Canadian Grand Prix organizers prepare for earlier race date, possible Habs run

She says the weather in late May traditionally hasn’t been much colder than in June, but organizers are also making sure hospitality structures are suited for either extreme heat or cold.

“As you know, it can go either way in Montreal during that period,” she said in an interview Wednesday, following an event at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal. “It could be 32 degrees on Saturday. It could be four degrees on Friday. We’re just going to be ready for any weather.”

So far, the new dates don’t seem to have negatively affected ticket sales. Garneau said grandstand tickets are sold out, with limited space left in hospitality clubs and general admission. She says there are still some tickets left for a new concert series, after organizers added capacity.

Garneau says the organizers have learned their lessons from the 2024 event, which were marred by congestion and flooding.

The challenges forced organizers to change “probably 70 to 80 per cent of our business,” she said, including doubling hospitality tents for F1 teams, redesigning the paddock area and increasing access points to the island to improve circulation.

She said the 2024 issues also helped to mobilize organizers to close a “gap” that had developed between the Canadian Grand Prix and others during the COVID period, when the Montreal events were cancelled for two years running in 2020 and 2021.

“Now we’re able to say that we are competing with other Grands Prixs, and our objectives with (promoter) Bell GPCanada are very clear. We want to grow, we want to be competitive, we want to become a top tier Grand Prix.”

The Canadian Grand Prix’s president, Jean-Philippe Paradis, described the event to the chamber of commerce crowd as “the most impactful tourism event in Canada,” with over 350,000 spectators and 100 million television viewers last year. He said some 5,000 people are involved in putting on the event, including medical staff, traffic controllers, volunteers and security.

Montreal’s race, he said, is unique due to the city’s vibrant atmosphere and the track’s proximity to downtown. Paradis said he hopes to leverage the city’s strengths in the coming years, aiming to increase attendance to over 400,000 and adding a festival and possibly a charity gala.

“We may not have the same financial means (as other cities), but nobody can beat our culture, our city, what happens here, our gastronomy,” he said onstage.

Organizers can also plan for the longer term, after the promoter announced a four-year contract extension with F1 last year that means the race will stay on the calendar until at least 2035.

The earlier race date, however, raises the possibility of an overlap with the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup playoffs, if the Canadiens advance past the Buffalo Sabres to the Eastern Conference Final.

Garneau says she’s hoping as a fan for a deep Habs playoff run, but admits that having both events in Montreal at the same time would raise logistical challenges.

Those include the possibility of getting less media coverage for the Grand Prix, given that most sports media is focused on the Canadiens. Major events in the city also share many of the same suppliers for everything from fencing and temporary toilets to security personnel, she said.

“Our agents that operate our paddock are also the same agents that operate the Bell Center, and then the police, obviously, they need to keep the city safe,” she said. “Having everything that goes on daily in the city plus what’s going on with the Montreal Canadiens plus what’s going on at Île Notre Dame with Formula One … my hat goes off to them because we’ve got a very hefty weekend.”

She said there are currently “discussions” happening with the NHL around potential playoff scheduling. She said that it would be “wonderful” if hockey games could take place just before or after the biggest race days, but acknowledged that race organizers have limited influence on the NHL calendar.

“If they’re during the same weekend, we’ll be ready,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Canadian Grand Prix organizers prepare for earlier race date, possible Habs run

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