It’s a tiny chicane that has become the bedeviling champion-killer at Montréal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Michael Schumacher shunts into the Wall of Champions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix.
Turn 13, Montréal. An almost Monaco-esque flirtation with the barriers that has acquired its own name: the “Wall of Champions.” Three former title winners misjudged the final chicane in 1999 — Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve — and several more have done the same since. Britain’s Jenson Button became a member of the club in 2005 while driving for BAR Honda, with current World Champion Sebastian Vettel doing the same in first practice for the 2011 race.
As Murray Walker recalled:
Canada has served up some fantastic Grands Prix — it very rarely disappoints. But this was easily one of the most dramatic. And it proved the old saying: even the best can make mistakes!
Murray’s Memories: F1 Canadian GP 1999—’The Wall of Champions’ | BBC Sport F1.