[Official] Canadian Grand Prix 2022: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

It felt so good to type 'Canadian Grand Prix 2022' (after initially mistakenly tapping in 'Canadian Grand Prix 2021' on the keyboard; perhaps, I felt last year's meteoric battle was still missing something), as this Grand Prix, like Melbourne, returns after a two-year Covid-enforced hiatus. A favourite among fans, teams and drivers, it tends to throw up thrills, surprises and its track is tough and with a distinctive layout of its own. The icing on the cake for F1's Liberty-led razzmatazz is that Montréal is a fabulous city which embraces its race.

This is the third street race in a row after Monte Carlo and Baku, although quite different from both. The track is surrounded by barriers and the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The former Circuit Île Notre-Dame, rechristened the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 1982 following the local 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.


The history

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 hit by his infamous misfortune, 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 pit stop 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. 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 pit lane 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 one, involving crashes with Alonso and Hamilton (when Lewis tried to overtake alongside the pit wall), 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 yet another 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 Pérez and Felipe Massa. The next year, Lewis Hamilton won from pole position, extending his championship lead over Nico Rosberg to 17 points. Hamilton then won in 2016, 2017 and 2018 (sandwiching Vettel's 2017 victory with Ferrari).

Hamilton shares the highest number of wins with Schumacher, but is unlikely to go one better this weekend.


The track




Other information


Circuit length: 4.361 km
Number of laps: 70
Race distance: 305.27 km
Race Lap Record: 1:13.078 (Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 2019)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C3, C4 and C5

First Canadian Grand Prix: 1961
First World Championship Canadian Grand Prix: 1967
First Grand Prix on this configuration: 2002

Join in the fun with the F1 Predictions Contest and Fantasy F1:

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157216

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156986

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent intro as ever.


One of my favourite tracks on the calendar and has produced some good races over the years, so I'm really looking forward to this. It will be interesting to see how the FIA's intervention regarding porpoising will play out. Can Ferrari and Leclerc find their racing mojo and take the fight to Red Bull, because despite all those pole positions, he hasn't won since Australia?

[gomick]

A list of Canadian GP winners and fastest qualifiers since 1978 can be found here

[Tourer]

Great intro BR - thank you.

Of course, plenty of talk on the telecast so far about FIA changes, data and metrics - plus Marmots.

Do enjoy this track and event - it's good to have it back!

[S griffin]

So glad they are back in Canada after missing it the last couple of years. This has been one of my favourite GPs and not just because I've been round the circuit

Bad news for Ferrari, as Leclerc has to take a 10 place grid penalty. Nothing is going Ferrari's way atm. Red Bull's early season unreliability seems a long time ago

[E.B]

Im surprised that Ferrari have not decided to take on another complete PU with all the ancilliaries components, taken the big 40 place hit and stock up with components now. Its an easyy track to pass on, and a likely SC deployment could have Leclerc in a ecent points finish with a shelf full of components as spares. Plus my understanding is that the turbo in this engine is an old one and not the latest spec. Its a long haul to the end of the season and will mean at least another one or two grid penalties if they dont.

Just a thought based on their PU record to date.

[chillibowl]

Good question.

Could be a budget related choice?

[skycafe]

Great intro as always. Fantastic track that has produced some memorable races.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by E.B

Im surprised that Ferrari have not decided to take on another complete PU with all the ancilliaries components, taken the big 40 place hit and stock up with components now. Its an easyy track to pass on, and a likely SC deployment could have Leclerc in a ecent points finish with a shelf full of components as spares. Plus my understanding is that the turbo in this engine is an old one and not the latest spec. Its a long haul to the end of the season and will mean at least another one or two grid penalties if they dont.

Just a thought based on their PU record to date.

Leclerc is to start from the back of the grid.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/l...grid/10324591/

[bjohnsonsmith]

Verstappen on Pole and Alonso joins him on the front row.

[BTCC frog]

What a brilliant qualifying session. Max Verstappen was outstanding, totally in control throughout, but the big story is Fernando Alonso on the front row. I believe he has taken the record for longest time between consecutive front row starts from Mario Andretti, between Watkins Glen 1968 and Anderstorp 1976. Credit should also go to Haas for their third row lockout and Mick Schumacher's best qualifying session of his career, and also to George Russell and Mercedes for having a gamble. The big disappointment was Sebastian Vettel out in Q1, while it should be good watching Perez and Leclerc coming through tomorrow.

[thetool]

The directing in qualifying was abysmal. Watching cars on their inlap past the chequered flag at the end of Q1 instead of Vettel who was still on a hotlap.

[S griffin]

What a lap by Alonso to put his Alpine on the front row and good to see that two Haas up there too. But Leclerc has a lot of work to do

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by thetool

The directing in qualifying was abysmal. Watching cars on their inlap past the chequered flag at the end of Q1 instead of Vettel who was still on a hotlap.

Vettel on a hot lap? When did that happen?

[S griffin]

Maybe not a hot lap, but would have been worth watching him

[chillibowl]

Fun start!

Mags just hung in there nicely! Good stuff!

[chillibowl]

Thought it was clean but looks to be damage on mags front wing.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A clean start, with Super Max in the lead. A little bit of wheel to wheel with Magnuson and Hamilton.

[Greem]

Magnussen stuck the right hand end of his front wing into Hamilton's left front on the first lap. Pity.

OOOOH Perez has just retired with a broken engine. And is stuck in gear. VSC.

[Greem]

Maybe not engine, that sounded quite a lot like gearbox to me.

Well, something broke.

And now it's freebie pit stop time!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Perez out and it's a VSC.

[Greem]

Some of my friends are out there marshalling this one. Various places - MP7.3, MP12.3, MP13 (pit in). Fingers crossed they have a quiet(ish) race!

[broadrun96]

JOKE of a meatball flag for KMags. We've seen pieces bouncing off the track and nothing but he gets thrown from 6th to last for that nonsense. JOKE of Race Control today and the black and white for Bottas. Don't make the pylon in the way and make the driver skip off the wall to make it inside by rule

[Greem]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

JOKE of a meatball flag for KMags. We've seen pieces bouncing off the track and nothing but he gets thrown from 6th to last for that nonsense. JOKE of Race Control today and the black and white for Bottas. Don't make the pylon in the way and make the driver skip off the wall to make it inside by rule

I disagree. That kind of front wing damage can let go without warning and the driver loses all the front downforce. "Straight to the scene of the accident" as Brundle would put it.

And Bottas? The rule is simple - pass the bollard/pylon on the left. If you hit it, you've not passed it. Bang to rights (and a B&W is nothing really).

[chillibowl]

If he can get to the end and max and Lewis can’t, Russell could win this race !!!

Great timing on that stop for him.