Who can forget the 2011 Canadian GP? The race was heavily affected by rain and was chosen by Formula One fans as one of the most iconic moments in F1 in the official Formula One website’s 65 Years of F1 celebrations. Jenson Button came from 7th on the grid to win the Canadian GP saying it was “possibly my best win”. And we agree! It was a phenomenal race filled with all the unpredictable action and thrills F1 fans love to see.
Relive the thrills and action of the 2014 Formula One Canadian Grand Prix with the official race edit of last season’s race. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed his first F1 victory after an action packed race at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2014. Both Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton suffered technical problems, and Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez were involved in a heavy crash with only one lap to go, while Jenson Button’s late surge earned him a brilliant fourth for McLaren.
Change is said to be inevitable and Formula 1 has embraced this fate with more regularity than most. Thankfully, it hasn’t abandoned some of thegreat circuit that lends its much needed character to the world championship.
As the seventh round of the 2015 season the Canadian grand prix is collectively treasured by drivers, teams and fans. The circuit Gilles Villeneuve is an oldie but a goodie and renowned for its tendency to dish up thrilling racing.
Its decades old history is spectacular and has rarely faltered to live up to its magnificent highs. The last several races around here have all had their own dramatic and enthralling stories. Last year the grinning Aussie Daniel Ricciardo snapped up his first grand prix victory after Mercedes ran into trouble. In especially dramatic fashion Jenson Button snatched victory from Sebastian Vettel on the last lap in 2011 after an appalling race at which stage the Brit was dead last.
It was here too that Lewis Hamilton took his first race win in 2007 as a bright-eyed McLaren driver. Altogether Hamilton has quite the romance with North American races having in Canada and the United States on several occasions. The incident that kept the reigning champion from winning the Monaco grand prix would have been tough to take on the day but there is little doubt that Hamilton will arrive in Montreal with that controversial issue well out of his mind.
The physical make-up of the circuit Gilles Villeneuve calls for an aggressive approach. “I remember coming back into the pits and saying ‘what a circuit,’ I was amazed at how good it was – and I’d only done an install. It’s just a ridiculous amount of fun. You can jump across the kerbs and really get the car bouncing around,” shares Daniel Ricciardo. “It’s like getting back to go-kart days, you really feel like you own it – and I love that. You can get aggressive with it, and aim to just brush the wall.”
The close proximity of the barriers often draws comparisons with Monaco which makes the likelihood of a safety car appearance fairly high. There is a distinct lack of overtaking opportunities which means that a good performance in qualifying can often translate to a good showing in Sunday’s race.
In technical terms the track’s long straight classifies it as a power dominant circuit. A greater focus is placed on brake wear with several big stops around the circuit. This was the area in 2014 that found out Mercedes as both cars suffered brake failure with only Rosberg seeing the chequered flag on that occasion. The circuit is mostly unused during the rest of the year which will make for a slow start to the weekend. Here too the weather conditions can be variable making the job of getting temperature into the tyres a tough one.
Mercedes closest rivals are likely to Ferrari as it has been for the most part this year. The reality however is that though Ferrari are labelled as Mercedes’ rivals they still remain some way off their dominating pace.
The steps that are being taken forward by Ferrari have grown slightly shorter over the last few months. The victory in Malaysia seems a long time ago and the Italian team has not been able to make a real impression on Mercedes of late. The upgradepackage brought to the Spanish grand prix wasn’t shown up to its potential in Monaco and may add a bit of performance.
A ten point gap is all that is between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. But will it be left to a battle between the two Silver Arrows or will the Canadian grand prix once again deliver its notoriously dramatic races?
Nico Rosberg secured pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix after putting in a rocket fast final lap in qualifying denying teammate Lewis Hamilton the pleasure of his fifth pole position.
Hamilton dominated the entire weekend in Montreal but a mistake heading into Turn 8 on his final lap meant the Briton had to settle for second place on the grid. Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole by less than a tenth of a second.
Qualifying got underway with only 21 cars after Esteban Gutierrez crashed in the final practice session today, forcing Sauber to change his chassis. Valtteri Bottas was first out on track and posted the initial benchmark at 1.18.270 but teammate Felipe Massa went half a second faster to occupy the top spot on the timesheets until Rosberg came around to put his Mercedes up in first place.
Pastor Maldonado dropped out of Q1 once again – for fifth out of six times this season. He pulled his stricken Lotus over into an escape road ending his session. Things just aren’t going right for Maldonado at all this season and his Venezuelen sponsorship is already rumoured to be at risk.
With 16 seconds left on the clock, Marcus Ericsson brought out the red flag on the session when he binned his Caterham at turn nine. The session did not restart and Maldonado, Chilton, Bianchi, Kobayashi and Ericsson were eliminated from the proceedings.
Q2 got underway with Adrian Sutil first out on track with the entire field heading out on the supersoft tyres. Felipe Massa was the early leader in the session ahead of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, and former Ferrari teammate, Fernando Alonso. The two Mercedes drivers only headed out a little later in the session but neither could shift Massa off the top of board with their initial efforts. It became clear that the Mercedes duo were not as strong on the supersofts as the Williams drivers were.
Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat and Adrian Sutil were all eliminated at the end of Q2.
Q3 saw Bottas first out on track for a bit of clear air, setting the first benchmark at a 1.15.550. Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes to cross the line, going six-tenths quicker than Bottas. Hamilton also managed to go quicker than Bottas but fell just short of Rosberg’s time putting the German on provisional pole.
Both Rosberg and Hamilton made slight improvements on their final runs but Hamilton just couldn’t find the pace to match his teammate and a small error into Turn 8 likely cost him the pole position. Sebastian Vettel pulled a rabbit out of the bag and pushed out a flyer to qualify third ahead of the two Williams drivers, Bottas and Massa respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo qualified sixth ahead of Alonso and Vergne, with Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top ten.
Hamilton will no doubt be frustrated to not have been able to convert his dominant performance throughout the weekend into a pole position but the Briton seemed to take it in his stride today and seemed pleased to have another all-Mercedes front row. “Let’s go make history tomorrow,” Hamilton said at the post qualifying press conference.
History will indeed be made whatever happens tomorrow. We’re all set for a crack-a-lacking race and the stage is all set for a good battle upfront between Rosberg and Hamilton. The Williams drivers are looking exceptionally strong and they are definitely making a mark on the grid this weekend.
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Formula 1 crosses the Atlantic to Montreal and the Grand Prix du Canada. The circuit Gilles Villeneuve lies in wait for the paddock and the seventh round of the 2014 season.
Sebastian Vettel swept the pole position and race victory at the 2013 Canadian grand prix. In 2014 Red Bull’s level of competitiveness has dwindled but the team from Milton Keyes are slowly recovering their campaign. However, with the dominant car of the season, Lewis Hamilton, a three time former winner in Canada, looks a shoe-in for victory.
As with most F1 drivers mistakes tend to happen as they test the limits of the car’s performance. A locked wheel, braking a meter too late or having the back-end step out is not uncommon. However, the most striking characteristic of the circuit Gilles Villeneuve is its concrete walls which lie just beyond the edge of the track. Concrete walls and barriers which hold significant consequences for getting it wrong. The two chicanes and the hairpin are areas where lap time can be won or lost but the final corner, outlined by the famous Wall of Champions, is where the biggest risk can yield the most reward. “Some guys will play it safe and sacrifice half a tenth to get through there cleanly; others will take a risk. The nearer you are, the faster you’ll go. Give the wall a kiss and you feel pretty good; kiss it too hard and that’s it!” shared Daniel Ricciardo.
The 4.361 km circuit includes two straights which lend a hand in the overtaking department. The favoured spots for overtaking will be into the turn 10 hairpin and a late move up the inside before the final chicane. Given that the circuit takes some time to rubber in, Pirelli will bring the Soft and Supersoft compound tyres to Canada. The choice of compounds also opens the door for a two or three stop strategy of which the latter can be used to undercut and gain time on a competitor with a fresher, and quicker, set of tyres.
The circuit ranks high on the list of the most power hungry on the calendar. It’s just in time as several teams are planning upgrades to their power units this weekend.
Ferrari’s PR machine has been spinning away as Technical Director James Allison has “vowed” that the team will take a good step forward in Canada – a mantra they have been repeating for years. The Italian team did show improved pace during the Monaco GP and Allison expects to see further improvement this weekend. Nevertheless, he tempered his optimism by saying that their rivals will be making gains of their own.
Ferrari has struggled to make significant improvements on the F14T since the start of the season. After a three-week break Ferrari showed no progress at the Spanish GP. Allison thinks engineers need to be given more creative freedom in their development plans.
“If you force them to operate with their backs against the wall, up against deadlines that are very, very tight, then there’s no time for them to think about how they might approach something differently,” “There is a wealth of talent at Ferrari – the experience and quality of the people on the technical side is the match of any team – it’s a matter of giving them the space and the encouragement to do unusual things.”
The rivalry between Hamilton and Rosberg will resume this weekend with the two having “cleared the air” after Monaco. As much as Rosberg’s affinity for beating Hamilton may have grown since the Monte Carlo weekend Hamilton has a special affinity for the Canadian GP. On paper this is a Hamilton track and the Brit should comfortably be the victor. However, Rosberg showed some steel and as the championship leader has the ball firmly in his court.
The Canadian Grand Prix weekend is famous for its unpredictability. Even though it didn’t stand up to its usual erratic nature there were still some surprises in the offing.
The two biggest surprises came in the form of no driver hitting the famous Wall of Champions – at any stage of the weekend and the none appearance of the safety car at a grand prix where it has been a near certainty in the past.
The rain that had dominated the first two days of running was nowhere to be seen as race day brought with it blue skies and little chance of rain. Sebastian Vettel effortlessly led the pack into turn one as Bottas in the Williams was quickly mugged of his third place starting position.
The pace that Vettel had threatened throughout the practice sessions was finally unleashed as he pulled away from Hamilton to the tune of a second per lap. With the benefit of hindsight the race for victory was over the second Vettel stuck his Red Bull on pole. So was the German’s dominance that he came within several seconds of lapping fifth-placed Nico Rosberg. The pace shown by Red Bull, particularly Vettel, is not something we’ve seen so far in 2013. A closer look at the run he put together in Canada reveals that he pushed from lights to flag; sometimes lapping more than second faster than second-placed Hamilton. This lends itself to deduce that the pace may have always been available in the car but limited by the obligation to protect the Pirelli tyres. Red Bull’s complaints about the tyres seem to have a lot more basis now, don’t they?
Vettel may have been long gone but Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso entertained the masses with a late race scrap for second position. Hamilton had the younger tyres of the two but it was no match for the relentless Fernando Alonso as the he scythed past his former teammate to take second place. Hamilton left Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg well behind but still described his third place finish as ‘disappointing.’
Mark Webber looked an early threat to finish on the podium but for a clash with back marker Giedo van der Garde. The Caterham driver appeared to turn in Webber at the hairpin causing the Red Bull driver to lose part of his front-wing. Webber finished a distant fourth well ahead Nico Rosberg. Red Bull have announced Sebastian Vettel’s contract extension to the end of 2015 while Mark Webber’s future with the Milton Keynes based team remains a mystery. The Silverstone grand prix has traditionally been the weekend that the Australian has made any announcements regarding his career.
Jean-Eric Vergne went about his business fairly anonymously and scored an excellent sixth place finish for Toro Rosso. Results like this certainly won’t hurt the rumours that suggest Jev could be in the running for the second Red Bull seat. Scotsman Paul di Resta started his race down the field but a brilliant stint of 56 laps on the medium compound tyres transformed his 17th starting position into seventh on race day.
Felipe Massa overcame a qualifying crash to finish in eighth ahead Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus in ninth. Raikkonen’s chances had looked good on a one-stop strategy but a problem with the rear-jack in his pitstop and a brake issue put the podium well beyond reach. Kimi Raikkonen is now 44 points adrift of Sebastian Vettel in the championship standings – a hefty deficit but the high-speed circuits will play to Lotus’ strength.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil survived a spin and a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags to finish in tenth place. Jenson Button described the race as a ‘painful’ experience as neither McLaren driver was able to score points. For the first time in 64 races McLaren failed to score a point – surely it is now time to admit that somewhere something went seriosuly wrong. Is it a coincidence that several of McLaren’s key people have jumped ship?
Sebastian Vettel’s dominant victory wasn’t without a few nervy moments as he kissed the wall on the exit of turn four and took a trip across the grass of turn two. But such was his dominance that not even a few mistakes could put the champ under any kind of pressure. Vettel now holds a very healthy lead in the championship on 132 points to Alonso’s 96 and Raikkonen’s 88. But there has always been something special about Fernando Alonso and his driving in the last year and a half has been spectacular. Combined with his relentless tenacity this championship battile with almost certainly feature the Ferrari driver.
It was with great sadness that the FIA announced the death of a Canadian grand prix marshal on Sunday night. The marshal was helping to retrieve the car of Esteban Guitierrez when he was hit by a mobile crane. Very much considered the unsung heroes, the unidentified man is the third marshal to have been killed since 2000.
The Canadian Grand Prix weekend is famous for many things including changeable weather conditions.
The Formula 1 pack had to contend with tricky track conditions as the rain rendered the use of slick tyres completely out of the question. The first session of qualifying sported the beginnings of a dry racing line but no driver was brave enough to venture out onto slicks.
Drivers filed out of the pitlane on the red-walled supersofts but conditions demanded a quick return to the pits and set of intermediates to negotiate the circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Paul di Resta and Romain Grosjean were the biggest causulties in the first session of qualifying as neither made the cut. Scot di Resta was especially critical of his team who he said chose the wrong time to ‘fix an issue’ with the car. Grosjean’s qualifying session was brought to an end as the Frenchman encountered a yellow flag and a tad too much rain on his final run. Grosjean will start the race in last place due a 10 place grid penalty incurred from the Monaco GP.
The second session of qualifying was no less dramatic as Felipe Massa binned his Ferrari in the barriers of turn 3. The Massa incident brought out the red flag with just about two minutes left on the clock. As the drivers scrambled to the pit exit it was Adrian Sutil and Daniel Ricciardo who made the most of conditions; both securing a passage into Q3.
Meanwhile, McLaren’s Jenson Button painfully missed the chequered flag by a couple of seconds and was cemented in 14th place while teammate Sergio Perez was 12th. After stating his feelings about a poor start to the season earlier in the week Williams’ Valtteri Bottas sensationally advanced to the final top-ten shootout.
It was Sebastian Vettel who judged it best in the final part of qualifying. As conditions continued to fluctuate throughout the final ten minutes of qualifying Vettel set a time of 1:25:425s in the opening minutes. Only Lewis Hamilton came within striking distance of the German setting a time just 0.086s slower than Vettel. As the big guns duked it out for the front row it was rookie driver Bottas who stole the spotlight. The Williams driver, flying throughout the hour, set the third fastest time overall.
A noteworthy mention to Toro Rosso as both Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo qualified in the top ten for Sunday’s race.
Championship contenders Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen qualified in 6th and 9th respectively.
In 1978 Canada’s Île Notre-Dame circuit bowed to the country’s greatest Formula 1 driver. In a short amount of time Gilles Villeneuve captivated the racing world with utter class and driving talent. Despite not becoming a world champion the Canadian great remains revered as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport.
In celebration of Villeneuve the Île Notre-Dame circuit now bears his name and remains an essential part of the F1 calendar. The paddock crosses the Atlantic for the first time this year as it heads into the seventh round of the 2013 championship.
The stop/go nature of the circuit Gilles Villeneuve offers a technical challenge both teams and drivers. With few real high-speed corners, and the requirement to ride all kerbs in sight, most of the corners throughout the 4.361 km layout can be taken at first or second gear. In previous years a lot of time and energy would have been spent on brake wear in preparation for the circuit with the highest demand on brake energy. However, with the evolution and development of brake discs in the last several years the only concern will be ensuring that brake temperatures remain in the optimal working range.
But this is not the only pitfall that lingers around the famous track. The close proximity of the walls and limited run-off areas amplifies the chance of crashing and makes the appearance of the safety car highly likely. The changeable weather conditions can also play a part in tyre performance for which Pirelli have chosen the super-soft and medium compounds. Neither of these compounds may cause a problem if the current weather forecast remains as is. The rain in Canada has a tendency to come down in biblical proportions and looks set to make an appearance this weekend.
The Canadian Grand Prix is renowned for its unpredictable nature giving the race a distinct lottery-like ambiance. Qualifying remains an important piece of the puzzle but the few opportunities that exist for overtaking will add to Sunday’s showpiece. Seventy laps in total are what Lewis Hamilton will have to get the better of teammate Rosberg. Although Nico Rosberg is nurturing some very special form as a three time previous winner of the Canadian Grand Prix, this is a track where Hamilton should be able to turn the tables.
By Sebastian Vettel’s standards it has been a relatively quiet start 
to the season. Despite this he leads the championship by twenty-one points from Kimi Raikkonen. Ultimately, the Red Bull has not been the fastest car this season and their tyre woes, although not as obvious, have been well documented. Nevertheless, if Raikkonen and Alonso are to make a serious play for the title the Canadian Grand Prix seventy laps seems as vital a time as any to do just that. In the fight between the two challengers Alonso would be expected to hold the upper have in changeable weather conditions in terms of car performance.
Twenty-two raring-to-go racing drivers and a famous stretch of Canadian asphalt looms large in a grand prix weekend filled with potential for both drama and electrifying battle.