2018 Canadian Grand Prix thread

[Rob Dylan]

So Red Bull's showing good pace again here in Canada after First Practice. It would certainly be interesting to have a Ricciardo or Verstappen win here---the expected order would be turned out its head. Which is all fine by me. I just personally assumed that Red Bull's pace in Monaco would be a fluke. So I'm not complaining if this does genuinely give Ricciardo a shot at the title.

Not that we can actually gauge that in any reasonable way. This is First Practice after all!

Any thoughts? Are we to experience another Hamilton walk-over regardless?

[mario]

So Red Bull's showing good pace again here in Canada after First Practice. It would certainly be interesting to have a Ricciardo or Verstappen win here---the expected order would be turned out its head. Which is all fine by me. I just personally assumed that Red Bull's pace in Monaco would be a fluke. So I'm not complaining if this does genuinely give Ricciardo a shot at the title.

Not that we can actually gauge that in any reasonable way. This is First Practice after all!

Any thoughts? Are we to experience another Hamilton walk-over regardless?

We've also seen that, quite often, Mercedes and Ferrari have been further back during the first few practise sessions, but then tend to be stronger later on when they turn the engines back up. I would not be surprised if we saw them moving ahead of Red Bull come qualifying, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Vettel leading the pack (Ferrari have brought a new upgraded engine unit this weekend, whereas Mercedes had to delay that upgrade because they had manufacturing issues).

[Rob Dylan]

OK maybe I'm not aware of the precedent then. It's just that in Monaco, Ricciardo and Red Bull were leading the pack all weekend, right from First Practice.

[Barbazza]

Hartley clearly gets squeezed by Stroll in an idiotic move, Sky says it's his fault. What a f***ing surprise, dancing to Marko and Horner's tune as per bloody usual. Seriously getting pissed off with their coverage.

[sswishbone]

Bye bye Hartley, best of luck in your future endeavours

[Barbazza]

Bye bye Hartley, best of luck in your future endeavours

Yeah, through no fault of his own yet again. Watch Gasly get a podium now...

[sswishbone]

Bye bye Hartley, best of luck in your future endeavours

Yeah, through no fault of his own yet again. Watch Gasly get a podium now...

Oh I agree it's bugger all to do with him but the axe of Mr Marko shall fall on this one

[Barbazza]

Oh I agree it's bugger all to do with him but the axe of Mr Marko shall fall on this one

P45 will probably be handed to him on his return to the pits I expect given Marko's usual classy behaviour...

[AdrianBelmonte_]

A race ban for Stroll on the cards maybe?

[Barbazza]

A race ban for Stroll on the cards maybe?

Hopefully, I'd like to see Kubica given a go though I don't think he'd much better in that dog of a car.

[Barbazza]

Is it any wonder that Williams are in trouble when Claire Williams seems to be in some delusional world where Hartley drove into her man?

No attempt to put forward the opposite point of view by Sky, as per. I really hope that this new PPV F1 channel next year is a) Affordable b) Has a good presentation team and c) Lets you watch old races whenever you like because if so, I will be all over it like a rash and say goodbye to Sky Sports H&T (Horner & Toto)

[sswishbone]

Horner is such a hypocrite! "Oooh one stop races are not conducive to excitement, we're too conservative with the tyres!" Does he not remember 2013 where his incessant whining led to the steel belted tyres being abandoned and a Vettel snorefest for the last nine races? Automatic reject of the race for this delusional pillock!

[Barbazza]

Horner is such a hypocrite! "Oooh one stop races are not conducive to excitement, we're too conservative with the tyres!" Does this pillock not remember 2013 where his incessant whining led to the steel belted tyres being abandoned and a Vettel snorefest for the last nine races? Automatic reject of the race for this delusional pillock!

My problem with F1 now is nothing to do with strategy or tyre stops. FFS, when I started watching F1 there were no fuel stops or tyre stops unless the driver had burnt out their tyres. That prick, OTOH, is very much one of my problems with modern F1...

[sswishbone]

Yup, get cars that can follow each other, problem solved

[good_Ralf]

Yup, get cars that can follow each other, problem solved

Even if the rules were changed successfully to make that work, I'm sure engineers would still design the cars to produce some turbulent air for the drivers behind. It's not that simple IMO.

[Barbazza]

Yep, you know you're in trouble when usually reliably interesting races like Canada are a snoozefest. I know the top 3 teams are close but Hulkenberg is over a minute behind them all!
Not so long ago - please note, those who have disagreed with me in the past, I am not getting the rose-tinted glasses out for 80s racing! - we were seeing the likes of Renault, Force India, even Sauber picking up the odd podium on genuine pace. Not any more. I've barely even watched this one properly, I'm so bored....

[Barbazza]

When will they learn. Do not get clueless celebrities to wave the chequered flag. Jesus.

[mario]

Horner is such a hypocrite! "Oooh one stop races are not conducive to excitement, we're too conservative with the tyres!" Does he not remember 2013 where his incessant whining led to the steel belted tyres being abandoned and a Vettel snorefest for the last nine races? Automatic reject of the race for this delusional pillock!

I think that the multiple tyre blowouts during the British GP that year were more of a factor in that - it was one thing to have Horner complain, but when you had four major failures and two further punctures in the British GP, that resulted in a huge media backlash.

[dinizintheoven]

Am I losing what marbles I have left? I'm sure I just watched a race that lasted 70 laps. It said so on the screen. Forix, formula1.com and Wikipedia are all listing it as 68 laps. I've checked the FIA's official event information and that says 70 laps.

Who can be trusted now?

[Bleu]

Am I losing what marbles I have left? I'm sure I just watched a race that lasted 70 laps. It said so on the screen. Forix, formula1.com and Wikipedia are all listing it as 68 laps. I've checked the FIA's official event information and that says 70 laps.

Who can be trusted now?

The result was taken after 68 laps because the chequered flag was waved too early.

[AdrianBelmonte_]

THIS.
MOMENT.

[dinizintheoven]

The result was taken after 68 laps because the chequered flag was waved too early.

That clears that up nicely, then.

Just imagine if there'd been a daring overtake on the last lap that even Emanuele Pirro (for it was him stewarding) couldn't give a penalty for, and it'd all have been for nothing...

[Alextrax52]

Horner is such a hypocrite! "Oooh one stop races are not conducive to excitement, we're too conservative with the tyres!" Does he not remember 2013 where his incessant whining led to the steel belted tyres being abandoned and a Vettel snorefest for the last nine races? Automatic reject of the race for this delusional pillock!

It seems like no one will ever be happy with Pirelli will they. I remember back to 2013 and fans moaned then because they always believed that it made for fake racing seeing quicker cars being handicapped by tyres that were essentially made of cheese. Spain in Particular when Mercedes were forced to drive so slowly and ended up nowhere. They complained that it meant we never got to see flat out racing and that it was like Ballerina's on wheels. Now we've got tyres that can last half the race and fans are moaning about the lack of diversity in strategy and the same teams being at the front all the time. You just can't win

Have to agree with Barbazza too. Was Claire Williams watching the same race as us? Hartley did nothing wrong. Kind of sums up where Williams are headed really.

[Wallio]

One thing that could prove mildly interesting about the blithering idiot waving the flag too early is that Riccardo lost the fastest lap to Max.

Red Bull pays bonuses for fastest laps. So who gets paid?

[Rob Dylan]

I'm seeing Hartley-Stroll as a racing incident. It was very opportunistic for Hartley to make such a move on the first lap, so getting punted off wasn't such a big surprise to me after watching the onboards. I'm not attributing blame to either driver on that one.

That race was kind of dull---perfect reliability at the front took away any shock result possibilities, good or bad.

[yannicksamlad]

I'm seeing Hartley-Stroll as a racing incident. It was very opportunistic for Hartley to make such a move on the first lap, so getting punted off wasn't such a big surprise to me after watching the onboards. I'm not attributing blame to either driver on that one.

I agree - racing incident. Stroll got a bump in the turns 4/5 ( or 3/4?) chicane at the rear , then had a wobble with Hartley coming up alongside and went into him. There is some suggestion the wobble was because Stroll picked up damage from earlier contact ( possibly with Hartley in 4/5, as they seemed to be going through there together). Looks like Stroll had a poor exit from 4/5 so Brendon could stay on the left and get a run. And then Brendon didnt back out even though not completely alongside ...hoping to stay left for the inside at the next left hander. I can see why he did that, but I can also see why some people thought that he was likely to get 'run out of road' ( in that way that seems to be 'accepted'), and so thought he was taking too much risk. Possibly Stroll had a wobble because he tried to keep a bit tighter to the right, and so leave Hartley some room..
All in all - racing incident to me.
If there'd been even a little bit of run-off, it wouldnt have been much of an accident, probably.

Im not quite sure why people seem to love Canada as a track - there's no run-off round half the track so there is always a safety car if someone stops, there arent many grandstands or viewing opportunities at all the chicanes ( even the last chicane where the drama often happens) , most of the real corners are chicanes that are very similar ...and those animals damage the cars.

[Salamander]

It used to make for really good races until about 2015.

[Rob Dylan]

Yeah, I mean if tracks had a "standard", for the frequency of good races there indicating how "good" the track is, the Canadian Grand Prix certainly has a fine record. So many of the late 90s races, and around 2007-2014 had good races, but it's not had any really good ones since.

It's funny how that works though. Go back a few decades and Monza had a tonne of great races, but nowadays is something of a bore-fest usually. Whilst the Hungaroring has traditionally been a very boring track, in the last ten years has produced nearly as many fantastic races. IMO at least.

[tommykl]

It used to make for really good races until about 2015.

I think there's two reasons for this: tyres and drivers.

The races in Canada were mostly good because you could usually rely on drivers screwing up and binning it, bringing out safety cars. Because the tyres degraded faster than the current Pirellis, or there was refuelling, these tended to happen in the middle of strategies, so the field would get jumbled up. Nowadays, races with more than one stop are increasingly rare, and the drivers are just so good they make far fewer mistakes.

As for genuine great fights for the win, I only ever remember those happening because of attrition or weather. Montréal's never really been a great track for overtaking.

[Rob Dylan]

As for genuine great fights for the win, I only ever remember those happening because of attrition or weather. Montréal's never really been a great track for overtaking.

Maybe it's just my opinion, but I've always felt that a good race is a good race, no matter what the circumstances are. If a circuit lends itself to good races through its challenging the drivers into mistakes or through completely destroying their tyres, then that's still fine by me.

I get what you're saying though. 2010 was good because the tyres became the defining factor out of nowhere, and 2014 wouldn't have been great without retirements and issues on the Mercedes cars. 2011 was reliant on the amazingly awful weather, 2012 I didn't actually watch so no comment 2007 had mistakes galore, and 2008 had one or two major mistakes. I'm rambling now, but the circuit has had good races for various reasons, and I would personally say that there's no single "gimmick" that's happening every year at Gilles-Villeneuve, it's a good circuit in my book.