June 15, 2023
Just two races into the European season, F1 is already taking a break and coming to North America. It is time for the Canadian Grand Prix and we should expect some good overtakes. However with this season you never know, the Great Stalemate may continue. Nevertheless, here is everything you need to know for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix:
Weekend Schedule (in EST):
Practice 1: Friday 06/16, 1:30-2:30 PM
Practice 2: Friday 06/16, 05:00-06:00 PM
Practice 3: Saturday 06/17, 12:30-1:30 PM
Qualifying: Saturday 06/17, 04:00-05:00 PM
Race: Sunday 06/18, 02:00 PM
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Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve |
The 70 lap race is one of the hardest of the season. With the high speed nature of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the 14 low-speed corners and chicanes are extremely difficult to manage as drivers are forced to brake hard and early. These heavy braking zones mixed with the high speeds give the track a “stop and go” feel, making it more physical on drivers. Concrete barriers, like the Wall of Champions which has taken out numerous world class drivers, and very little run off space add to the track’s difficulty because even the smallest of errors are punished. Braking just a second later than intended can put a car in the wall. The track also features many opportunities for overtaking because of its 3 DRS zones and long straights. Since this track is designed for great racing, F1 will have a serious issue if this weekend gives us yet another boring race with little to no overtaking.
Now, onto the teams. The Spanish Grand Prix saw almost every team debut upgrades and some, like Mercedes, reaped major benefits. The Silver Arrows secured a double podium finish and in this era of Max Verstappen's dominance, that basically counts as a win. It will be interesting to see what these upgrades look like in Montreal. Mercedes has also been hard at work negotiating Lewis Hamilton’s new contract. It is no secret that the seven time world champion will continue his career with Mercedes, so expect a contract announcement in the coming weeks.
Aston Martin caught everyone by surprise in the opening stages of the season as they posed the biggest threat to Red Bull's dominance. Now, the team looks like it is losing its position to the upgraded Mercedes and Ferraris. Fernando Alonso has said that the team needs to increase its rate of development if it wants to remain competitive at the top of the field and I think he’s right. When Aston Martin was a midfield team they didn’t need to, nor did they have the means to, constantly focus on upgrading their car. If the team wants to compete at the front of the grid, Aston will need to change its ways of operating to stay ahead of teams like Mercedes.
In my opinion, Ferrari is the worst of the best. The team may have a good car, but it is not as consistent as the Astons or Mercedes. Spain’s upgrades seemed to have benefits when they gave Carlos Sainz a P2 start in his home grand prix and ultimately, a P5 finish. Charles Leclerc, however, had a weekend to forget after a shocking Q1 exit in Qualifying and a P11 finish in the race. Leclerc’s weekend made it clear that the upgrades have some kinks that needed to be worked out. I guess we’ll see the teams progress this weekend.
As expected, Williams had a horrible weekend in Spain, but Canada should be better suited to the FW45. The team is also fitting a number of upgrades to Alex Albon’s car for the weekend, so be sure to look out for those tests during Practice. Since rookie Logan Sargeant has never driven this circuit before, the team is leaving him with the normal version of the car as he faces another steep learning curve.
With rain predicted for the weekend, the rest of the grid are just focusing on avoiding any major issues. Alpine will probably continue to lead the midfield as it gets closer to the Top 4. McLaren has hopefully figured out how to turn their raw Qualifying pace into race pace. And for the sake of his sanity, let’s pray that Yuki Tsunoda can finally have a drama free race. He has been one of the only people giving us some real racing this season, and something or the other always goes wrong at the closing stages of the race to deprive him of a points finish. I need Yuki to get those points this weekend.
I’ll be back!
Happy Race Weekend!
- Divya
