Latest news with #F1MontrealGrandPrix
The Star
30-06-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Motor racing-Bortoleto hopes he can fight for points for rest of F1 season
Jun 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Kick Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto (5) and Alpine driver Jack Doohan (7) race during the F1 Montreal Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images (Reuters) -Gabriel Bortoleto hopes he and Sauber can fight for points for the rest of the Formula One season after he scored his first in Austria at the weekend and was voted Driver of the Day. The first Brazilian since Felipe Massa in 2017 to score, the rookie finally opened his account with a breakthrough eighth place in his 11th race. Teammate Nico Hulkenberg made it a double celebration by finishing ninth from the back of the grid -- the German's third race in a row in the points. Champion in Formula Two last year, 20-year-old Bortoleto was chasing his manager, Aston Martin's double world champion Fernando Alonso, all the way to the chequered flag at Spielberg on Sunday. "It couldn't be better to get my first points fighting with him. Unfortunately I didn't manage to overtake him but it was very close," he told Sky Sports television. Alonso, who made his debut with uncompetitive Minardi at the age of 19 in 2001, knew how important it was for Bortoleto. "He has been outstanding this season and for one reason or another Hulkenberg was always scoring the points on Sunday," said the Spaniard. "He felt it was a little bit unfair sometimes that he cannot see his name with points already with the performance he was achieving. Happy for him that he has unlocked this situation now and he can have fun. Hopefully the first of many in the points." Bortoleto felt his season had followed a familiar pattern from junior series of gaining experience before making rapid progress. "In F3 I was dominating from the beginning but F2 I had a tough start to the season and I've been growing up a lot during the season and I managed to win," he said. "And in F1 I think I am doing more or less the same as in F2, growing through the season, learning a lot of things. "Hopefully (for the rest of the season) we can be fighting for what we have been fighting for today. I feel like if the team keeps doing the job they have been doing this weekend, we can achieve big things." Team boss Jonathan Wheatley said earlier in the week that Bortoleto was gaining in confidence all the time and the results would come. "What can I say? An outstanding performance all weekend," he told the driver over team radio at the end. "First points, well-deserved, amazing race and we were in the hunt. We've got a racing car." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
Montreal Gazette
06-06-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
Explainer: How did we get to an STM strike?
By Barring any last-minute deal, the 2,400 maintenance workers at Montreal's public transit agency are heading on strike next week. The pressure tactic comes after dozens of meetings spanning more than a year between the Société de transport de Montréal and the union at the bargaining table. Bus and métro service will be entirely cut at certain times and reduced at others during the nine-day walkout, meaning commuters will have to find another way to work, school and home. The Gazette looked at how the situation evolved to this point. Dozens of meetings The union representing maintenance workers and management at the STM have not yet reached a deal. Bruno Jeannotte, president of the Syndicat du transport de Montréal–CSN, said the contract expired Jan. 4 and the two sides have had about 75 meetings to date. 'We've already been negotiating for a year and two months,' he said in an interview Thursday. The latest meeting took place Wednesday, with another set for next week. Jeannotte said there was no attempt by the STM to schedule another meeting before the strike begins. In an email, a spokesperson for the STM said Thursday that meetings are continuing and that it proposed a facilitator to speed up negotiations. The agency will provide an update to users 'if the situation evolves.' The issues The sticking points for maintenance workers include schedules, the use of subcontractors including for paratransit service, and finding ways to retain and attract staff. Jeannotte said current workers won't accept setbacks in working conditions, adding that young people are not applying for the agency's open maintenance positions. 'We want to keep our public transit. We want to maintain our reliability,' he said. The STM declined The Gazette's request for an interview Thursday, saying it spoke about the subject during a news conference Wednesday. But the agency has said it wants more flexibility in the location and schedules of its employees and assigning outsourcing work like garbage collection. Essential services Maintenance workers' first attempt to strike in late May failed. Quebec's labour tribunal rejected the union's proposed one-day walkout, which would have maintained bus service but completely shut down the métro system. It ruled it didn't meet the standards of public safety. The union's second attempt — which is a longer and staggered cut to service — came after talks. The STM's management noted that 'a level of essential services was agreed upon between the parties' and submitted to the tribunal. This included 'maintaining paratransit service at all times, maintaining a certain level of service for buses and the métro, and adding additional provisions to ensure the smooth running of the F1 Montreal Grand Prix festivities.' The tribunal had to decide whether those planned essential services would be sufficient to avoid endangering public health or safety. It approved the labour action Monday. It will mark the first time transit workers walked off the job since 2007. Vulnerable commuters Ahmed El-Geneidy, a professor in transport planning at McGill University, said the strike and limited transit service during off-peak hours will impact low-income workers and students. He pointed to how the walkout will occur during high school exams and how some shift workers could be without a way to get to work. 'The timing of when you are cutting service or when you're using this tool to negotiate, it's actually problematic because those who will be harmed the most are the vulnerable groups,' El-Geneidy said in an interview Thursday. The head of the union said the 'goal isn't to strike and disrupt people's personal lives' but to move contract negotiations forward. Jeannotte also said that while public transit service will be offered during Grand Prix weekend, it was a question of safety. 'It's not because it's the Grand Prix. It's really the volume of people that compromises us in our strike and in the obligation to consider the public safety aspect,' he said. More strikes? When asked about other potential strikes, Jeannotte said 'it's a possibility' if a deal isn't reached. 'We're not there right now. That's the problem,' he said. 'What we're saying is that we're going to maintain some form of pressure, that's for sure.' On Wednesday, STM CEO Marie-Claude Léonard conceded it could be a difficult summer for transit users as the agency negotiates with four unions. Last weekend, the STM's bus and métro operators also voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate. Lack of funding Both the STM and the union have called on the Quebec government to invest more in the city's public transit. The province needs to treat bus and métro as essential, and help keep them running, according to El-Geneidy. 'They shouldn't be cutting the money on operations that they were providing a couple of years ago,' he said. with files from Jason Magder and Presse Canadienne
