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/
 
As long as they start the race the next lap i don't mind a safety car start. What happened in Korea was ridiculous. Wouldn't get that 30 years ago, with all the drivers "pussing" out, which is easy for me to say, but if you are a racing driver i think you accept a reasonable amount of danger.

Definitely looks like being a wet race now then. Come on Mclaren!
 
Can I just take something up on the BBC F1 coverage from yesterday?

The Terrible Twosome were spending the coverage saying Sauber's lack of a reserve [Gutierrez] was "insane". I disagree. I believe it was quite canny. They discussed the difficulty of PdlR settling in at Sauber, but it would surely be more difficult for a rookie Mexican to step in cold and race for Sauber in F1. PdlR, however, raced for Sauber for the first half of 2010 so would be far more acquainted with the systems of the team.

Who knows, but I fear that Gutierrez may have been prey to Lotus and Toro Rosso in Q1.

I felt the same...a rookie has more chance of binning it than a 40 year old experienced driver that's done tons of miles.

They were going on about how De La Rosa would be giving them more work by breaking wishbones etc...better than a rookie totalling the car.
 
10 mins till coverage starts and we can talk about something other than the weather. What does everyone reckon now we know the weather? Bit of a lottery, with Red Bull and Ferrari up front, but Mclaren with the better setup?
 
Just saw something interesting tweeted by BBC 5LiveF1 about McLaren.

"Technically McLaren did not chose a wet setup. The brought a new front wing with more downforce to counteract suspected tyre issues that everyone thought would occur in Montreal. It has more downforce, tyres turned out to be better than expected and as a result the car had too much drag. Ironically it will help them today if it stays wet!"

Everyone said their FW was the same for this GP, but when I was on a tour of the MTC on friday, we got told they had a new front wing. That reveals the purpose of it. So they were expecting huge degredation and wanted to counter it, but seeming as tyres are holding up nicely in normal dry conditions, it has just hurt their pace.

Should help them in the wet though, along with their higher downforce rear wing!
 
Regarding Sauber, I posted this earlier but they had already been in touch with de la Rosa earlier in the week, so had no intentions of allowing Gutiérrez to drive.

Just seen this on Twitter.
Williams running maximum wing as well ,Hamilton, Button, Heidfeld, Glock and D'Ambrosio all running wetter set-ups than most.
 
A disappointing race, with it being started behind the SC, compounded by the totally unnecessary squeeze by Button on Hamilton.
Hamilton actually hit the pit wall he was squeezed so much.

Reminiscent of what Schumacher did to Barrichello, and we all know how much Schumacher was castigated for that.

At least that's my Chump of the Weekend sorted.
 
There is an absolute epidemic in motor racing these days of cars turning in on or squeezing other cars. Whether it is sloppy defense of a position or it's because of the simple fact that you can't see much out of a modern day cockpit, it happens all the time.

It's extremely frustrating when the fastest cars in the race get taken out. LeMans and Canada being the most recent examples.
 
Why should he back off on the straight?

He's entitled to attempt a pass if he has a significant speed advantage, without being forced off the circuit.
I seem to recall Schumacher did the same thing to Massa here last year and in that case Schumacher was blamed.
 
Keke,
I totally agree, the problem is though when it happens the FIA typically punish the car on the inside....the result now is drivers being overtaken feel they can turn in to a faster car trying to overtake them and get away with any punishment. Drivers (except Hamilton and Kobayashi it seems) are wary of diving down the inside on the brakes and now prefer to overtake on the exit - shame.
 
In all his career, I have never seen JB turn in on anyone. In fact, I have sometimes thought he was a bit too fair, giving a bit too much room. Clearly, he didn't leave enough room this time but my point is that there is nothing in his history to suggest that he would have knowingly squeezed Lewis.

JBs line was defensive, looking for the inside into T1 but did he know LH was there? I cannot think of and havent see anything to suggest that he did. Does that mean it was LHs fault? I would put it this way, the number of times Lewis gets involved in incidents cannot be considered a coincidence any more.
 
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