#F1 AWS #CanadianGP 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #CanadaGP
Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix Du Canada 2024 Race Start, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Image credit to Dan Mullan/Getty Images. 2024 Canadian GP Preview, Canadian GP Preview, 2024 F1 Canadian GP Preview, Formula 1 Grand Prix Du Canada 2024 Preview.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – After Charles Leclerc fended-off Oscar Piastri to score his maiden victory at his home Monaco Grand Prix, round nine of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal this weekend for the Formula 1 AWS Grand Prix Du Canada 2024. This will be the 59th running of the Canadian Grand Prix and the fifty-third time as a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship since the sport began in 1950. Also, it is the 43rd time that the Canadian Grand Prix has been held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – A Look at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a motor racing circuit in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and has been held there since 1978 when it was formerly known as the Circuit Ile Notre Dame.
The circuit is located in a part of the city of Montreal known as Parc-Jean Drapeau. The park is named after the mayor of Montreal who was responsible for the organization of Expo 67.
The circuit lies on Ile Notre Dame, a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River most of which was originally built up for the Expo 67. Also, the neighbouring island Ile Sainte-Helene had been artificially enlarged for the fairgrounds and a prominent remnant of the fair, the Biosphere can be regularly seen during television coverage of racing events. Almost half of the track from the hairpin turn until after the pit area runs alongside the Bassin Olimpique, a huge rectangular basin which was created for the rowing and canoeing events of Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympics. Barriers run close to the circuit and many experienced drivers have been caught out by them.
A particularly famous part of the circuit is the wall on the outside of the exit of the final chicane before the start/finish straight. During the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix the wall, which bears the name Bienvenue au Quebec (“Welcome to Quebec”) giving it the nickname “Mur du Quebec” (Quebec Wall), ended the race of three Formula One World Champions, Damon Hill, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve along with FIA GT champion Ricardo Zonta. Since then the wall has been nicknamed “The Wall of Champions. In recent years 2009 world champion Jenson Button (2005) and 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel (2011) have also fallen victim to the wall.
Before the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve became Canada’s permanent home of Grand Prix racing, the Canadian Grand Prix was first staged Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario in 1961 as a sports car event before it alternated between Mosport and Circuit Mont-Tremblant, Quebec after Formula One took over the event. After 1971, safety concerns led to the Grand Prix moving permanently to Mosport. In 1978, after similar safety concerns with Mosport, the Canadian Grand Prix moved to its current home on Ile Notre Dame Circuit (which was renamed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve since 1982 weeks after Canadian Gilles Villeneuve tragically lost his life at Zolder in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix) in Montreal.
Canadian native Gilles Villeneuve was the first winner at the circuit for Scuderia Ferrari in 1978 and is the only Canadian driver to win a Canadian Grand Prix.
The circuit runs in a clockwise direction and is 4.361km (2.71 mi) in length with 14 corners.
Race distance is 305.270km (189.694 mi) with 70 laps in total.
Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest lap record from the 2019 event with a 1:13.078 set in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W10 EQ Power+ racer.
Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most Canadian Grand Prix victories with seven each to their respective names.
Scuderia Ferrari is the most successful Constructor at the Canadian Grand Prix with 14 victories to their name.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – Onboard Lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Here is the onboard pole position lap of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at last year’s event, set by Max Verstappen in his Oracle Red Bull Racing – RBPT-Honda RB19. The three-time world champion posted a 1:25.858. You can watch the footage right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSjVVhET4M8
2024 Canadian GP Preview – The Last Five Winners
2023: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2022: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2021-20: Not Held. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – Tyres
Sole tyre supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the C3 white-branded Hard compounds, the C4 yellow-marked Mediums and the C5 red side-walled Soft rubber along with the green-coloured Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wets in case of rain.
Drivers will have eight sets of the softs, three sets of the mediums and two sets of the harder compounds as with all events.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – DRS Zones
There will be three DRS Zones in Canada. The first detection point will be 15 metres after turn five and the activation point 95 metres after turn seven. The other two detection zones are shared 110 metres before turn nine. The second DRS activation point is 155 metres before turn 12 and the third 70 metres after turn 14.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speeds will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Leclerc fends-off Piastri to clinch home Monaco GP victory
Leclerc Monaco GP Victory – Charles Leclerc clinched his maiden home victory at the Monaco GP in a solid drive holding off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 7.152 seconds as Carlos Sainz completed the top three in the other Ferrari SF-24 entry.
Leclerc lead from start-to-finish to finally break the duck on his home tarmac and became the first Monegasque driver to win his home Monaco Grand Prix in 93 years and take his fifth-career win.
When the 78-lap Monaco GP began, pole-sitter Leclerc made a brilliant start as behind them Sainz and Piastri went wheel-to-wheel towards St. Devote but the latter covered the Spaniard to hold second.
Sainz made contact with Piastri at the exit of turn one with the former suffering a puncture and going off at Casino Square.
Behind them, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez suffered a heavy crash going up the hill towards Massenet with both Haas VF-24 entries as Kevin Magnussen was squeezed, then tagged the Mexican sending him into a spin, hitting the wall and colliding also with Nico Hulkenberg scattering debris all over the circuit to bring out the red flags.
Perez’s RB20 was destroyed but thankfully all three drivers were unscathed in the incident.
Sainz managed to continue on and returned back to the pits.
Both Alpine’s also made contact on the opening lap as Esteban Ocon tried overtake team-mate Pierre Gasly into Portier, there wasn’t any room and both tangled, sending the former up into the air.
Gasly yelled over the radio: “What did he do?”.
The stewards deemed the turn one opening incident between Sainz and Piastri as a racing incident and no action was necessary along with the Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg clash.
The order for the grid start from the race stewards was as follows Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon, Gasly, Ocon, Stroll, Ricciardo, Alonso, Sargeant, Bottas and Zhou.
Magnussen commented after the incident: “I had a good part of my front on Perez’s rear, and when he went to the wall I just got pushed into the wall. I trusted he was going to make a space. You have to have a car width otherwise you leave the guy no option. It’s unfortunate, a lot of cost for the team and a lot of work for the guys. From my point of view I was there, and I got squeezed into the wall.”
Hulkenberg also stated: “Turn 1, Turn 2 – finished. Kicked in the rear axle by Checo who had contact with Kevin. Typical Lap 1 racing incident, two drivers who didn’t want to bail out and I was the unlucky victim there. I don’t know what [the stewards] are going to do.”
When the race resumed as a standing start following a lengthy delay as the cars and debris were cleared and the barriers repaired, pole-sitter Leclerc got a good start into St Devote as all drivers got through unscathed.
At the beginning of the fourth tour, Leclerc’s lead was sitting at 0.800 seconds over Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth as Russell rounded out the top five as the top four were running the C3 white side-walled Hard tyre as Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton were all on the C4 yellow-branded Mediums.
Also, Alonso made short work of Ricciardo at the restart, climbing up to 12th behind his Aston Martin team-mate Stroll as the pairing were stuck in a forming DRS train.
Russell in fifth place was told by his team that he did not need to run too close to the back of Norris, which he replied: “This is the only opportunity,” to try and jump his fellow British-compatriot.
Piastri was holding onto second and was told by his McLaren team that he was suffering damage caused by the incident between him and Sainz.
Lap ten saw Leclerc’s lead at 1.025 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz holding third, Norris fourth as Russell completed the top five runners.
The stewards deemed the incident between Ocon and Gasly was the formers fault, and the Frenchman was hit with a ten-second time penalty, but Ocon retired from the race after sustaining too much damage.
The race stewards stated that the penalty for Ocon will carry over to the Canadian Grand Prix as a grid-placed penalty.
Race leader Leclerc was managing his harder rubber and pace, keeping Piastri and Sainz closely behind.
Fifth-placed Russell was also managing his pace and was rapidly dropping off the top four runners, with Verstappen told that the former was opening a pit-stop gap for those up-front.
Mercedes also told Russell that they would gain “nothing” driving faster, with the Briton running on the mediums and trying to get to the end.
Leclerc was continuing to manage the lead between him and Piastri as Sainz and Norris were trying to keep out of the dirty air to preserve their tyres as much as possible.
If a pit-stop gap were to happen with Russell – McLaren could opt to pit Norris to attempt an overcut to split the strategies to try and win the Grand Prix and cause Ferrari a headache.
Race leader Leclerc had no interest in pulling away from Piastri, making a pit-stop a possibility for McLaren. But Bottas was the first driver to pit for a fresh set of the hards and posted the fastest lap.
Third-placed Sainz was pushing on to try and take Norris out of the equation to make it difficult for McLaren to try and pull a strategy threat.
On lap 20, Leclerc’s gap was 0.899 seconds to Piastri, with Sainz third, Norris fourth, Russell fifth as Verstappen completed the top six.
Behind them, Tsunoda had dropped well back from seventh-placed Hamilton as the former had a feisty Williams of Alexander Albon in ninth just behind with the Grove based-outfit looking to not risk losing out on any points.
Race leader Leclerc had increased his lead to Piastri with the gap sitting at 1.2 seconds as Norris started closing down on Sainz for the final podium spot.
Ocon stated in his interview following his retirement: “I’m okay. It was a hard launch in the air and a hard landing, but I’ve had worse days on that side of things. I think on that side of things I’m okay. Obviously, it’s an unfortunate incident to retire early in the race, after a long race that was going to go late on. A tough one. We tried to basically put the car back in the garage, so pulled out of the fast lane to try and repair what we could repair, but unfortunately, we discovered too much damage sustained. A chaotic first lap and I hope that the team can score some points today.”
There was tension down in the paddock with Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin reportedly very unhappy with his two drivers following their opening lap incident.
The 30th tour saw Leclerc’s lead at 1.218 seconds over Piastri with Sainz a further 1.5 seconds off the Australian and Norris 1.7 adrift of the Ferrari driver as the strategies between the top four continued to build. Protecting tyres, or thinking about building the gap to protect against the undercut? Those four can run to the end without stopping, bar any safety car periods should arise.
Third-placed Sainz started to drop back from second-placed Piastri and reported that his harder rubber was starting to grain along with his team-mate Leclerc and the McLaren driver ahead of him.
Sainz also reported to his team: “Is there a risk that if we open 20 seconds, Lando goes for a soft maybe? Lando on the soft will be dangerous, as tyres are starting to grain.”
With 40 laps remaining, Ferrari told Leclerc to drop the pace down to Piastri to try and ensure that Norris does not have a pit-stop window to Russell.
On the 40th tour, Leclerc’s lead was 1.216 seconds over Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth as Russell and Verstappen rounded out the top six.
Lap 41 saw the leaders catch up to the backmarker train and now their tyres can cool down even more, but they had quite a few cars to clear.
On lap 43, Leclerc’s gap increased to 2.2 seconds over Piastri as Stroll pitted for his fresh set of hards and emerged in 11th place behind Gasly.
Norris was also told by his McLaren team that he had the better conditions of his tyres over the top three as the Briton was still 14 seconds clear of fifth-placed Russell whose medium tyres were holding on well.
With 30 tours remaining Leclerc was told by his race engineer: “We are not interested,” as he offered to tell them how much quicker he could go – to which Leclerc replied, “That’s rude”.
On lap 50, Stroll suffered a left-rear puncture, as the Canadian limped back to the pits as the tyre carcass rolled away. He was forced into a second stop and put on a fresh set of the C5 softer compound. Luckily the tyre carcass rolled off into the pits so it could be easily cleared.
Replays showed Stroll clipped the wall at the Nouvelle Chicane.
Meanwhile Hamilton pitted for a set of hards on lap 52 to come out comfortably ahead of Tsunoda.
Championship leader Verstappen reacted to Hamilton’s stop and pitted for his fresh set of hards and covered the Mercedes driver to hold sixth.
On lap 54, Bottas made an overtake on Williams’ Logan Sargeant at Mirabeau to move up into 13th place.
With 30 tours remaining, Leclerc’s lead was at 1.303 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz holding third and backing up Norris as Verstappen was starting to close-in on fifth-placed Russell.
Behind them Stroll, pulled off a bold pass on Zhou through the tunnel to take 14th place from the Chinese driver.
A tour later, Norris missed his opportunity to pit because Russell sped up to try and fend-off a fast-charging Verstappen.
On the 63rd lap, there was some potential for some drama, but Leclerc was making great progress up front and with clear air, the only car in his sights was Williams’ Sargeant who was on a fresh set of mediums.
Mercedes reported to Russell on lap 65 that his medium rubber does have enough grip to fend-off Verstappen.
With ten laps remaining, Leclerc increased his lead to 2.484 seconds to Piastri with Sainz third, Norris fourth, Russell fifth, Verstappen sixth as Hamilton reached the tail of the Dutchman’s RB20.
Perez stated on his opening lap incident: “On my onboard there is no point where you see Kevin and I was just pretty surprised that he kept it flat at that point, because it was just very unnecessary. We had a lot of damage; we had a very dangerous incident. Also [I’m] very disappointed that it didn’t get investigated, because it was a massive incident, my car is completely destroyed, and I have a lot of damage.”
A flyer from Leclerc saw the Ferrari driver’s lead up to 8.338 seconds over Piastri, with Sainz right behind the McLaren and within DRS range and has brought Norris into the equation as the three who had fallen away from Leclerc began to converge.
Leclerc crossed the line by 7.152 seconds to take his home Monaco GP victory as Piastri and Sainz rounded out the top three.
Norris followed in fourth as Russell came home fifth ahead of Verstappen who took sixth and Hamilton taking seventh in the other Mercedes F1 W15 entry.
Hamilton also scored the fastest lap bonus point on offer.
RB’s Tsunoda was eighth as Williams’ Albon and Alpine’s Gasly rounded out the final points places.
Aston Martin’s Alonso ended the Monaco GP outside the top ten in 11th place and in-front of RB’s Ricciardo who placed 12th and Sauber’s Bottas who came 13th in the order.
The other Mercedes-powered AMR24 of Stroll took 14th as Williams’ Sargeant and Sauber’s Zhou brought up the rear.
2024 Canadian GP Preview – The Situation
After three different winners in the past three Grands Prix, the increasingly competitive 2024 campaign returns to the highly-popular and often-dramatic Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.
In a temporary break from Europe that will dominate the summer months, Formula 1 heads across the Atlantic to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which hosts the ninth round of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on a partial street circuit that tends to produce thrilling racing and also feature the famous “Wall of Champions.”
It is reigning world champions Red Bull who return to Canada looking to fight back after an underperforming performance around the streets of Monte Carlo last time out when they not only lost out to race winners Ferrari, but McLaren and Mercedes also.
Charles Leclerc’s maiden triumph at his home Monaco Grand Prix, and first anywhere for the Monegasque driver for the past 22 months, has cut Verstappen’s Drivers’ Championship gap to 31 points with just a quarter of the record-breaking 24 race calendar completed.
And although McLaren’s Lando Norris could not follow up on his victory in Miami and close-second place in Imola with another podium-placed finish in Monaco, the Briton still moved up to third in the World Drivers’ Championship standings for the first time since 2021 and is 56 points adrift of the Red Bull driver.
Ferrari and McLaren also snatched big points off Red Bull’s advantage in the World Constructors Championship too with the former now 24 points behind.
Verstappen has won the last two races in Montreal but things could be very different this year as the margin between the leading teams are continuing to converge and the picture at the front currently changing from circuit-to-circuit.
Verstappen returns to Montreal sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 169 points and a 31-point lead over Ferrari’s Leclerc who is second on 138 points whilst Norris is third on 113 points and a further 56 points behind the Dutchman.
Oracle Red Bull Racing comes to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on top of the World Constructor’s Championship with 276 points and a 24-point advantage over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 252 points whilst McLaren F1 Team are a further 92 points behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third on 184 points.
Click here for the 2024 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.
The Formula 1 AWS Grand Prix Du Canada 2024 weekend kicks off Friday June 7 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday June 8 and the 70 lap Race Sunday June 9.
1 thought on “#F1 AWS #CanadianGP 2024 Preview. #Formula1 #CanadaGP”
Comments are closed.