Been to Montreal for every F1 race beginning in 2001 back when the cars still put the fear of God into you from the sheer sound, rattling through your body like it was a tissue.
Have always been down at the hairpin, starting in Grandstand 21 (was there in 2007 when Kubica had his wicked crash right in front of us -
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eP1_POQPJVw) but moved to the other side in spite of the extra time it takes to get there and out at the end around 2013 when the FIA bastids mandated a new fence, far more intrusive to your view but 6' shorter at the exit side where they're accelerating from around 50mph, lucked out as a long-time renewing seat holder as they had seats 1 and 2 available in the front row literally right at the apex of the corner, so have been front row one way or the other since 2004. Only year I didn't get to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was 2009 when they cancelled the race due to some sponsorship disagreement but I ended up being in Montreal on the Thursday the F1 week-end would have taken place, for the June 2009 DMB show which was out on the island the Metro stop is (Station Jean Drapeau) for the race. Too funny.
Back in the partying way too much days, we'd sometimes get to the track mins before qualifying would begin missing P3, or get there just before the race started missing the driver's parade. I stopped doing charlie in 2004, it made the week-end far more manageable and for many years in a row now I've been at the track by 9am on the Friday morning ready for 10am Free Practise 1. It's fucking awesome, one of my fave week-ends every single year. I know there's a lot of politics in the sport that I disagree with but I'll leave those out of this thread and just say when it comes down to it and the cars come screaming down the stretch to the hairpin for the first time from 330 kph > 80 kph in the space of 100m or so, you can't help but just smile a massive shit-eating grin and enjoy being at the greatest corner in North America for the next three days.
In Canada you'd be surprised how many people are already at the track by 10am on Friday, Montreal loves F1 and the city is just an absolute blast to be in. So many fantastic restaurants to choose from, loads of events for F1 fans (no big concerts like some of the other venues but the smaller vendor-type feel suits Montreal better than metallica playing at the track on a Saturday night or something like that) and so many great cars lining the various streets closed to regular traffic. Bugattis, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Ferraris, such a different vibe that the city regularly which is one of the quietest cities I've ever been to.
Fave moments over the years would definitely include Jenson Button's stunning victory in 2011 after a 2.5 hour fucking miserable and cold rain stoppage where the Heinekens just sat there doing nothing as we were too cold to enjoy beer (t-shirts and shorts and thin rain ponchos), the eventual conclusion to the race made up for the long wait and so many stuck around for it - Seb making a mistake early in the FINAL lap and Jenson having made 6 pit stops on the day at some points in dead last likely thinking about asking to retire...same race Schumi was up to second driving terrifically in the wet conditions and would ahve been his first podium in the Mercedes but as the track dried up he couldn't hold off Button's McLaren-Mercedes or Mark Webber's Red Bull and finished 4th, Michael made a fucking brilliant double pass on Massa (Ferrari) and Kobayashi (Sauber-Ferrari) heading into the hairpin right in front of us...120,000 people went nuts, they went nuts again when Button took the lead. Button says it's his greatest race, Martin Whitmarsh says it's one of the best wins in the history of F1, it was just awesome to see such an unpredictable race. Montreal has seen lots of them, the Wall of Champions has claimed many victims, but many of the other walls have claimed victims too.
2001 - first race, saw Ralf hold off Michael by around 1s for the final half of the race after the pit stops, drove so good, Hakkinen in third.
2007 - Hamilton's first win, the first of many in Montreal and many pole positions, he has really been dominant and while the crowd appreciates his skill and rewards him with loads of applause, they also get even louder when someone else successfully dethrones the King of Montreal whether it's in Qualy or the Race, but being there for the first win was pretty awesome.
2008 - Kubica takes the win one year after the spectacular shunt into the barrier, even now looking at that replay it's amazing he walked away with just some "soreness". it was the very next race at Indianapolis in 2007 that young Seb Vettel got his first start as doctors mandated Kubica take a one race rest.
I saw Jacques race a few times but not once did he finish the GP from 2001 onwards, many times going out very early. Although Lance Stroll hasn't done much yet, the crowd gets good and rowdy when he comes around in the parade enjoying finally being able to cheer on another Canadian.
AirBNB gives you lots of great places to stay in Montreal, many within 10 mins walk of a Metro station (Montreal Metro runs on rubber wheels, great comfy ride), many many many gorgeous people, traffic to and from the race is very manageable especially if you're down at the hairpin (if you don't care about travel times, maybe you go down to the start/finish or Senna corner, I won't ever do that as it's usually 2 hours to get there) and you can be back downtown within 20 mins sometimes, US exchange rate right now is over 30% so your US dollar goes far, Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport is easy to find flights to, if you're considering a race you can guarantee you won't soon forget your trip to Montreal for the Canadian GP.
As for this season, very disappointed in Mercedes putting team orders on Bottas in Singapore, such horseshit. Know what someone like Vettel would have said to that? If you're not sure, watch the replay of the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix and see what happened between Mark Webber and Seb. Multi 21 Seb, Multi 21!!!!
If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend the Netflix docu-series on the 2018 season. It's available in 4K with HDR and looks fantastic, amazing access into the various teams other than Merc and Ferrari, but Ferrari participated this year and Mercedes allowed the cameras in for one race so the 2019 edition should be even more entertaining as the race Mercedes chose was Hockenheim which was just a comedy of errors for them haha.
We have been lucky that MOST of the seasons since around 2005 have been challenging, there's nothing as exciting in F1 as the Championship coming down to the last race with it all on the line. 2007 when Kimi finally won, both he and Lewis (rookie season) and Fernando Alonso (lewis' teammate in the other McLaren/Merc) all were still in with a great chance and the final race was at the exciting Interlagos track. 2010 Vettel's first win, Alonso and Webber were still alive for the championship, Rosberg and Lewis had some close ones, Seb and Alonso came down to it one of the four Red Bull winning years, kind of zaps the excitement when it's wrapped up with four races to go, lol.
Love F1, wish Canadian coverage didn't suck so badly. TSN has a 4K channel but not a SINGLE F1 session is on it, not even the Canadian GP despite, as with ESPN, them carrying Sky Sports as the official English language provider. All F1 sessions are aired to providers in UHD. We get 720p from TSN, we've lost over 75% of the resolution! Bah. Also we get FUCKING COMMERCIALS! When ESPN started carrying the feed for the US they did one race (Australia 2018) and people complained and before Bahrain they announced from lights out to chequered flag they would go commerical free. Lucky bastards. The number of times I've seen TSN go to commercial when the message pops up saying "Safety Car in this lap..." Fuck me.