Grand Prix 2011 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

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O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Thought this might be useful if you wanted to sing along to the Canadian National Anthem before the start of the race.

Anyway, on to the Grand Prix, after all that’s what we’re here for. Last year Bridgestone provided tyres, which didn’t like the surface at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve too much, and the powers that be in F1 thought “ah, ha here’s an idea to spice up the racing. Why don’t we ask those blokes at Pirelli if they can make sets of boots for F1 cars that fall apart on the warm up lap”, and they did.

In 2010 Hamilton put his car on pole (you may recall him pushing his car back to the pits, so light was it on fuel) and then went on to win an exciting race with teammate Jenson Button standing on the 2nd step.

So what for Canada 2011? Red Bull, at least car No.1, has been a tad difficult to beat but McLaren and Ferrari are getting closer during the race. With 5 wins out of 6 races Vettel has a healthy lead in the Championship and some bookmakers are already paying out on the title being his. Vettel was 3rd on the grid last year, behind teammate Webber, and finished 4th with unspecified gearbox problems, still ahead of Webber who had led for many laps but got caught out by the high tyre wear rate.

Fernando Alonso was 3rd last time out in Canada after getting mugged by a hard charging Jenson Button. Mercedes had a mixed race, Rosberg was “best of the rest” behind the McLaren’s, Alonso’s Ferrari and the Red Bull’s whilst Michael Schumacher treated the race like a destruction derby, straight lining chicanes and bouncing off other cars with gay abandon. What of Felipe Massa I hear you ask; well, he was one of Schumacher’s victims and lost time pitting for a new nose cone.

This is very nearly the last Hurrah for the exhaust blown diffuser and we have two, yes 2, DRS zones. So expect cars breezing past another before and after the pits, when they’re not in their getting new tyres of course.

Will it be another Red Bull walk over or can the McLaren’s and Ferrari’s tame the charging Bull? How will the Pirelli tyres hold up dusty and bumpy Ille Notre-Dame Circuit? Will it rain? Who will win? Can one of the minor teams struggle up into the points? I don’t know but I get the feeling there will be lots of speculation.

And we have our own track side reporter this year - take a bow Ray in Toronto and make sure you post some good photos

For Galahad’s excellent circuit write up, track history and all the stats a boy or girl could want click here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-gilles-villeneuve/
 
The Wall of Champions has yet gain lived up to its reputation. The only champion on the grid that hasn't hit it is Alonso :crazy:

And adding on to Fenderman's comment, during FP1 today try said Alonso has crashed into it, must have been 2006 onwards during a practice session, as Croft said that Button is the only one that hit the wall when he wasnt champion...
 
Probably a bit off topic but the reserve drivers thing is a bit of an issue, mainly due to the testing rules. The young guys need experience in an F1 car before a team can really trust them to do a good job, or at least they need to be getting experience from some other race series. So either you have your young reserve driver sat around getting rusty or you send him off to do GP2 or whatever and bring in an old hand when the time comes.

Really looking forward to the race tomorrow based on all the issues in practice yesterday. Seems like they're really struggling on the supersoft tyre.
 
I'm pretty confident McLaren will be very strong in Canada. I was at the McLaren Technology Center yesterday (on a tour) during first practice and there was a significant air of confidence in the place, not just for this race, but for future races too. We got told that they'd pushed the planned upgrades for Valencia forward for this race and have some new bits in the floor/exhaust/diffuser area. I also saw some future floor concept designs that were in the process of being built, which I can say looked very interesting - although im not allowed to give away any details! We got the live feed back from Canada at the end of the session, where they informed everyone back at the MTC what had happened during the session. I have to say, when we all heard "Vettel had a new front wing, but decided to put it in the wall" - there were quite a few smiles around lol.

The whole experience was one of the best in my life - I can write a thread about my experience and the events that occurred during the day if anyone is interested. Let's just say having your photo taken next to Lewis' winning car from Brazil 08, speaking to one of the chief designers of the MP4/1 (who also was one of Senna's engineers), whilst he was in the process of putting one together for Goodwood Festival and also going inside of their Wind Tunnel facility, whilst it was actively testing new components; just touches the surface of the many amazing things we did and there were so many interesting facts I found out about the precision and beauty behind their manufacturing and engineering! Perfection is literally a way of life in that place.
 
Probably a bit off topic but the reserve drivers thing is a bit of an issue, mainly due to the testing rules. The young guys need experience in an F1 car before a team can really trust them to do a good job, or at least they need to be getting experience from some other race series. So either you have your young reserve driver sat around getting rusty or you send him off to do GP2 or whatever and bring in an old hand when the time comes.

Really looking forward to the race tomorrow based on all the issues in practice yesterday. Seems like they're really struggling on the supersoft tyre.


Tbh, Weve had mad pratice sessions at Canada forthe past 3 or rour years, its effectivly a street circuit so very green.

I sense an unpredicatable GP coming up though. Just when i think this bombardment of racing i seem to be getting at the moment is going myhead in, the jucies start flowing again. Cannot wait fot this weekend either now. but how im going to fit in Lemans and Moto Gp too is beyond me, its only saturday and im already stryggling to fin into my schedule Qualifying for the bikes today F1 pratice and Quali.
 
I don't see that putting Gutierrez in the car with only an hour of FP3 would be good for him, or for Sauber. Pedro is available and is experienced; I don't rate him for talent but he'll do a better job than Esteban could, given the circumstances, and there's no harm from McLaren's point of view in giving him more miles.

If Perez was going to be out for 3 or 4 races, I've no doubt Gutierrez would get those drives. He's extremely talented, irrespective of nationality.
 
Pfff, again De La Rosa as a reserve driver for Sauber? I few years ago i was happy for him that he could race again, but now i rather see some of the young guys race. What's the point of having a reserve driver, when the teams always fall back on the older more experienced guys in the paddock? Sure, they will bring the car home in one piece, but they never show something special, so boring.
 
To be honest, Gutierrez has struggled to adapt to GP2 this year, having failed to score yet, so if he can't jump into a GP2 car and deliver results immediately, then I can't see how he'd be able to jump into an F1 car and perform well, especially with such limited practice time.
 
Can't wait for later today, as usual. The thing that is saving the season for me is my optimism. I've gone into every race believing this is the one and as usual i like to add this is the one where Mclaren will overtake Red Bull as the fastest team. I think the fact that there was even more crashes than Monaco in Friday practice, i reckon we could see some dramatic things happening, even starting in FP3. Lewis for Pole!
 
Singapore might be in the night, but canada is shown in the night!
And De la Rosa was only given a 10 mins notice,
and D'ambrosio will be using a spare chassis.
 
Sounds brilliant. How do you get to go on a tour of the MTC?

If you purchase membership to team McLaren then you get the chance to enter into several draws throughout the year to visit the MTC. This is only my 2nd season of membership and I won a tour place. It was one of the best days of my life - absolutely loved it. It is quite surreal in there, you can't grasp how amazing it is until you visit. Two guys that were there with me told me that they won a competition last year and got to unveil the 2010 car with Jenson and Lewis!
 
What are we expecting from Q3 today? Will a tight qualifying push teams to go for a 2nd run?
 
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