Formula 1 is the ultimate dream of drivers and their engineers. It is also that of anonymous workers who will work at the Canadian Grand Prix on a voluntary basis.
You will see them this weekend on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit on Île Notre-Dame alongside Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll. Especially if they encounter a mechanical problem or they are too reckless when overtaking. It is the marshals, emergency teams and maintenance technicians who, like hundreds of other volunteers, make it possible to hold “Canada’s largest annual sporting and tourist event”.
Like many Quebecers, Michel Tremblay and his family used to set up their trailer in the wilderness, near a lake in the Laurentians in the summer. But unlike the others, they went there to be woken up in the morning by the sound of racing car engines on the Mont-Tremblant circuit. “For us, it was like our chalet. The trailer was right next to the paddocks. In the evening, we took advantage of nature, of the lake right next to it. During the day, we were signallers, each in turn, while the other took care of the children. »
Race marshals are those track workers dressed in overalls and armed with colored flags used to signal to drivers, for example, the presence of a danger on the track (yellow flag), that a competitor is trying to overtaking (blue flag) or that the race is interrupted (red flag). Their task is also to relay their observations to the race director and to intervene in the event of a problem on the track.
Michel Tremblay remembers perfectly the moment when he knew he was going to become one. “It was in the early 2000s. It was the first time I went to the Grand Prix. We were at turn 8, in stands 31, and [le pilote allemand] Nick Heidfeld went off the track just ahead of us. It was nothing serious. But when I saw the intervention to get him out of there, him and his car, I knew I wanted to do this. »
850 volunteers
There should be around 140 marshals around the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit for the weekend of the Grand Prix du Canada. Of this number, a little less than half will be from Quebec, the others coming from the rest of Canada, the United States and a few even from Europe, if not from further afield. They will be part of the approximately 850 volunteers who will be in action, at the same time, as medical personnel, firefighters, track maintenance technicians, officials in the pits or responsible for the food and well-being of all this small army. .
About a third of this army is made up of women, says Elise Racette, president of the Automobile Club de l’Île-Notre-Dame, the organization officially responsible for organizing the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, alongside its promoter, the Octane Racing Group, chaired by François Dumontier.
Some of these volunteers do not need any special skills. “These positions fill quickly since there is the Netflix series Drive to Survive “, reports Elise Racette. For marshals, training and previous experience of at least eight days of competition are required, which candidates can accumulate in other car, karting or motorcycle racing series.
Without going so far as to speak of the scarcity of labor in the world of flaggers in Quebec, the president of their association, which has a hundred members, Cynthia Coderre, notes that we are far from the craze of the years where Jacques Villeneuve shone in Formula 1.
A good marshal, she says, works as a team, is disciplined, maintains good communication, stands ready to intervene at the slightest danger and is not afraid to spend long hours on the edge of the track in all weathers. Passionate about motorized racing, marshals belong to a large family that comes together at events, big or small, and fuels the adrenaline that comes with being on the track.
A passion that makes vroom
When asked why they are not entitled to a salary, even at an event the magnitude of the Canadian Grand Prix, they often do not know what to answer. “I admit I never asked myself the question,” says Elise Racette. I imagine it’s like the marathon, or the Olympics. »
It is a rule of the supreme body of sport: the International Automobile Federation (FIA), explains François Dumontier. “It is to preserve their impartiality. Imagine the risk of controversy, he says, if, during the fierce rivalry between Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher, a flagman paid by the promoter of the Canadian Grand Prix had waved a blue flag for the German. to tell him to let the local champion pass in front of him?
A signaller since 1997, Brigitte Lemieux is already happy that she is offered lunch and a jersey in the colors of the Grand Prix of Canada every year. “I would pay to be there. It’s my hobby. As others ski, or walk in the forest. And the Grand Prix is the high point of his season.
As she has been working there for a long time, she will be marshal in the pit lane and will attend the start of the race on Sunday, at the very edge of the low wall. “It’s captivating. We feel the ground vibrate under our feet. Among other things, she will have to be extremely vigilant in order to immediately report a pilot who fails to get his racing car to take off, otherwise the matter could quickly turn tragic.
Martin Tremblay will also be in a signalman’s suit at the first corners, as will his wife, Isabelle, and their youngest daughter, Mélissa, who will be competing in her second Canadian Grand Prix. “As you get older, you do fewer races each year, but the Grand Prix is the pinnacle. And when you love car racing, there are no better tickets. »
Their eldest daughter, Annie-Claude, will not play flags with them. From her childhood summers spent “at the chalet”, she especially retained a taste for long walks in the forest and became a game warden.