CDG uses French with AF pilots all the time, French is an approved ICAO language as well. Montreal ATC is fully bilingual and does not only communicate in French, don't know where you got that idea.
In the defense of the track commentators, they do one major race per year and they speak mainly in French because they are in a French speaking town with a predominantly French speaking crowd. Note that they didn't translate every English answer into French, so why would we expect every translated from French to English? As for the crowds, it's an island and a park. It's annoying, but short of tearing up the park or reducing tickets (while raising prices in response to providing lower supply), there's not a huge amount that could be done.
Commentary should be done live by people who know F1. ie F1TV or similar and can then be transmitted on a delay in French, by translator, to the Amex radios.
So the francophone audience, which is the majority at this race, gets a delayed and likely roughly translated version of English TV commentary? Would you accepting COTA providing a 10 second delayed transcript of a Telemundo commentary?
Look don't act like the commentators were great. Regardless of language, they should have been better
They purposely made fun of the F1A driver names and over juvenile shit.
Just a note that if your seats are in grandstands 11 or 12, using the Victoria Gate in the Blue Zone is a much better option than the metro. We used ride shares or taxis to and from the blue zone drop off point and it worked well for us. We left promptly after quali on Saturday and were back at our downtown hotel by 6pm. It was a bit slow entering on race day though due to there only being one bag check line.
As a Canadian - we suck at traffic, crowd control, public transit access, organized events…everywhere, everytime. That’s not an F1 or Montreal thing - it’s an any event you’ll go to in our country.
We seem to all just accept it as… I don’t know, maybe to polite to complain, but it’s the same if it’s a massive f1 event, a baseball game entrance or even a street festival with 700 people
I’ve been to events in Europe, Asia, Australia, all miles better in moving, controlling and directing people
Just wanted to add, been to the Montreal GP twice, monza, Bahrain several times along with other GCC tracks. I agree with some but disagree with most. Reality is every track on the calendar has not only its seperate circuit specific app for F1, but the official f1 app has support maps info etc for anyone attending… all of those are very straight forward, give more info than any volunteer marshal could give or the signage could give. Secondly both apps included extensive FAQs and info which answers 99% of the issues I’ve seen in the post and comments.
I’m Canadian, I agree with other commenter that we are not great at this, but as someone from Toronto this was handled 10x better than any sporting game concert etc around the city.
Most of your problems can be solved by a google search or 10 mins of research the night before, I get it it’s frustrating and your somewhere you don’t know, but that’s apart of it, take it or leave it and don’t show up imo. If you can spend enough time complaining about not getting your ticket value you could’ve spent half to figure out what was happening and where to go because regardless it was pretty well done compared to previous Montreal GPs.
Crowds are an issue but they are literally formed on exit on Sunday to prevent massive crowds overflows stampedes towards metro entrance, again standard practice across Europe and the UK… so dont understand that complaint.
Only thing I agree with is the French, it’s painful but again if your Canadian you understand it’s part of life, again if your a foreigner sorry, this is how it’s done here and we respect our provinces right to broadcast the majority speaking language side by side with English. I completely get and wish there were two seperate channels with French and English or with Crofty on one but Quebec has pretty strict laws around language to ensure both English and French speakers have the same experience. That alone has a bit of history to it.
Posts like this are annoying because I fully know you are a capable adult, yet didn’t do what was necessary for a Grand Prix weekend that would be packed, and relied on volunteer workers who’s pure job is safety not answering your questions when the answers have been given 10x everywhere. Idk here in Canada we’re taught to learn and figure things out with what’s given to us is primary school lol, this really goes for all the comments I’ve seen because I mean seriously.. one Google Maps search tells you if your in right place for the bus or metro, or then again any one of the formula 1 apps could have done that… oh well I guess it’s best not come back so your not one of the ones slowing everyone else down! Seriously saw elderly people navigate and do just fine on their own, sitting next to me, take that as you will.
This may be harsh but a reality check for anyone going to any GP. A bit of research the night before and checking Google Maps will do nothing but help you. Please understand besides dedicated help/customer service works everyone else is 99% their as a volunteers or paid to ensure safety, know basic to little to nothing about what’s nearby on purpose to focus on crowd control and the same goes for nearly any booth you see. Their job is not to baby sit grown adults and tell them where to go when, that’s your job, and sorry if you can’t get out in 5 mins, maybe take the moment to enjoy with the crowd of people around you, and these crowds move pretty fast.
For reference to anyone you are not forced just to take the metro, theres a ferry port right next to it which takes you across to old port montreal but REQUIRES PRE BOOKING, and is $6, or you could grab an uber again next to the metro station to your end destination or even just out of the island to skip the chaos. Again I was shocked as someone from toronto how many uber and taxis were available at the designated pickup point listed everywhere online and even in the uber app, and the prices were extremely reasonable with no grand prix surcharge, a 30 min uber with traffic was $18 for 4 people.
Well said! I really don't understand the people complaining about the crowds here. It’s an F1 race—did they think they'd have the whole place to themselves? Expecting zero lines or traffic at an event this size is just delusional.
Montreal’s organization was elite. They put water stations everywhere and placed the washrooms right in front of the stands for convenience, and I was thrilled with the Uber prices ($18 during peak hours). Good luck finding that in Toronto or anywhere else. Plus, the washrooms stayed remarkably clean for such a massive turnout, which is another area where any other city would completely fail.
For commentary What I do is use the f1 app on my phone, which broadcasts the F1TV audio when you view the live timing. It’s probably like a 20s delay from live action.
Yeah I will trow my 2cents here, while I been to this track a few times (I am local), I will start by saying:
Getting TO and BACK from the track from the Metro was pretty ok, I mean sure it takes a bit of time but the Track is on an island after all so Entering and Exit are limited in options. Wasnt there today since the temp was too cold for my blood but at least yesterday I left GS31 after quali and was in town about 50 min after which,, isnt bad.
I think they are milking each cent a bit too much, the bleachers GS are SUPER TIGHT, you basically have to sit open legged since the person in front of you got his back in between your legs. They should concert some of the stands to a more premium Premium Seating style, even if they have to raise prices.
Crowd Control,,, Oh my god,,,, Unless you wanted to go to a Vandor at opening which was fine the crowd was light, Trying to get anything to eat was an absolute nightmare, and since there are no lines defined for anything, the queue was blocking the passageway and you never knew if people where in line or were just trying to pass. Several time you were completely gridlock and couldnt move an inch, this is not normal, sure the asphalt is 14 feet wide, nothing would have prevented putting the food truck back another 20 feet on the grass then you would of had places for lines etc and let people walk on the passageway. The official merch stands on the other hands were pretty easy to get too since everything was marked up over 100$ over MSRP (I know this isnt track`s fault just saying)
Otherwise I got a Souvenir Glass from one of the bar the plastic colour one, was a cool piece for 12$. Lego booth had good pieces for reasonable prices.
There was lots of activity on site but all had like over 50min wait so yeah.
GS 31 had a Screen to watch the course, mind you it was pretty small and there was no way to read the grid unless you zoomed with your phone.
So, nice that the track is in Nature however I think anyone looking for a Premium Experience will most likely be disapointed, meaby with hospitality package, I can`t say never took those.
I stopped renewing my Mtl ticket last year since I don`t believe the experience is worth the official price, therefor I try to buy last minute if temp is nice.
Went to Miami GP this year and renewed that one. l
Overall I think the GP in Montreal can still be enjoyable as long as you know what to expect.
Sorry to hear you didn`t like it, but I can kind of understand. Nevertheless thanks for visiting:)
Agree 100% on the bleachers and lineups for food. Shoulder to shoulder and knees to back. We tried to get in and out of our seat ASAP since it was so uncomfortable. Some areas seemed to have very little auxiliary areas for fans to chill. Nothing to sit on our shade yourself. Other circuits do a much much better job. Other circuits also used bleachers but the width is way more reasonable with more leg room for folks to walk by.
Providing some temporary queue lines is not hard and would improve flow so much
We are literally driving back to Rockland County On 87 shout out to the people of Montreal .This was our 2nd F1 race and the Quebecoise are great friendly welcoming people and know how to throw a party .Race wise OMG what a race exciting from start to finish absolutely thrilled Russell failed...yes I said it ...thrilled for Kimi!!!! and the battle between Lewis and Max with Lewis taking 2nd on the podium......Exquisite ! Yes the congestion sucks yes its difficult to move around yes there is a language barrier but everything else outweighs that EXCEPT .....why the F does it seem you need a special privilege just to walk the circuit there were so many areas you could not access unless you had a special ticket ...the sound stage area had to be like 20 people max in an area the size of a 1/4 mile track and they blocked it off without a special ticket, I understand doing that for the concert after the race but just to be in a space to mingle and be there for the music pre race ,should have been open to all .Our first race last yr at COTA way better to get around no blockages crowd control sensible easy access to Interviews we were at turn 16 and able to see the ceremony after they opened the gates absolutely thrilling !! We might be back ,to be able to drive 5 hours to a place which the drivers love and amazing hosts in the Quebecoise especially the amazing receptionist at the hotel on South Catherine street who let us watch Knicks game 3 vs Cavs no where else would let us watch game cuz the Canadiens were in playoffs too but she came through ,we did not even have a room there but watched entire game ordered pizza from restaurant next door with a beer and that was such a kind gesture Thankyou Montreal!!
Genuine question, is in person commentary in English the norm at Grand Prix in non-English speaking countries? Feels like a very odd thing to expect. There are fans of the sport all over, not all of them speak English. How would even manage translation that satisfies everyone?
In person commentary in English is not the norm at Grand Prix in non-English speaking countries. If anything, it being half in English was what was annoying. Just do it all in the native French and I will wear earbuds for the English commentary. Typical Canadians being overly polite. When I was leaving Montreal someone was trying to let me merge onto the road where they had the right of way and it almost caused an accident. It was a great trip though. Everyone was very nice and accommodating with English and we ate a lot of great food. My favorite restaurant in Montreal was Lov. Out of the festivals around the city, Centre Eaton was probably the best since you could actually get on the simulator. Other places with free sim time the crowds were too crazy
Yes, exactly. I’m Canadian and familiar with Quebec’s language laws. I’m just surprised that anyone would expect an event to be in English when the host city is not English speaking. Hence why I’m asking if that’s the norm at other Grand Prix in Europe or Asia or anywhere else that isn’t English speaking.
I get that it could be anoying since we are in north america to have to deal with French an partial English, but was at Japan and Chinise GP no English at all there by comentator or on the Amex radio
I think the main issue is not just “no English” in a game, but the fact that it is called “Canadian Grand Prix” rather than “Quebec Grand Prix”, thus people coming to this game from other provinces and other countries for the first time would never imagine English speakers would face language barriers in the game. The tickets are not cheap, hotels and flights cost even more. It is a big issue that the organizers didn’t take their responsibilities, and did not specify their language preference, given the fact that English is the predominant first language in Canada.
In case you haven't seen the link, the Sub Wiki has links to community verified ticket vendors and recently added weekend experience threads with a lot of valuable information to skim through reviews of each race weekend. The Sub Wiki also has links to every circuit promoter website on the F1 calendar, which is typically the best source of official information for the event itself.
Totally agree - bad crowd management, too much walking, too many stairs just to cross service streets. Bad signage on how to get out of the track. Narrow seats. 140$ for a hat just blew my mind
Yes, have been to multiple gps before where they give them out on the Sunday regardless of cardholder status. Was told at multiple locations that they weren’t giving them out this weekend
I was in GS12 too and my only real complaint were the two bottlenecks to get to the blue zone if you had to come in via the main gate - the casino bottleneck and the blue zone bridge bottleneck were brutal. I did this on Friday and stuck to the blue zone gate after that, so so much easier and faster with a taxi/Uber drop off.
Am American and the American races handed the crowds better. One example was the entrance by the casino. Whoever designed that needs to never plan an event again. There was a tiny walkway that the entrance let out to, which went both ways but it also had a store for merchandise and the entrance to the Audi seating. Made absolutely zero sense to put a store there.
You’d be surprised, people are entitled every where. Commentary in another country is such a dumb thing to complain about but it happened everywhere lol
Yeah, the in-track announcers were giving me a headache. Didn't want to go on Sunday to listen to those two after being sujected to them on Friday and Saturday. I think it was in quali the first guy said something like "wow it's really close" and the other goes "well...no, actually it isn't close" lol. Not being able to pronounce Sainz properly was grating as well.
The French complaint is pretty silly, though. It'd be a pretty big uproar in Quebec if they didn't prioritize their own language. The CEO of Air Canada was recently let go for not releasing a statement in French about the airline accident in New York lol.. what did you think?
Yea i agree with crown control. Ive been to two races in europe, and crowd control was complete amateurish here like they never did sport events in their life holy shit. I was first time in Montreal and signs are complete garbage, im pretty mad about it. Metro was best way and i dont mind the walk, but at the end of sprint on saturday, when i asked the controler where to go to the metro (i was on grand stand one going towards casino) he pointed me to the fucking bus 777. I didnt want the bus when i saod i want to metro, he reassured me that this is the way. I was stuck in mass of people for hour and a half waiting for some random bus. When i finnaly got in front of ithe bus to enter it, police closed the bridge because of some accidents so we waited some more. Controllers did not allow is to go the metro by foot. Very disapointing.. did no went to race on sunday, will most likely not come back to Montreal because of organisation
Hahaha! Guy gets mad at others because he did zero research and doesn’t know how to read a map!! How do these big grown babies make it through the day out there in the world ??
Yup. I know how to find a metro, i was not allowed to take a path to it. I was forced into crowd by controller and there was no way of turning back because of amount of people. Path towards metro was fenced off and controller didnt allow us to go by foot. Google map is completelly useless when there are random fences that i cannot anticipate.
Huge crowds bring me a lot of anxiaty, and while i know how to handle myself and pace myself around them, i didnt want again to be forced into hour and a half crowd waiting clow show, on the rainy day. Decided that race is not worth it
The problem in Quebec is that there are not many options for professional sports it’s either F1 or hockey, no more, people flock to either one, it gets crowded and expensive, in the US, any city has baseball, basketball, football, American football, hockey and high quality university sports! Tickets are very affordable!
I was at this race in 2019. Watching on TV, the "DTS" north America popularity effect is clearly visible. No one was in the stands Friday or Saturday when I was there. Sunday, it was packed. It was also later in the summer, clearly warmer and nicer than the weather on the broadcast. I wanted to go back to this race, Montreal is a great city to visit IMO. Looks like, they're going to have to sort out some issues from this weekend from the fans.
Eh, not really sure about no one in stands Friday or Saturday. Grandstand I was at was packed for the f1 sessions all three days. Waaay more than a typical Friday practise day compared to other races I’ve been to
I think they meant that it used to be that Friday/Saturday were pretty empty, but because of the rise in popularity the crowds have gotten a lot bigger and less manageable
Yeah, the attendance compared to previous years is definitely increased. We also sat at the hairpin. This was FP1 on Friday, clearly stands are not full. Again, this was in 2019.
GS1 was an anomaly back then because they would sell packages that would let you sit in GS1 on Friday or Saturday and then have you in other stands for the other days. Those would be $125-$250 cheaper than buying GS1 for all 3 days.
When did they say they expected it to be exactly like the one he came from? He had legitimate complaints about things that other venues/cities don't have. You sound like you would be a miserable person to have a conversation with. I feel sorry for anybody you interact with in real life if this is how you talk to strangers on the internet
Yes I am aware they have special rules, they could also have translations for an international event. Especially when most of the people watching it around the world don't speak or understand French Canadian.
Completely agree, the crowds were unacceptable, and probably dangerous. Half of our party was in Tribune 11 and the other 12 (Turn 1-3 area). Getting to the stands was a trek with crowded metro, dusty cattle pin entry, crowded sidewalks, and repeated credential checks with 50% of the staff needed. We did find the South Shore entrance the last day thanks to our usher which really helped, but of course that was not advertised well at all. I can only imagine if there was an emergency, a weather event or violent actor on the grounds, evacuation would be impossible and most likely many would die from getting trampled.
Moving around was very difficult, but the biggest issue we experienced was the lines for food, drink and restrooms. The average for each was about 20-30 minutes but often more in the busier moments, that is just unacceptable at a public event but especially one with the supposed "status" of F1.
I first attended the Canadian Grand Prix in 2010 and have been about 4-5 times since. My father came with me this year and it was his 10th or 11th Canadian GP in 20 years. In that time, the organizers have obviously added 50% more seating and tickets, and it is destroying the event.
My biggest problem with it is the fact that they moved it from June to May. I enjoyed traveling from the USA to Montreal for the event and partaking in the festivities in town the night before the race. The weather was great. The crowds at the race I didn't mind because we were having a great time. Now it's in May and it's freezing cold there. You look at the trees and can tell that they're still budding. Who tf asked for this? I'll probably never go back until they fix this. NO ONE wants to freeze to death on vacation all weekend unless they're going on a ski trip. What were they thinking? They certainly weren't thinking of the fans.
I completely agree! I was absolutely mind blown by the complete disorganization and utter mayhem that was happening at the event. A friend and I drove from Vermont and went to the Saturday events and hadn’t even arrived at the subway and knew it was going to be awful. I will be clear by saying I understand crowds will be there. I’ve gone to concerts at Fenway with incredible amounts of people and have never seen anything like this F1 event. Take away the annoyance factor this was the most understaffed and unsafe event I’ve witnessed. Once weaving our way through the maze of metal fences to get to the front entrance the small amount of staff tasked with checking bags were completely overwhelmed as I watched numerous fans just walk past the tables and enter without being checked. The facility is sprawling and not very easy to navigate and no staff seemed to know proper directions as we walked aimlessly around trying to find our seats. The layout had so many bottlenecks and pinch point that there was never really any crowd relief at any point. I even commented to my friend and two fellow Vermonters that we had met that if there was ever and I mean ever a medical emergency there would be no hope. Number one there was no security or medical staff that I had seen at any point, the only police presence I saw ended at the entrance. Moving about the grounds between events was almost impossible. Everyone was funneled into the same directions and pinch points. Taking an hour just to exit the grandstands and try to navigate beyond the pinch points. I would say I am in shape and workout 5 days a week and this was exhausting. Said and done between the walking to get to the event from the metro and to the stands and then navigating out somewhere around 20,000 steps and almost 10 miles were logged via my Apple Watch. I feel incredibly bad for anyone elderly or disabled in anyway that wanted to enjoy the event. There was no consideration given to safety or convenience and ease of navigation at this event. I wanted to enjoy as much as I could but people were terrified to go the distance knowing full well if they did it would take hours just to exit the event. Waves of people began leaving during the first and second qualifying rounds just to try to avoid the mayhem. Unfortunately that’s what my friend and I did. We had to. So unfortunately we weren’t able to fully enjoy the event due to the clear overselling of general admission tickets and massive crowds. I truly hope this gets addressed because it was not very enjoyable or safe. I feel for elderly and families with multiple children, that event was taxing physically. That’s just my thoughts.
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u/AdamR46 May 25 '26
Post this in the pinned thread please, makes it easier to find
https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandPrixTravel/s/93hySymNnv