F1 drivers in 2013 aren’t burning rubber so much as burning through rubber, and the super tight turns and sharp chicanes of Montreal’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve are virtually certain to add a chapter to the controversial tale of the tires at this year’s Canadian Grand Prix…

For the 2013 season, Italian tire maker Pirelli – responsible for supplying all F1 wheel-wear since 2011 – did what would be unthinkable for a maker of regular street tires: they made them softer so they’d fall apart faster. Rapidly degrading tires make for more exciting racing as the quick decline in performance enables more passing and requires more pit stops. (Which not all of F1’s 22 drivers are thrilled about since it impedes their ability to hold a lead.) Pirelli says the tires are tailor-made for twisty tracks like the 4.361 km Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, which means the hundreds of thousands of elite racing fans who attend the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal (taking place this year on June 7-9) will be in for a show.

The show, of course, won’t be limited to the blacktop. Numerous celebratory events take place across the city, beginning with the annual three-day Crescent Street Grand Prix Festival. On June 6-8, from 11 am to 11 pm, a blocked-off Crescent Street will be flooded with race fans taking in bands and DJs and other live entertainment. F1 driver autograph sessions and the Pit Stop Challenge (see how fast you can change a tire, pit crew style) are prominent features of this popular – and free – outdoor party.

Less free, but certainly no less fun, is the third edition of The Grand Evening on June 6, a benefit gala established by the Canadian Grand Prix. Tickets are a grand a head, or $25,000 for a table for you, seven of your friends and a bona fide F1 driver. All proceeds from the black-tie formal will be donated to the Canadian Olympic Foundation and to the Fondation de l’Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal.

For those who want to mingle with the jet set while enjoying a more Montreal neighbourhood–type vibe, Grand Prix on the Main might be just your cup of authenticity. Upscale eateries, buttoned-down pubs, and trend-setting restos and bars line the sides of Montreal’s renowned Saint-Laurent Boulevard (known to locals as The Main), which will be closed to traffic from June 6-9 to allow for street patios and a lively range of top-shelf entertainment that’ll smoke your tires.

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THE DETAILS

Canadian Grand Prix, June 7-9, 2013

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Vortex Racing’s facilities in the Montreal suburb of Dorval are the only ones of their kind in North America. Launched on January 1, 2012, the centrepiece of the sprawling, high-tech, user-friendly complex – which still has that “new car” smell – is the racing simulator room, which features eight professional-level driving simulators. These are divided into six single-seaters and two three-seaters (ideal when you’re in the mood for sharing the terror), and at an estimated $400,000 apiece, Vortex hasn’t skimped on the equipment.

“The simulators are for both entertainment purposes and professional purposes,” explains Vortex Racing Marketing Director Kevin Major. “These things are really top-notch racing machines. We’re the first centre in North America, and there’s another one in Lyon, France, but that’s it. They’re Cruden Hexatech simulators, the same sims that are used by the F1 teams to practice.”

It’s not hard to understand why. You can feel the tires grab for traction off the starting grid, and there’s no escaping the up to 2.5 Gs of force going into corners. It feels real. And the cold finger of fear that touches the base of your spine when you put your wheels on the grass or come into a chicane too fast is about as real as it gets, as is the fatigue – both mental and physical – when you climb out of the “car.” Adding to the feeling of realism are the authentic racing suits, boots, gloves and helmets that participants are invited to wear.

Vortex Racing is selling an experience, and believes that in race-crazy Montreal (the annual Grand Prix du Canada is one of the largest events on the city’s cultural calendar) they’ve found the broadest possible target audience. “It’s for everyone: from people who drive to people who don’t drive; from the 50-year-old woman who just wants to drive fast to the F1 racer,” says Major. “It’s for people who want to have fun driving at high speed with no risk and without all the costs and overhead that a racing team would have. It’s also for the professional racer who wants to practice and improve.”

A typical session lasts for about an hour and twenty minutes, which includes a training course, qualification and race time on the simulator, a telemetry report and a review of the race with an instructor. And if F1 racing isn’t your cup of high-octane tea, Vortex offers several other styles of race cars and courses. “In addition to F1 we have a bunch of other Formula cars: F3, GP2, GP3 and obviously F1,” says Major. “We also have exotic cars, three kinds of them, sedans and coupes as well as rally cars, and drifting cars and drag racers.”

Vortex’s state-of-the-art facilities include two large conference rooms for corporate events, full bar service, and a full kitchen to accommodate catering. There are, however, a few practical limitations: sessions are restricted to those 18 and over, and folks with heart or blood pressure issues, pregnant women, and those susceptible to motion sickness should exercise caution before taking on a simulator. All others should prepare themselves for the ride of a lifetime…

“Actually,” Major laughs, “I don’t think you can be prepared for this. What you can be prepared for is the experience of what it would feel like to drive in a real race. Though it’s really just about having fun here. What we sell is being a race car driver for a day, at a real low price. Yes, they are simulations, but they are exactly the same thing that drivers practice on to get better.”

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THE DETAILS

Vortex Racing, 2300 46th Avenue, Lachine, 1 (855) 867-8395

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He was born in the Montreal suburb of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu in 1971, the son of the legendary F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve, who was tragically killed in a crash in ‘82 and after whom the beautiful and scenic F1 and Nascar track in Montreal is named. Villeneuve is a renaissance man of the racing world: Since 2007, when he left F1 racing, he has driven in the Le Mans 25-hour series, Speedcar, TRV6 and NASCAR. Montreal race fans will be happy to know that he’ll be behind the wheel at the Montreal Nascar race on August 19-20.

He also launched and owned Newtown, the happening Montreal resto/nightclub, until recently. He has a record, Private Paradise, and is a race commentator for F1. Now, he’s trying his hand (or rather his voice) in movies, too: In the recent sequel to the Pixar classic Cars, he’ll be voicing a race commentator (named after himself) in the French version of the movie, Les Bagnoles 2, coming out this Friday. Villeneuve sat down with us to talk about the recent, rainy F1 and his homebase of Montreal.

Photograph by: Shaun Best, REUTERS

Montreal Buzz: So that crazy watered-down F1 two weeks ago: Is that a race you’d like to have driven?

Jacques Villeneuve: I always enjoy difficult conditions, and that was definitely the case there. I just think they spent way more time fiddling around than they needed to. When it was a swimming pool it made sense [to shut it down], but there were other times that it was dry enough for the cars to get around, and they just weren’t there. I think it was a little bit embarrassing that they waited so long to get racing again. As soon as it started to dry out, they should have been out there. There were some guys took the restart, they were on normal tires, they weren’t even on full-wet tires.

MB: Did you stick around for any of the parties, at Newtown or elsewhere?

JV: Not really. It’s not my restaurant anymore, for one thing. This year I wasn’t too involved with the proceedings, what I’ve always done was the driving, not the parties. I’ve got kids now, too.

MB: Do you love the first Cars movie? Is that why you wanted to be in this one?

JV: I love the Cars franchise! And I have two little boys and they love the first one. I watched the first one because of them, and I couldn’t help but love it. But that’s what’s great about Pixar; kids love them but there’s a lot in there for grownups, too. Everyone can get something out of them. When I got a call to see if I was interested in doing the voice, I didn’t think twice.

MB: How was the experience of doing movie voicework? Studio voicing can be tricky, it’s an art in itself.

JV: It was exciting! This is first time I do something like that, it’s risky–you can find of burn yourself doing new things like that in public…but it was fun! It’s fun doing something like this because I know my kids will be proud of me. And honestly, we are all still kids when we watch movies. I forget I’m a grownup when you’re watching cartoons, and that’s great! Besides, Cars 2 os well written not baby talk, doing voice so even though the dialogue is somewhat realistic, it’s still not stuff that would happen in real life, it’s not realistic.

MB: In the movie, the race genres are all mixed up- there’s cars from NASCAR and F1 all hanging out. That would never happen in a real-life scenario—but it’s sort of fitting since you’re a multi-sport driver too.

JV: Yeah, in the movie, the cars race in Italy, France, Tokyo, and it’s a bunch of different type of cars racing together, which of course wouldn’t happen in real life, but they’re mixing all kinds of influences—Europe, Asia, America, so it’s quite fun for kids. Anyway, the racing is an excuse for all the storylines, and for the characters to have their own lives—it’s not 100% related to racing, it’s a cartoon!

MB: So now you live full-time in Montreal. What are some of your favourite things to do here? Any favourite things to do with your kids?

JV: So far, my kids have been too young to do much with besides take them to the park near our house, you know? I like summer in the city, we go a lot of parks, so it still feels like a village, you know? They are just getting to the age now where this summer, we’ll be starting to do some fun stuff. It’s more the adventurous side of me that comes out with them, we’ll do all the same stuff I did growing up in Quebec—karting, going to the countryside and riding motocross. I’ll let other people take the kids to museums. It’s more the outdoor stuff, skiing and stuff that I like to do with my kids.

MB: What about grown-up stuff?

JV: I like going to restaurants. I’ll go out for a special meal in the Plateau or Old Montreal somewhere. Club Chasse et Peche, that’s my favourite. And also DNA is fun

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THE DETAILS

Montreal NASCAR, August 19-20, 2011

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This week we tip our hats to the ‘urban formalist’ work of Flickr superstar dzpixel. With a sporty photo entitled ‘Scuderia Ferrari F1 team,’ we were impressed at how he got up close and personal with the shrine that many people call Ferrari.

Well done.

But the work of dzpixel is not just fast cars. What sealed the deal for us at THE MONTRÉAL BUZZ, was his exploration of vacant Montreal transit stations. He successfully captures spaces, which are typically seaming with people, empty. There is a warm sci-fi quality that appealed to our cool cyber-hearts.

Well done, indeed.

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Submit your Montréal pictures to our MONTRÉAL BUZZ FLICKR GROUP.

And see our previous PHOTOS OF THE WEEK.

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Now that the madness of the Montreal Grand Prix is behind us, let us reminisce on the weekend. Thousands of visitors had the time of their life in the city.

Martha Stewart tweeted that Montreal was a “large and clean city with a magnificent river running through it: the St-Lawrence”. She also tweeted that the food was really good, although I’m pretty sure she said that before getting a taste of her first poutine.

Sir Richard Branson was spotted at Restaurant Primadonna and Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke, who is filming the movie Immortals in Montreal, was seen hanging out on the outdoor terrasse of Time Supper Club. Several parties were the talk of the town, but the reception held at Hotel Le St-James was probably the winner of them all.

For the occasion, Notre-Dame Street was covered in a luscious red carpet adorned with fancy toys such as the brand new Ferrari 599 GTO and the 458 Italia.

There was even a plane parked in front of the St-James entrance! And apparantly, not just any plane – a Beechcraft Hawker jet, which is supposed to be the fastest light jet in the world.

Fashion designer Denis Gagnon was there, rocking his signature black frames – a gift from designer Renata Morales.

Local TV star Herby Moreau was also part of the festivities, seen here interviewing singer Jonathan Roy, who just happens to be the son of famous hockey goalie, Patrick Roy.

As expected, there were pretty creatures everywhere.

Rock star, Jonas, was in the house, posing next to party planner extraordinaire, Marie-Anik Boisvert.

Later that night, Nicole Scherzinger was hosting a party at La Mouche Club, hours before her man, Lewis Hamilton, led home victory over teammate Button in this year’s most exciting Formula 1 race.

And now, it is time to take advantage of Montreal’s multifaceted personality.

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be found enjoying the calm of the city’s many green spaces. Hey – a girl’s gotta keep it balanced!

PS. Did I tell you how much I love my city?

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