My Time Working at the F1 in Canada – ScreenHub Entertaiment

A change of pace from our usual articles, but I wanted to take a trip down memory lane. Why, you may be asking? Well, there’s a little movie coming out this summer called F1 (retitled to F1: The Movie), starring Brad Pitt and directed by Joseph Kosinski of Top Gun: Maverick fame, and it got me thinking back to my time working at the Grand Prix of Montreal. Yup, before my tenure at ScreenHub Entertainment, Screen Rant, CBR, and Moviepilot, I spent six summers helping with the preparations for the Canadian GP and got to meet a fair number of interesting characters along the way.

Formula One, otherwise known as F1, is the most professional and highest tier in single-seat motor racing. The organization was formally launched in 1950 and has since gone on to become one of the most prestigious (and expensive) sporting events on the planet. Twenty racers, split between ten teams, fly around the world and compete against one another for a chance to win the constructors’ championship (best team) and best driver. The cars themselves are the fastest on the planet, with the record race speed being clocked in at 378 KM/H, or 234.9 MP/H in 2016. The lap record for the Montreal GP is 1:13.079. Both records are held by Valtteri Bottas.

So, how did I get involved with this, especially as a teenager and young adult? A late friend of my dad worked at the GP for Team Services and often got youth to help set up the weekend before in exchange for passes to the race. My first year was such an event, I’d come in the weekend prior to the race and help with set-up before anyone showed up. This was largely fulfilling purchase orders, such as Ferrari needing x amount of transformers, or McLaren needing x tanks of propane, etc. The first year, for all intents and purposes, was very quiet, as there were not many people at the track the weekend prior.

But I was lucky enough to get a “promotion” of sorts, and the next year, I was not only working the weekend prior but the whole week leading up to the race. Barring the 2009 race, which was absent from Canada that year, I worked from 2007-2013 on the first floor of the control tower. The whole dynamic of the track changed considerably as of the Monday before the race, as many of the hospitality workers started working that morning, and let me tell you, they had requests and they needed them fulfilled ASAP. “I have no electricity”, “our fridge is broken”, “we asked for two fridges, not one”, “we’re going to need five more transformers actually” were just some of the crises that would fall into my lap. It was wild that so much responsibility was bestowed upon volunteers, and in my case, a youth, but such is life. And no matter how frantic or worried some of the teams got about their orders, there was a little older Italian gent who worked with us, and he would counsel us that, in the end, the race will go on, no matter how many fridges were delivered.

By the very nature of the job, I got to venture into some pretty exclusive places that most would only dream of. As mentioned, the home base was the first floor of the control tower and as items needed to be delivered all around, I’ve gotten to visit the top of the tower, the media tent, the hospitality habitats for the team, as well as the garages-as long as I got permission from the crew before entering. I’ve driven golf carts and ATVs along the track in the days leading up to the race as well, which was fun, knowing the race was days away.

I’ve also got to meet/see a fair number of the racers and celebs throughout the years. I’ve met a good number of the racers from that time, and I have varying opinions on which ones were nice and which ones were complete douches. The same can be said of certain actors. I even had one actor ask me where to procure weed, but I won’t throw them under the bus, nor will I reveal which pop singer was absolutely wasted during the race. I will say I was lucky enough to get a thank you and a small bow from the maker himself, George Lucas, as he walked by me and, me being a Star Wars fan, had to somehow pass my thanks along. He was not stopping for anyone, but the fact that he did slow down for me and acknowledge me with a little bow and thank you was special.

By nature of the passes I had, I basically had my choice of spots to watch the race, barring the VIP areas and a few other more exclusive areas, such as the media tent and the control tower’s higher levels. Being up on the fence at the second turn is one of the best spots to watch the race in Montreal, I’d argue, with the cars slowing down around the curves only to speed up as they take the corner. There’s something more exciting about racing the race from this angle, as opposed to from a grandstand.

So as you can imagine, I’m pretty stoked to watch F1: The Movie this coming week and am excited to give you that review once I have seen it. Fingers crossed!