‘Without Airmedic there is no Formula 1’: Montreal Grand Prix

The Quebec company – Airmedic – located in Saint-Hubert, is the reason the Grand Prix can happen. Without their safety protocols planned months in advance and helicopters on standby to ensure driver safety with rapid medical air support in less than 20 minutes, the race, happening this weekend, wouldn’t be authorized by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which imposes this strict requirement.

The high-precision operation made possible by the team’s pilots and the medical staff, allows injured drivers to be airlifted to the nearest medical centre if any accidents were to occur during this weekend’s F1 race.

“Specifically with Formula One obviously if there’s a major event that happens there’s a hospital at the site and they’re able to do resuscitation there but it’s not an operating room and it’s not a place where they can do higher expert care of trauma patients for example – and so they would have to be transferred as soon as they can to the trauma center and every minute counts,” said Dr. Kosar Khwaja, Medical Director at Airmedic, as he explains why it’s so important to get the patients to a hospital as soon as possible.

During Grand Prix, the team stays on standby near the track the entire day with two helicopters stationed near the site, with the closest helicopter only 20 feet away at the Olympic basin and the other at Mare-du-Diable ready to take its place.

“It’s an eight-minute flight from the circuit all the way to Sacré-Coeur Hospital, and once we’re there, well, it’s just as quick as possible to get the patient into the hospital,” says Alexandre O’Dowd, Chief Pilot at Airmedic for the last three years.

The team in the helicopter includes two pilots, a nurse and a paramedic – with enough equipment to emulate a reanimation room – giving them enough time to keep the patient stable until they can reach the hospital.

“25 years back, major road trauma patients would come to the hospital and would have 40 to 50 per cent mortality risk,” says Dr. Patrick Bellemare, Chief Doctor at Sacré-Coeur Hospital, who will be present in the on-site hospital near the circuit at this year’s Grand Prix.

“In 2025, we’re below 5 per cent, and the difference is very agile protocols, better technologies to take early care and deal more efficiently with life threatening injuries,” he went on to explain.

With more than 300,000 people expected at the Grand Prix location and almost 100,000 attending daily, according to Dr. Bellemare, the capacity to evacuate quickly in such a setting can be limited – but the ability to airlift major injuries in this scenario allows for the teams to treat traumatic injuries that could otherwise prove fatal.

“Imagine taking an ambulance and trying to get off the island… That delay which can be more than 30 minutes to an hour might be enough that would even prevent the person from surviving,” replied Dr. Khwaja.

To prepare for this year’s Grand Prix, the teams have been running simulations, which will continue over the next few days and even hours before the race starts.

“I came to see the helicopters and the staff who will airlift us to be able to see that we’re on the same page, we will plan and practice a lot,” said Dr. Bellemare as he explained why he made the trip all the way to Airmedic’s headquarters in Saint-Hubert days ahead of the race.

After Grand Prix, Airmedic will stay busy year round but say they hope to offer their services to Quebecers one day to save even more lives.

“We’re the only region in North America that doesn’t have ‘heli’ transport,” said Dr. Khwaja, as he goes on to explain that the Minister of Health has shown interest in offering this type of transport for all Quebecers in the future.

“The government’s been promoting in the near future a program for inter-hospital transport, so we hope to be part of that,” added O’Dowd.