Canadian GP Canceled for 2021...

Turkey will now replace it most likely or so the press is indicating.

 

Canada doesn't allow US citizens into their country right now. This would have been a financial disaster. No surprise.

 

F1 official data - https://www.formula1.com/en

We can today confirm that the Formula 1 Heineken Grand Prix Du Canada 2021 will be replaced by The Turkish Grand Prix this season between 11th – 13th June 2021.


We are delighted that Turkey will re-join the calendar this season on the 11th -13th June after an incredible race in 2020 and the whole of the Formula 1 community and fans will be looking forward to another exciting and dramatic race.

 

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COTA tickets are on sale already...fyi.

 

Of course I won't have to tell you about COTA. As for Mexico, while I haven't been to the race, I did a bit of a reconnaissance on my last Mexico City trip: There are two hotels right at the airport and that's about as close as you get to the track (there are other hotels as well of course). There is a subway that goes directly from the airport for a few stations to the entrance of the track. So getting to and from is dead easy. I think the venue is spectacular, especially the baseball stadium.

As for this year I managed to get a hotel in downtown Austin. Remember how ridiculous the hotels used to be by blocking any reservations downtown thinking they can sell a package deal? Well, with the pandemic they're much more accomodating. So I'm looking forward to be smack downtown for once.

 

Where?

Formula1.com doesn't have them on sale yet.

 

COTA website.

 

That’s racist and xenophobic

 

I am waiting for them to give me my money back from last year!

Joe

 

True, but I will wait until two weeks before the race to buy. Only a couple hours drive from the RGV area, and have relatives the live in Austin!!!! I will not have to pay 300-400 per night at a Motel....

 

A shame...Canada tends to make for a great race!

 

They have to figure something out in a month or the Canadian teams in the NHL will have to play all their Stanley Cup games in America -- even if most of the players are vaccinated.

 

Too bad, I really enjoy this race

 

In the racing section?

Honestly.

 

So true. A great city, great people and ambiance and lovely racetrack!

 

COVIDaholic !!

 

Canadian GP has been notoriously bad in how they handle the traffic of the public: They basically cut the island in half and depending on where your seats are at you cannot go to the other parts of the track. Really annoying. Once I learned that the hard way I bought tickets for both halves so I can freely walk around. Also if you have the paddock ticket you can visit the pits of the support races (used to be open to the general public but no more).

 

One of my favorite F1 races I've been to (others were British, Brazil, Austin, Abu Dhabi, Monaco). I thought Montreal did a superb job having ancillary activities going on alongside F1 weekend, it really was a complete event. I really didn't feel the same way about some of the others (British which is in the middle of nowhere, Austin which can be a fun town anyway though, or Sao Paulo). Also the dinner I had at Le Club Chasse et Pêche was phenominal.

 

Me too. A group of 8 of us were going to attend the 2020 race, which of course was cancelled. In July they offered to keep your seats for the 2021 race, or let you request a 100% refund, which would be processed within 90 days. We chose the refund. In October (90 days later), I got an email saying they would start processing refunds soon. Crickets. I wrote them December and again in early March, and both times received a reply stating that they would be starting to process refunds soon. Still nothing, and nobody in F1 seems to be publicizing that the organizers of the Montreal race have pretty much stolen the funds from the 2020 seat sales.

Further, many of the Montreal hotels refused to refund pre-paid non-refundable reservations for the Grand Prix Weekend. In our case, we had all reserved at the Best Western Downtown Montreal hotel. As the pandemic grew and cancellations of everything were happening, Best Western announced a corporate policy that all pre-paid and non-refundable reservations would be refunded due to pandemic cancellations. Great, except BW is a franchise organization, and the fine print said that individual hotels may not provide refunds at their discretion. The Montreal BW decided that they would not refund pre-paid reservations because that weekend was a high demand weekend. Huh? Every event creating demand on the weekend, eg the F1 race, was cancelled, there was zero hotel demand in Montreal in June 2020. The greedy bastard owners just decided they would keep the jacked up rate reservation funds anyway, because the fine print said they could if they wanted. Best Western corporate would do nothing to pressure them to honour the corporate Covid-19 policy, so they got away with it - for one year, anyway. Several other Montreal hotels also refused to provide refunds.

Between the fake refund promises from the race organizers, and the ignorant short-sighted refusal to refund of the hotels, it will be ... well, NEVER, before I attend the Montreal F1 race again. I've attended it 4 times previously, and have attended F1 races in Austin, Silverstone, Monza - I'll go to Austin or a race in Europe long before Montreal gets another nickel from me.

Breaking news today - Montreal F1 race organizing crooks Octane Management have been acquired by Bell Media, the largest telecommunications and sports entertainment group in Canada. They are promising to honour tickets for 2022 or provide refunds. That would be nice, and they may actually be honest enough to follow through, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

https://canoe.com/news/local-news/bell-acquires-montreal-grand-prix-promoter-octane/wcm/a31b4703-e45d-4eb0-849e-a79453ac4722

"Bell said it will ensure that tickets sold for the 2020 race are valid for the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, or ticket holders will be refunded if they prefer that option."
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Cheers,
Gordon