Grand Prix 2012 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Going into the 7th race of the season we are now hitting new territory as far as different race winners are concerned as for the first time in history 6 different drivers have won the first 6 races with 5 different constructors as Red Bull are the only team to have had more than one driver win a race with victories in Bahrain and Monaco, the way things are going there could easily be 10 winners from 10 races with people like Hamilton, Raikkonen, Grosjean and Schumacher yet to win this season, and with Canada pretty much being Hamilton's best track, it could easily be 7 winners from 7 even though McLaren have been floundering in recent weeks.

Despite this downturn in form, Lewis Hamilton lies just 13 points off Fernando Alonso who no-one would have predicted to have been leading the championship after 6 races going into the opening race where Ferrari had a car which struggled to even get near the top 10 let alone fight for wins and podiums, but improvements with the car allied with supreme driving and consistency from Alonso has seen him top the table from Vettel who's clever strategy in Monaco nearly get him onto the podium despite starting from 10th on the grid.

While Ferrari have made the biggest improvements (even Massa has been better, even though one race a season does not make) it seems McLaren have surprisingly made the biggest backwards step. In Melbourne they had the quickest car and they romped to a comfortable 1-2 and many wondered if they were going to have a Red Bull type domination season, but Button hasn't won since that race and Hamilton hasn't won at all even though he has 3 pole positions so far (2 if you discount the one in Spain) but while Hamilton has made the best of a bad job on the Sunday it has gone even worse for Button who is struggling to even make the points and his performances are a shadow of his 2011 form. Hamilton has improved considerably but surely the pit stop problems and other issues will be getting to him if it costs him a shot at the title, it'll be 5 years since he won the title if the 2012 title slips away and with contracts soon to be under negotiation it could play a part in what he decides to do.

If the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix is even half as good as the 2011 race we are in for a treat, I dont think there will be a race like the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix ever again and ranks up there as one of the best I have ever watched and the 4 hour marathon was certainly worth the 2 hour rain delay in the middle. But even in the dry Canada serves up great racing with recent years being a testament to that and with the unpredictable nature of 2012 so far this seasons race will not be an exception and while overtakes in Monaco were only just in the teens, there could be nearly 10 times that in Montreal. Some say that this seasons unpredictability can be a bad thing, but really, it's so much better than the Schumacher years of the early 2000s and even better than 2011 as while there was very exciting racing in 2011, for a lot of races so far this year that action has been extended to the very front as well which is where the casual viewer could determine the entertainment value of a certain race.

For Galahad 's superb circuit write up - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-gilles-villeneuve/
 
Well the first thing Ted Kravitz announces on Sky Sports F1 is that McLaren have a "barn door" rear wing compared to Red Bull's skinny rear wing. He says:- "That is a strategy they seem to like to take, they think they can sacrifice some top speed".

Here we go again. . .
 
Lame, I can't even listen to FP1 on BBC; they've got 5Live and 5Live Extra covering the tennis and Red Button's showing footage of the Olympic torch being driven on some A road. Priorities.
 
Well McLaren won the race last year sacrificing some top speed. At a cool track full of straights, the greater downforce might help keep heat in the tyres.
 
Not sure that last year is any kind of firm basis on which to make a decision. Not sure how well they would have done in less bizarre circumstances.

That said, how many times last year was it assumed that Red Bull would be compromised by a low top speed? It depends how well set up the car is.
 
Interestingly so far McLaren are quickest in sectors 1 and 2 with Mercedes being fastest in sector 3 but only by a tenth. If McLaren can manage a good top speed in sector 3 then they may well be onto a winner with more downforce for sectors 1 and 2. Saying this, I think the race will be the problem when they will not be able to use DRS and may lose time on the straights, although some may argue more rear downforce will be good for the tyres. I guess we will see over the course of the weekend.
 
The last dry race was in 2010 and the track surface shredded the tyres, I think the higher downforce should help with that and this year its all about the tyres.

It should also help with traction, breaking and tyre temperatures.
 
10 minutes in FP2 and Vettel complaining his super softs are going off. Looks like we could be in for 5 or 6 pit stops...
 
Button has had a change of gearbox; will this result in a 5 place grid drop on Sunday?

Edit: Assuming he doesn't change it back before FP3.
 
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