The absence of the Canadian Grand Prix from the 2009 Formula 1 calendar is🦂 'very sad' and 'a terrible loss' for Montreal, the sport's 1997 world cham🌞pion Jacques Villeneuve has stated.

The race - held around the evocative Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, named after the French-Canadian's late father, on the ?le Notre Dame every year bar one since 1978 - was axed from the schedule as the result of an unresolved financial dispute between event promoter Grand Prix du Canada and F1 commercial rights-holder Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Manageme🥀nt company.

Despite never having triumphed in front of his adoring home fans - in fact finishing just one race from ten starts inside the points, taking the chequered flag second to Williams-Renault team-mate Damon Hill during his maiden campaign in 1996 - Villeneuve expressedꩵ his disappointment that the grand prix will not be held this year.

"For Montreal, it's a terrible loss of business," asserted the 37-year-old - who owns the Newtown Restaurant, in the heart of Montreal's trendy Rue Crescent - during the Canadian Motorsport Expo Qu?b?coiꦜs. "The whole weekend in town was fun.

"For the drivers, fo🔴r the fans, it was always a great venue, exciting and fun. It is very sad. It was one of the most popular races👍 of the season."

The Canadian Grand Prix iꦚs estimated to have brought in between $75 CAN million and $80 CAN million to the city every year, and was first held more than four decades ago in 1967.