Luke’s Weekend Take – Canadian GP 2023

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Canadian GP Preview: Rain, Upgrades, and Red Flags Await at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

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And after a week off we’re back at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Canadian GP, it looks like it should be an interesting weekend overall as we see rain, upgrades and a few Red Flags already this weekend.  

Talking about upgrades we see Aston Martin bring in a big upgrade package to Montreal as they have changed their sidepods, new engine cover and new floor. Aston Martin are hoping that this upgrade will get them closer to the Red Bull car as Fernando Alonso alluded to in his post Qualifying interview saying that he is hoping to put the pressure on and be only 2 seconds behind instead of 20 seconds behind the Red Bull. Here’s hoping this is true so we can finally see some competition at the front of the grid.

Alpine also got some new parts this weekend to help them keep up the great momentum they have been building up the last couple of races, some of their upgrades consist of a new rear wing, some rear suspension changes and front brake ducts, this is not the only news for Alpine as they might be getting sponsored by Hawkstone Beer after Jeremy Clarkson and Caleb were seen delivering a 1000 beers for the Alpine team after Jeremy Clarkson tweeted before the Monaco GP that if Esteban Ocon gets a podium he will buy a pint to the whole team. Clarkson kept his word, but he was up to his old antics while at the Alpine Factory and sneakily placed a Hawkstone beer sticker on Ocon’s Alpine.

Unfortunately for Alpine their weekend didn’t start very well as within 3 mins of FP1, Pierre Gasly reported the loss of drive and had to park on the track bringing out the Red Flag, Gasly and Alpine got away with this easily as we saw the Red Flag on for a long time, after a lot of confusion as to why the Red Flag was still being shown long after the Alpine car was cleared, the FIA announced that some CCTV cameras were not operational and they weren’t able to continue the session due to safety concerns. In fact, the whole of FP1 was cancelled and there was no more running. Due to this FP2 started 30 mins earlier so teams can get some extra running on track. Gasly’s luck didn’t get better unfortunately throughout the weekend as even though Alpine managed to sort out the issue when it came to Qualifying, Gasly ended up being knocked out in Q1 due to Carlos Sainz impeding him on the last chicane. Alpine believe that Gasly would have easily made it out if it wasn’t for this incident.

Finally, we look at Williams who were the last team who brought big upgrades to the Canadian GP with a bit of a caveat though as the upgrades are only introduced on Alex Albon’s car and Logan Sargeant won’t be getting this upgrade package until Silverstone GP 3 weeks from now. The Williams package consist of new sidepods, new floor, rear suspension and rear brake ducts. These upgrades seem to be working quite well for Albon so far this weekend and especially in the wet he has been putting in some very decent laps. So much so that in Q2 he managed to be the quickest out of all 15 drivers as he and his team gambled to go out on the softs from the start when the conditions were a bit tricky, but Albon made it work and it paid off. Unfortunately, due to a Red Flag in Q3, Albon missed out in Q3 not being able to put a time in before the Red Flag and then after the restart it was too late.

Drama-Filled Qualifying at Canadian GP: Red Flags, Rain, and Surprises Shape the Grid

After the issues in FP1, no one wasted any time to get out on track in FP2 especially with the threat of rain being at 40%. After 29 mins we unfortunately see Nico Hulkenberg having to park his car on the pit straight as his engine starts smoking very heavily, luckily this didn’t catch fire, but we did see the 2nd Red Flag of the weekend come out until they cleared the Haas off the track. Later in the session the Red Flag made another appearance as we see Ocon having to park his car up due to a water leak bringing FP2 to a halt once more. We see a close call with 16 mins left on the session as Oscar Piastri clips the ‘Wall of Champions’ and getting away with it, we didn’t see any other driver have any moments there so far this weekend but an interesting race tomorrow will reveal if there will be any more moments with the famous wall. Towards the last 10 mins of FP2 we see some rain starting to drop and a few teams decided to put the inters on to put a heat cycle through the tyres before heading into the pits to end the session.

We head now into FP3 where it was very wet and all the drivers start the session on the full wet tyres, this gave the teams some opportunity to gain experience about the track and where the grip is on a full wet track. Given the conditions, the track was tricky to navigate as we see Yuki Tsunoda have a spin out of turn 4 but luckily managing to avoid all of the barriers allowing him to go on and resume the session. Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari wasn’t so lucky as he binned his Ferrari braking into turn 1 as he touches the white line and loses control of his car which put him in the barrier hitting both the front and the rear. This incident put the session into a halt once more this weekend and the Red Flag was brought out. With 6 mins left of the session after it all restarted the rain started to get heavier, so all the teams decided that it is not worth the risk to be out on track with qualifying so close and all drivers head into their respective garages.

With all Free practice sessions done we head now into Qualifying where in my opinion was very interesting and full of surprises, Everyone was out on inters from the start due to the light rain and Zhou Guanyu had some issues with his engine straight away as his engine didn’t sound too healthy, Zhou had to park his Alfa Romeo in Sector 2 which brought out the Red Flag however Zhou managed to get his car running again so he was able to get back to the pits to get the issue sorted and still take part in qualifying. Unfortunately for Zhou, even though Alfa Romeo sorted the issue out with Zhou’s car, Zhou wasn’t able to qualify better than 20th so he was out of Q1 along with Tsunoda, Nyck De Vries, Loan Sargeant and Pierre Gasly who as I mentioned earlier was impeded on the last chicane which led to his elimination in Q1.

With the rain stopping and the track drying up Q2 was by far the most entertaining as it involved a lot of strategy and timing from all the teams with Williams smashing the strategy with Albon sending him out on the softs and topping the charts. The other teams could only react to the Williams masterclass and not everyone managed to take advantage of the softs as we see 3 big names eliminated in Q2 due to not being able to set a good lap on the softs before the rain started again towards the end of Q2. In Q2 we see Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas out in Q2.

In Q3 it was a bit wetter on track so it was all about timing and who can put the faster lap before the rain got heavier. Max Verstappen was first out on track and managed to put down 2 impressive times with Alonso not far behind him on his 1st lap, however he didn’t manage to finish the 2nd lap due to Oscar Piastri spin between turns 7 and 8. This incident brings out the Red Flag and basically ends the session as the rain got heavier and no one was able to improve after the Mclaren of Oscar Piastri was cleared from the track. This however wasn’t before Nico Hulkenberg managed to put in a lap good enough for 2nd place before the Red Flag came out giving him a front row start tomorrow. Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Ocon, Norris, Sainz, Piastri and Albon form the top 10 however Carlos Sainz was handed a 3-place grid penalty after the session for the incident with Pierre Gasly dropping him out of the top 10 and starting behind his teammate Charles Leclerc in 11th place.

This is set to be a good race tomorrow and there should be some overtaking, rain, potential of Safety Cars and more Red Flags. Who do you think will emerge victorious tomorrow at the Canadian GP? I will be looking forward to the race and I will see you all in my Race Review on Monday.

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