[Official] Canadian Grand Prix 2018: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

From one street circuit to another, as Formula 1 crosses the pond from the tiny principality of Monaco to the vibrant city of Montréal, the first of the 2018 season's four races in the Americas is a sharp contrast to Monte Carlo, although like the Monegasque event, it is held in distinctive surroundings and an area which embraces the event. This is no mean feat in a large place like this Québec metropolis, which buzzes to the presence of the Formula 1 circus every June and has done since 1978.

The Canadian Grand Prix is also, like Monaco, a massively anticipated race. In fact, it is one which seems to generate the momentous, the dramatic and at times the downright bizarre. The track is surrounded by barriers and the Saint Lawrence River. The similarities end there, for the former Circuit Ile Notre-Dame, rechristened the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1982 following the Formula 1 hero's passing earlier that year, is low downforce and has long straights punctuated by various quick chicanes. It takes its toll on brakes and chassis stability under braking is essential. It also seems that due to the welcome given to the sport by the locals and the exciting race that always seems to lie in store, everyone enjoys going to Montréal.

There is around a 60% chance of a safety car in Montréal, the possibility of which must be factored into race strategy. It is fair to say that this is an unpredictable race, for the pole position driver has gone on to win the Grand Prix just 35% of the time since 2000. Overtaking is highly possible. There are now three DRS areas, between Turns 7 and 8, down the back-straight and on the start-finish straight. This race also tends to lead to close finishes. There is a short pitlane, with a pitlane time of around 18 seconds.

The history of Canada's Grand Prix goes back to 1961. The event was held at Mosport Park in Ontario and was for sportscars which conformed to the Canadian Sports Car Championship regulations. It was won by Canadian driver Peter Ryan in a Lotus 19-Climax, followed by Pedro Rodriguez in a privateer-run Ferrari 250 TR, with Stirling Moss making up the podium in his Lotus 19-Climax with the British Racing Partnership team. Over the coming years, the race would be won by drivers who had previously competed or currently competed in Formula 1. 1966 saw the race held to Can-Am regulations and formed part of that championship. Attracting a field of 30 starters, it was won by Penske driver Mark Donohue in a Lola T70-Chevrolet.

1967 began a sequence of four years in which the race switched between Mosport Park and Québecois circuit Mont-Tremblant. It was also the first time the event was part of the Formula 1 world championship and it was a one-two for Brahham-Repco with reigning world drivers' champion and world constructors' champion team owner Jack Brabham leading home Denny Hulme. Canadian driver Al Pease lost six laps after changing a battery on the grid and after spinning and stalling, he returned to the pits on foot and changed battery again, finishing 43 laps down. The following season at Mont-Tremblant, Hulme took the spoils in his McLaren-Ford when Chris Amon, having dominated the first 72 laps, was struck by his infamous bad luck, his Ferrari's transmission failing. Bruce McLaren completed a New Zealand one-two.

In 1969, Jackie/Jackys Stewart and Ickx battled for the lead at Mosport Park but stumbled upon Al Pease and collided with each other. Stewart complained about Pease's speed regarding his crash with Ickx. Pease was shown the black flag and is the only driver to have been disqualified in Formula 1 history for just driving too slowly (he had completed under half the amount of laps of the leaders). After winning in '69, Jacky Ickx also took the 1970 event at Mont-Tremblant, leading home a Ferrari 1-2 with Clay Regazzoni runner-up.

The event reverted to being held solely at Mosport Park and Jackie Stewart won the next couple of races, including in the heavy rain in 1971, the first time a Formula 1 race was red-flagged. 1973 was another first, this time the first time the safety car was used in F1. In very wet conditions and after a collision between François Cevert and Jody Scheckter, the safety car driver picked up the wrong car, which meant that several drivers gained a lap on the leaders, including Peter Revson. At the finish, various drivers were considered to have won. Lotus boss Colin Chapman did his usual victory celebration of throwing his cap into the air for Emerson Fittipaldi. New Zealander Howden Ganley believed he had won the race. Race officials received various protests including one from Ganley's girlfriend, who had been keeping the lap chart; the official lap chart erroneously has him down as making a pitstop that he didn't. Eventually, Revson was declared the winner.

The race was run at Mosport Park three more times, although was not held in 1975. At the final of those events in 1977, Gilles Villeneuve made his Ferrari debut. The following year, the Canadian Grand Prix moved to the circuit we now consider its home. It had been built on a mainly man-made island developed for Expo a few years earlier. Villeneuve won the inaugural Grand Prix.

In 1982, Riccardo Paletti died when he charged into the back of Didier Pironi off the start-line. It was in that year that the event had moved from October to June, where it has remained ever since, except in 1987 when a sponsorship dispute between two breweries led to its getting called off and in 2009 when it also was not run.

In 1991, Nigel Mansell, ever the show man and having dominated the Grand Prix in his Williams-Renault and with a massive lead over Nelson Piquet's Benetton-Ford, let the revs drop too low on the final lap while waving to the crowd and stalled the engine. Piquet came through to win from Stefano Modena in a Tyrrell-Honda. The following year, despite having dominated all the races and taken all the wins, except Monaco when he was stuck behind Senna, Mansell couldn't make it work here. Senna had taken pole, with Mansell only third, one of just two pole positions not taken by the Englishman that season. When he tried to pass Senna at the final chicane, Nigel ran wide and spun out. Gerhard Berger won.

In 1993, Alain Prost took a fairly commanding win over the Benetton of Michael Schumacher and the Williams of his team-mate Damon Hill. Schumacher took one of his many wins in 1994, leading Hill home, with Jean Alesi third for Ferrari. The following season, Alesi took a widely popular win, coming home first in a Ferrari, Car Number 27, just like Gilles Villeneuve. It was to be his only win in Formula 1. It was an interesting set of results with the Jordans of Barrichello and Irvine completing the podium, Olivier Panis fourth in his Ligier and two Footworks, a Tyrrell and the Minardi of Luca Badoer in the top ten. Only nine drivers completed the distance.

Damon Hill beat new team-mate and son of Gilles, Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. The following year, Olivier Panis broke his legs in a crash. 1998 had a dramatic start to the race when Alexander Wurz collided with Alesi, Johnny Herbert and Jarno Trulli and rolled over at the first corner. The race was red-flagged and they all took the restart in their teams' spare cars. This time, after Ralf Schumacher spun, Alesi and Trulli again got caught up in an incident and were out of the race. Michael Schumacher won, despite a 10-second stop-go penalty for driving Frentzen out to the grass at Turn 1 and making him spin off.

1999 was the year that caused the outer wall on the final chicane to become known as 'The Wall of Champions' after three world champions, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve crashed there. Reigning world champion, Mika Hakkinen, did not, and won the Grand Prix. The safety car was deployed an at-the-time record four times and it was also the first race to finish behind the safety car, following a big crash for Frentzen.

Two years later, two brothers finished 1-2 for the first time in Formula 1 history, and it was Ralf Schumacher who finished ahead of Michael. They repeated the feat for the fourth time in their career two years later, although this time it was Michael ahead of Ralf. In 2004, Michael Schumacher again finished just ahead of Ralf Schumacher, but the Williams driver was disqualified along with his Williams team-mate Juan-Pablo Montoya and the two Toyotas of Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis, due to illegal brake ducts.

In 2007, Lewis Hamilton won in his first season from pole to take his first Grand Prix victory. His victory last time out in Monaco has meant that he has now won at least once in ten consecutive seasons, something only Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher also managed to do. Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso had a scrappy race involving running wide at least three times, before he was finally overtaken by Takuma Sato's Super Aguri near the end. Alexander Wurz got his last podium in third, ten years after his Grand Prix debut at the circuit. Robert Kubica crashed in spectacular style and was sidelined for the next race, which is what led to Sebastian Vettel's Grand Prix debut for BMW next time out at Indianapolis.

In 2008, Robert Kubica made up for what happened the previous year, by taking his first Formula 1 win and also the lead of the world championship. Lewis Hamilton drove into the back of Kimi Raikkonen in the pitlane when the red light was on and Nico Rosberg went into the back of him. David Coulthard completed the podium for Red Bull.

Jenson Button took an excellent win in 2011, after rain and a massive delay before the restart. It was an epic race, the longest from the start time to finally finishing due to such a long red-flag period. Button had an extremely incident-packed race, involving crashes with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton (when Lewis tried to overtake alongside the pitwall), a puncture and a penalty, culminating in taking the lead from Sebastian Vettel, when after applying pressure he got past the Red Bull driver on the last lap.

Lewis Hamilton became the seventh winner in the season's seven races in 2011, which was a record. In 2014, Daniel Ricciardo, like Hamilton seven years before him, took his first Grand Prix win in Montréal. The race ended under the safety car after a big crash between Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa. The next year, Lewis Hamilton won from pole position, extending his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 17 points. He has since won for the next two years.


It is also worth looking out for Red Bull's performance in the low-speed corners. The Red Bull has good traction. Qualifying suggested that they don’t have the engine power to help them win with these long straights and Ferrari have quietly snuck ahead of both them over the weekend in the battle for the top spot. Lewis Hamilton is going to have his work cut out to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Canadian wins.

Circuit length: 4.361km
Number of laps: 70
Race distance: 305.27km
First Canadian Grand Prix: 1961
First World Championship Canadian Grand Prix: 1967
First Grand Prix at this circuit: 1978
Dry weather tyre compounds: Supersoft, Ultrasoft and Hypersoft
Lap Record: 1:13.622 – Rubens Barrichello – Ferrari (2004)

[Richard C]

I posted this in the DR vs MV thread, but given it is Canadian GP press conference I think it is worth posting here as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcDtCqvNIQU

While the entire thing is interesting, the questions directed to Max and his response is just... wow!

He had a few hard questions that he clearly wasn't happy about. But skip forward to about 4:36 and watch as someone asks Max "Why have you had so many accidents?" I love how Bottas quickly looks at Max to see how he will respond. And clearly Max looks like his head is about to explode. If looks could kill.

Richard

[djinvicta]

I wish they would leave Max alone...
Thinking back..he was the youngest kid on the block in F1. He came in..all guns blazing...arms out..others afraid to get near him..
Sorry..I loved it...spiced the action up a lot.
If he had not been aggressive and full on..he would just be another newbie.
Look where it got him. A drive in Red Bull and other Teams now after him..
After so so many on here, years ago, waiting for Max Chilton and others to make an "impact" on F1.

[F1Guy]

Groundhog day for Grosjean!


Have to say though, pretty bad decision not to do something earlier as the groundhog was seen on the track for a while before it got hit. If it was a car part, they would've probably thrown out the yellow.

Grosjean: “It was a big impact, it was quite a big animal. It’s a bit disappointing because they show it on TV at the beginning of the session before Turn 13 and it’s exactly where I hit it, so I am surprised they didn’t remove it.

“It’s of course a shame for the animal and it’s a shame for our front wing as well. We’re quite limited in spare parts and losing a front wing like this is a bit disappointing.

“It felt like a big impact and I mean if it’s happening in the race, your race is kinda over because the damage on the car is big.

“It was a bit strange that it was filmed so it was aware it was here and it wasn’t removed.”

[E.B]

At least he did not blame Ericsson this time!

[GT6]

Grosjean got off quite well but i hear the groundhog may never drive again

[Rubeeca]

Is anyone facing issue with F1 pro (if you are subscriber).

I tried a lot of sport streaming sites to stream but my ISP has blocked them all.

Anyone has an idea about vpnsports.com streaming guides?

HELP !

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Discuss Canada here!

That reminded me of one of those essay questions, one got at school.

I'm really looking forward to see how the driver's championship pans out and even thought it's only the 7th race on the calendar, I feel it could be quite pivotal.

This is one race in which Lewis has traditionally done well, having won it 6 times in total and winning it three times in a row from 2015-2017. If he can win again, he will begin to draw out a sizeable points lead over Vettel, so Vettel really needs to win this one.

[bjohnsonsmith]

For once Grosjean is not to blame, as his upgraded Ferrari engine lets go in spectacular fashion on pit-road.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

For once Grosjean is not to blame, as his upgraded Ferrari engine lets go in spectacular fashion on pit-road.

Was it Ericsons fault?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Was it Ericsons fault?

, not this time.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Vettel breaks the track record, with 1:10.776 and provisionally has pole.

[F1Guy]

So Honda's new upgraded engine is still troublesome. Gasly's engine had to be changed for reliability reasons before qualifying. That could explain why Hartley was almost half a second faster than Gasly in quali.

[JHamilton]

I wasn't able to watch quali, but what an interesting starting grid we have!

[cds_uk]

I think Hartley deserves a bit of credit here, he has pretty much been quicker than Gasly all weekend despite all the nonsense over the future of his drive, more to the point, the new engine may well be an improvement but i very much doubt it is worth half a second over the old unit!

[E.B]

With the new engine Hartley was quickest car through the speed trap in P3.

[broadrun96]

Well we will be able to see if it's a teammate or engine difference thing now that Gasly will be taking his 4 grid spot penalty now and replacing everything to get a new version of the upgraded unit bolted in. Not sure if he gets 4 or 5 spots as Grosjean did not set a time with his kablamo moment at the start of Q1 and thus no grid spot without stewards' approval

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a very clean start but Hartley got squeezed at the chicane by Stroll and collects Stroll and it's the first FCY of the race.

[Armco Bender]

Well that was a short race for Hartley...

[TheMightyM]

This race is kind of boring…

[bjohnsonsmith]

Alonso retires on his 300th Grand Prix weekend. Hopefully he will have better luck next weekend at Le Mans.

[Dixon9]

Well at least Hartley ruined the pay drivers day and left Red Bull with a repair bill before they bin him.

The commentators were pretty keen to pin it on him. Racing incident imo. Always a risk being out wide and got left no room.

[S griffin]

Seems nothing much is happening this race

[bjohnsonsmith]

Why was the chequered flag out early?

Anyway congrats to Vettel on his 50th GP victory; he needed to win that one. Otherwise, that was a very dull race.

[Armco Bender]

Why was the chequered flag out early?

Someone had enough of a boring race?....