Grand Prix weekend turns Montreal into the biggest car show in Canada. The racing happens on Île Notre-Dame, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve we think deserves far more than one race a year. The real show is in the streets, the parking lots and the pop-ups across the city. Here's what caught our lens around the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix, from Café Got Soul's morning meet to the displays at Royalmount.
Cadillac arrives in Formula 1
2026 is the year Cadillac joined the Formula 1 grid, and the brand made sure Montreal knew it. Its Montreal pop-up put a Cadillac F1 car on a light-lined plinth under dramatic lighting, a strange and impressive sight in a city space.
Next to it sat the CT5-V Blackwing F1 Collector Series. Only 26 will be built for the US and Canada, and every one is manual-only. Its supercharged 6.2-litre V8 makes 685 hp and 673 lb-ft, making it the most powerful Blackwing Cadillac has ever produced. It gets an upgraded supercharger developed with GM Motorsports, carbon-ceramic brakes, a carbon body kit and Midnight Stone Frost paint. A four-door family sedan with a manual and nearly 700 hp is the most North American way possible to celebrate F1.
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The street scene
Away from the showroom, the city filled up. A white Ferrari F8 got a Montreal-inspired paint-splatter art treatment in the Italian tricolore. A black SUV parked next to a real Urus wore spray-painted graffiti reading "Need money for Urus", Montreal humour at its finest. A blacked-out Rolls-Royce sat at the curb downtown. Ferrari F12s lined up nose to tail in red.
Here's the F8 getting its street-art treatment:
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Porsche corner
Porsche turned out in force: a satin-black 911, a white 996, a red classic 911, a racing-green 718 Spyder and a yellow 911 in the back row. A red Lotus Emira and a white Huracán Evo brought some variety.
Old-school BMW
Some of our favourite cars were the oldest. A black E30 M3 sat on a wide, low stance with an "Uncensored" windshield banner, and a racing-green E30 on gold wheels looked straight out of a 1989 magazine. A Z8 roadster blasted out of the lot, the kind of car you rarely see moving.
Royalmount mornings
The scene doesn't stop when the F1 circus leaves town. The morning meets at Royalmount keep going all season, and this autumn one of the rarest Lamborghinis ever made rolled out of the lot: an Essenza SCV12, the track-only V12 hypercar built in a run of just 40 cars.
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The race: 2026 Canadian Grand Prix
Sunday 24 May 2026, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | Winner |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +10.7 s |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +11.2 s |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +44.1 s |
| 5 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull | +1 lap |
| 6 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | +1 lap |
| 7 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | +1 lap |
| 8 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1 lap |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +1 lap |
| 10 | Ollie Bearman | Haas | +1 lap |
Cadillac: Sergio Pérez started 20th and retired on lap 39 with a suspension problem. Valtteri Bottas started 21st and finished 16th, the team's only finisher. Team principal Graeme Lowdon still called it the team's most competitive weekend so far.
Sources: The Race and Cadillac F1's race report.
Why it matters
Montreal's F1 weekend is a reminder that car culture is more than the race itself. For one weekend a city, its cafés and its collectors become the event. If you're planning a trip for next year, the morning meets are the best place to catch everything in one spot.
More North American car culture from us: the Tommy Kaira Skylines in Clark, New Jersey. And for the European side of the scene, ULTRACE 2025 in Wrocław.
Photos: One Breath Pictures
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