5,000 workers prepare Montreal Grand Prix Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve
About 5,000 workers were turning Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve into a race-week mini-city for the montreal grand prix, far beyond the about 40 full-time employees who handle much of the year. The three-day event demands that scale because the site has to be built up, run, then taken apart again so Parc Jean-Drapeau can return to normal.
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve buildup
Preparation started in the fall of last year on the stands, the track, a new hospitality suite and an entertainment space. In the weeks before the race, workers were painting signs over the track, assembling grandstands and delivering everything from flowers to Ferraris.
Sandrine Garneau, the chief operating officer of the Canadian Grand Prix, said the pace of work had changed how she viewed the event. “But I have become a big race fan,” she said in her office overlooking the site. She also said, “I have to say that this was something not necessarily on my docket. I was much more an Olympics kind of person. But when this opportunity presented itself back in”
Montreal Grand Prix weekend
This year’s race was taking place three weeks earlier than previous events, and winter lingered longer than usual, adding to the pressure on the buildout. Montreal is the only city on the global Grand Prix circuit that has to endure a polar winter, so the calendar shift left less margin for error on a site that has to be ready for fans, teams and media all at once.
The weekend schedule stretched beyond Formula 1. The Grand Prix also hosted F2 and all-female F1 Academy races, and day’s-end entertainment was set for a new stage area on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The lineup included Matt Lang and Simple Plan on Friday, Dean Brody and Bryan Adams on Saturday, and The Beaches and Alessia Cara on Sunday.
Parc Jean-Drapeau reset
Maxim Berthiaume, who handled media liaison duties for about 100 press people from around the globe, called the preparation intense. “There are so many small details, involving months of planning,” he said. Philip Vanden Brande, the Grand Prix publicist, put the event’s draw in blunt terms: “Some forget that without the race, there would be no parties or tourists coming to town in droves”.
Once the weekend ends, the work does not stop at the checkered flag. Everything has to come down, and Parc Jean-Drapeau has to be restored to its usual state, which makes the temporary workforce as much a part of the race as the cars on track.
