Formula One moves to Canada this weekend for one of the fan-favourites on the calendar. The Montreal circuit, with its fast sections and unforgiving walls and kerbs make it a brilliant race to watch. Last year saw Sebastian Vettel claim a brilliant win from pole on the circuit that Lewis Hamilton is so fond of, but it will be a tall order for Red Bull to even finish on the podium this weekend as they are expected to struggle on the first real power circuit of the year.
As mentioned earlier, Vettel won here last year. That was not his only shot at victory here. He led here in the famous ‘marathon’ that was the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix before making his first mistake in a race that season to allow McLaren’s Jenson Button through to win on the very last lap. This circuit is also the place where David Coulthard scored his final podium in Formula One back in 2008, driving for the team. Mark Webber’s third place back in 2011 is the only other podium here for Red Bull.
Still lacking power, Red Bull will have to rely on downforce to get ahead of rivals this weekend; they will, however, struggle to pass any cars on the straights, which are notably very long here. Red Bull have managed to raise a few eyebrows and pull results out of the bag on circuits like this before, like last year for an example, but it will be very tough here this weekend it seems. Maintaining their healthy lead against Ferrari will be a success here before they head to home for the very first time in a Formula One season under the Red Bull Racing name.
Red Bull Canadian GP Preview
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER) – 6th
Form: 3/6/5/4/R
2013: Grid: P1, Race: P1
Has been on pole for the last three years in Montreal but has just one win: last year. He’s keeping his head high despite the tough start to the season, where he has suffered the majority of the mechanical problems that Red Bull have suffered so far this season, including a turbo failure last time out in Monaco. It’s actually pretty tough to judge how Vettel has been performing with all these issues that he has been having, arguably more than he has suffered at this point in the year in the last four seasons. One thing’s for certain though, he is behind his teammate, and not too many people expected that to be the case.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) – 4th
Form: R/4/4/3/3
2013 (Driving for Toro Rosso): Grid: P11 (Suffered 2-place grid penalty), Race: P15
Somewhat outshone here last year by teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, Ricciardo is yet to score here in Canada. His best result came in 2012, with a fourteenth place, so he will be hoping to change that this weekend. While a third consecutive podium may be out of reach, on the form that he is in, he could well fight with Ferrari, McLaren, Force India and Williams. He’s yet to finish a race that he has completed outside of the top four (disqualified from second in Australia and was running fourth in Malaysia) which is pretty remarkable. He has had much better reliability than his four-times World Champion teammate, but he’s certainly doing the business.
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