The ninth round of the Formula One season in Canada went to Red Bull For Max Verstappenwho captured his World Championship points lead by taking the 60th gp victory of his career.
Urheilu’s F1 expert Jukka Mildhin according to McLaren’s level-up in performance has been a significant thing in the last Formula One races.
McLaren’s Lando Norris brought second place to McLaren from Montreal. Sunday’s race became the first podium finish of the season for the Mercedes team. Despite a couple of driving mistakes George Russell was third narrowly ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton.
It was a dark weekend for Ferrari. The time trial went first, and in the race itself in Monaco, the winner of the previous gp Charles Leclerc interrupted – like a stablemate Carlos Sainz. Top team Red Bull’s second driver Sergio Perez tuned once again and stopped for a driving error.
Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas drove flawlessly to 13th, which was his best place of the season. The Finnish team mate Zhou Guanyu was the last 15 of those who finished the race.
Mildh tells the hottest topics of the race weekend in Montreal. The F1 season continues in two weeks in Europe, with the midsummer race in Spain.
What solved it?
The competition included a lot of events and interruptions. The pace was reached in rainy weather, which rain, or at least the threat of it, caused tire changes during the race. The safety car visited the track twice.
– The race was actually decided by the fact that while Lando Norris won in Miami because the safety car came to the track at the right time for him, the opposite happened here. The safety car came at the right time in front of Verstappen when all sorts of things happened there due to bad weather conditions. In principle, the race was decided on that. It’s a bit of a twist of fate that it happened like this. However, Norris was clearly the fastest driver in this race, Mildh saw.
– After the arrival of the second safety car, the way in which Verstappen took the start and ran away from the others was decisive in terms of winning the race. Yes, Max still can and he can drive even in such difficult conditions with a difficult car. Kova is a dude, but there will be a lot more challenges from others in the future than before.
What speaks?
– Of course, it is telling at the moment that the differences with Red Bull are starting to decrease a lot. If you think about the fact that Ferrari would have had the chance to even overtake Red Bull in the World Championship points in this race, then that is one big thing.
According to the F1 expert, most of the talk at the moment is the hot driver market. Several positions are open and now we are trying to think about how to fill those positions. Valtteri Bottas is a key driver here.
During the weekend of the Canadian GP, the team manager of Williams James Vowles started praising Carlos Sainz, whose run at Ferrari ends when he makes room for Lewis Hamilton next season.
– The way the Williams team manager is talking suggests that he rates Sainz higher at the moment. So Bottas is not among the team’s front row options. However, my assessment at the moment is that Sainz would be the other driver and Bottas could be the other, Mildh guesses.
From Bottas’ point of view, according to Mildh’s point of view, the situation of team places is such that, for example, Alpine and Haas need drivers with a lot of experience and merit in teamwork. It is especially important in the future changing situation of formula one, where the rules will change in 2026.
– As far as I feel, Valtteri still has a good position at this stage. There are quite a few places still open, reminds the expert.
How did Bottas perform?
Bottas didn’t make any driving mistakes in difficult conditions and took care of his work with professionalism.
– For Sauber, the race weekend was typical in terms of still not finding sufficient performance. In the Canadian GP, the conditions were difficult and varied a lot. Sauber didn’t lose terribly in that they changed so many parts to both cars that they had to start the race through the pits.
– At some point in the race, it seemed for a while that the team would even have a chance for World Championship points, i.e. a top ten. It didn’t work out in the end. This was a race where it was difficult to really measure the performance of the cars because the conditions varied so much and patience was the key.
A flop?
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz retired in Canada.
– Ferrari was definitely a flop in this race. The team came to the track as the winner of the previous race, whose characteristics are somewhat compared to conditions similar to Monaco. There were also tight curves and slow places.
– It was a bad performance when the team’s cars didn’t make it to the last qualifying session, and then both cars stopped the race. An engine failure, which I understand was more of a software error than an engine mechanical error. At this stage of the season, doing at Ferrari’s level shouldn’t result in such big drops anymore, Mildh wondered.
According to the expert, the Ferrari team and the driver obviously saw that it couldn’t get this bad. This only says that there is still work to be done in the processes so that the Italian team can continuously drive for victory.
Criticism was also received by Sergio Perez, who recently signed an extension, who failed in qualifying and in the race, where he stopped due to his driving mistake.
– The contract has been confirmed, but there is something strange there. Perez makes way too many mistakes and he can’t get his performance together. It seems that the reason is there inside the main cowl. The pressure is so hard to perform at the moment, and Red Bull is under a lot of pressure to get both drivers to perform at the same level. Even now, he made a driving mistake in such conditions, where the car should be able to be controlled.
Surprise?
BWT Alpine’s drivers reached the World Championship points when Pierre Gasly gassed for ninth and Esteban Ocon tenth.
– I think Alpine made a good performance. After the crash between friends Ocon and Gasly, there must have been quite a lot of discussions there after the Monaco gp and things were sorted out through the basics.
French Ocon and the Alpine team will part ways after this season.
– In order for Ocon to be able to continue his F1 career, he must be able to finish in the team until the very end, because what the team can still achieve is valuable. It was a surprise to me that both scored points. It’s a really hard achievement in these conditions for a team like them, where things are pretty much still in their infancy, and the car hasn’t been developed properly. Alpine’s incredible line organization after the events in Monaco, praised Mildh.
Drivers’ point standings
Points standings of teams