The seventh round of the Formula 1 World Championship will take place this weekend at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. The Canadian Grand Prix is the first flyaway race in North America, after the two races in Europe, and is always exciting and unpredictable due to the layout of the street circuit and mixed weather conditions.
F1 Canadian Grand Prix Preview
The History
The Canadian Grand Prix started in 1967 and moved in 1978 to the current circuit in Montreal, first called the Ile Notre-Dame circuit. Since 1978 the race has been held 36 times at this circuit and attracts a large TV audience worldwide, especially in North America.
Montreal is the largest city of the French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada. Gilles Villeneuve, a native of Quebec, recorded his maiden F1 victory at the first ever Grand Prix hosted at this circuit. The Canadian had already acquired a huge fan-following because of his bold and fast driving-style that bordered on recklessness. Villeneuve has been immortalized in F1 history, after his tragic death in 1982 driving for the Ferrari team at the Belgian Grand Prix. A few weeks after the tragic death of Villeneuve, the circuit was renamed after the iconic Canadian as “the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve” and the Canadian Grand Prix will forever be associated with him.
The Drivers and Teams
The inaugural Canadian Grand Prix was held in 1967 at Mosport Park and was won by the Australian Jack Brabham. After that venue was deemed dangerous, the Grand Prix moved to the current venue. The first race was won by Villeneuve at his home venue for Ferrari. Ferrari has won ten times at this circuit, but not since seven-time winner Michael Schumacher’s 2004 win. McLaren has won nine times at this venue, followed by Williams as the third-most successful constructor with seven wins. Red Bull Racing has won two of the last three races here.
Michael Schumacher made this race his own by winning seven times. Lewis Hamilton (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015) has four wins and won the last race here. Nelson Piquet gets an honorable mention as a three-time winner. Red Bull notched their first win at this circuit in 2013 with Sebastian Vettel recording his first win at this circuit. Daniel Ricciardo recorded his maiden Grand Prix win in 2014, making the most of Mercedes reliability issues. The other past winners on the grid are Jenson Button (2011) in a rain-interrupted four-hour race, Fernando Alonso (2006) and Kimi Raikkonen (2005).
The Circuit
The 4.361 kilometers road circuit built on a man-made island has fourteen slow and medium-speed corners connecting the straights. The track surface is very smooth and offers very low grip, though the track rubbers in after every session during the weekend. It is a medium down-force circuit with medium fuel consumption, but very heavy brake wear. The narrow circuit is enclosed and hemmed in by walls all around which does not forgive any driver errors.
The straights are connected by chicanes and a hairpin which creates high speed zones followed by heavy braking zones that cause extreme wear on the brakes. High G-forces of upto 5G is experienced by the drivers. Getting pole position is not so important on this track with the most overtaking opportunities of any current F1 track.
Sector 1 from Turn 1 to Turn 5 starts with a slight kink before Turn 1 followed by a slow right-hander at Turn 2 (Virage Senna). Turns 3 and 4 are a right-left chicane followed by a flat out right-hand corner at Turn 5.
Sector 2 from Turn 6 to Turn 9 consists of two chicanes and two straights. A left-right chicane at Turn 6 and 7 leading to a straight and a right-left chicane Turn 8 and 9 (a right-left chicane) leading to another straight.
Sector 3 from Turn 10 to Turn 14 starts with a hairpin at Turn 10 (L’Epingle ). This is followed by the longest straight (Casino Straight) leading to the chicane at Turn 13 and 14 which is the most famous part of the circuit. The drivers are forced to take a racing line here which is very close to the wall at the exit and has seen champions like Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve crash into the wall. The wall has been nicknamed the “Wall of Champions” and most recently saw Vettel crash here during a practice session in 2011.
There are two DRS zones with a single detection point after Turn 9 in the leadup to the hairpin at Turn 10. First DRS Activation Zone is before Turn 12 (Casino Straight) and the second DRS Activation Zone is after Turn 14 (Start-Finish Straight). On a circuit with many overtaking points, the two DRS zones will make the race interesting.
Quick Bird’s-eye view of the circuit (Courtesy formula1.com)
Tyre Strategies
Pirelli brought its purple-striped ultrasoft tyres for the first time to Monaco. On the smooth surface of that street circuit, the tyre degradation was low. Hamilton who won the race was able to make the ultrasofts last for more than 45 laps on the damp surface. The yellow-striped soft and red-striped supersoft tyres are the other two tyre compounds on offer. With most of the top teams choosing 7 or more sets of ultrasoft tyres out of the allocated 13 sets for each driver, the performance of this newest tyre will be keenly watched again. Teams like Haas F1 and Renault have not selected any supersoft tyres and will be relying on the ultrasoft and soft compound tyres to give them an edge, strategy-wise.
Teams might go in for a two pitstop strategy with Teams like Haas even going for an extra pitstop and making good use of the faster ultrasoft tyres. With rain predicted for race day, it could play havoc with the well-planned strategies. There is a high probability of a safety car in this race, adding even more risk to the different strategies.
Pirelli Tyre Allocation Selected Sets by Drivers
Current Form
Lewis Hamilton will start the race as firm favorite. After recording his first win of the season in the last race in Monaco, the defending champion returns to a circuit which is among his favorite venues. After a stuttering start to the season, Hamilton is now only 24 points behind his teammate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg has never won in Canada and his winning streak was halted two races ago. The German needs a strong showing to keep his lead and confidence. Daniel Ricciardo returns to the circuit of his maiden race win, with renewed confidence. The Australian is right to feel let down by his team that he thinks cost him two victories in the last two races. But the improved form of his team should offer him much hope. His young teammate Max Verstappen and the two Ferrari drivers should be fighting for top honors. On a power circuit like this, the engine plays a huge role. Ferrari, Honda and Renault bring upgraded engines in the hope of challenging the favorites, Mercedes.
