After scoring their first points at the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren head off to Canada for the first of four races across the Americas. Whilst Monaco proved to be a good opportunity to score points as the strengths of the power unit does not have much impact on the result at the principality, the long straights and fast chicanes of the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit situated at Ile Notre Dame is a circuit where good brakes and a good power unit are both key to victory – something McLaren aced in the early 2010s with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, but it is unlikely that they will even score points here this weekend.
2015 Canadian Grand Prix McLaren Preview
No. 14 Fernando Alonso
Form: R/12/11/R/R
2014: Grid: P7, Race: P6
Alonso had a pretty quiet run to sixth here last year, and whilst he frequently performs pretty well at Montreal, he only has one win to his name here – in 2006, driving in the all-conquering Renault. Alonso has had really bad luck so far this season in terms of car reliability, and with Jenson Button taking a lead in the points battle, pressure will now be on the Spaniard to deliver some points soon, or he risks losing a points battle to a team mate for the first time since 2007.
No. 22 Jenson Button
Form: R/14/-/16/8
2014: Grid: P9, Race: P4
The 2011 winner had a really solid run to fourth last year, although two of those places came as a result of the dramatic crash at the end of the race involving Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez. Button generally either does fantastically around here, or pretty terribly; with 2011 and 2012 being good examples to use. In 2011, he went from being 21st to winning the race in dramatic fashion, whilst in 2012, he was lapped by his team mate who won the race, and ended point-less. He is yet to finish ahead of Alonso on the road in a race, so doing so here would be a good result, and would justify his strong points finish last time out.
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