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/
 
Of course not ExtremeNinja I know you to be a very reasonable Lewis fan who sees the bigger picture as are most of his fans, like you I am an F1 fan first and a driver fan second, I think we all know the ones I am talking about..;)

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I half like you as well LOL
 
ExtremeNinja......I don't think Button is blaming anyone, but I also believe the problems he's faced in Canada are unrelated to issues he's had in previous races. Button's a driver that needs everything to be right with his car to get the best from himself, no shame in that and the same could be said for most of the drivers on the grid. Massa is another example of this, so to is Vettel, which is why we sometimes see Webber outperform him. We've seen numerous examples of Vettel being uncomfortable with his car on race weekend while Webber has out qualified him, obviously not this weekend though. There are probably only two drivers at present that can hop in an underperforming car and wring every ounce of performance from themselves and their car, Alonso and Hamilton, though in that situation not even Hamilton would match Alonso. That has always been one of his strengths, as this season has shown.
Back to Button. I truly hope he can turn his season around, he has always been one of my favorite drivers. I know your only as good as your last race, but it's worth remembering he was 2nd in the championship last year, Hamilton was 5th, so we can't or shouldn't doubt his talent or his ability to turn things around.
 
Button disagrees with you on most of your points and I agree with Button. :p

I don't think Button should be ashamed in any sense but it is in these situations where you are truly measured as a driver. I've no doubt he'll find his form again but for the moment it's out of sight and he is clearly perplexed by it. In his interview he was asked what the problem was. His reply was that if you have three consecutive races and consistently perform badly, then you don't know what the problem is. This implies that he doesn't know what to fix because he doesn't know what's broken and that's not a nice place to be in when you are gunning for a championship.

Not sure what makes you think Alonso is any better at driving around a poor car than Lewis, other than your alegance. We have seen them both deal with this to an extent that none of the other drivers can replicate, but I don't see any evidence of one being any better than the other in that respect - or in any respect, for that matter.

This weekend, so far and as I see it, is a continuation of poor form from Button rather than one of four consecutive one-offs. Let's hope he gets his mojo back. I don't see tomorrow being a good day for Jenson, though. In not finding a good setup, he's made his bed. I hope he does have a good day though because sometimes one good result is all you need to get the belief back.

If you ain't believing, you ain't achieving. (I just made that up. Do you like it?)
 
A more general comment. I think this season more than usual will see the teams needing to focus their attention on the driver that's giving them the best chance of the title. There are two reasons Alonso is leading the championship at present. Firstly his ability to get the absolute maximum from a difficult car in the opening races and secondly he hasn't had a teammate taking points off him, though as the season progresses being able to out perform his teammate while Massa takes points off his rivals will become very important, providing Massa can continue to lift his game. The same will apply to McLaren and Red Bull. They will need to make a decision as to which driver they need to favor, not a popular thing to do, but if they don't they'll slowly watch Alonso disappear into the distance race by race. If you doubt that, imagine what he'll do in a car thats working considering the results he's achieved in a difficult car. It may not happen in Canada but I don't think it will be long before Alonso starts to stretch his legs.
 
If you ain't believing, you ain't achieving. (I just made that up. Do you like it?)

Very good, keep making them up. LOL Yes Alonso is a favorite as you know but I think you'll find even Lewis would consider Alonso the best at getting the most from a poorly performing car. It's probably worth looking at their results this year to back up my opinion. Lewis has often gone backwards in races in a car superior to the Ferrari, Alonso has consistently made up places in all but one race, so yes, I do think Alonso is stronger in this regard and the statistics back that up.
 
I'm not sure that I'd equate making up race places demonstrates being the best at getting the most from a poorly performing car, have I misunderstood?
 
gethinceri.....No you haven't misunderstood. If you start a race from lets say fifth and you have better performing cars that have out qualified you on grid 1, 2, 3, and 4 and you finish on the podium I would definitely say you've got the maximum out of a car thats still in need of further development. 12th to 5th in Australia, 8th to 1st in Malaysia, 5th to 3rd in Monaco. I'm not sure how else you can read results like that considering the quality of the cars he has had to pass to achieve those results. Obviously you see things differently.
 
The McLaren has been good in quali but has not shone in the race. The Ferrari has not shone in quali but has been good in the race. They have both driven incredibly well and are both getting the most out of the situations that they find themselves in. When you qualify at the front with faster cars behind you, you go backwards. When you qualify lower down with slower cars in front of you, you go forwards. At no point this season, as far as I can remember, have Ferrari had a slow car in race trim.

If you think Hamilton would say that Alonso was better than him at anything or vice versa then you have not been following F1. Both regard the other as thier biggest threat but both also believe that they are themselves the best.
 
At no point this season, as far as I can remember, have Ferrari had a slow car in race trim.

Not so sure Massa would agree with you. Alonso's results have been due to his ability to drive around a difficult car. It's only now that he may be close to being on equal terms with McLaren and Red Bull. Even in Spain and Monaco Ferrari had work to do. McLaren and Red Bull had a far better package than Ferrari in those opening races and had the opportunity to bury Fernando but they kept dropping the ball, and they would be the first to admit it.
Yes I have been following F1 for over 40 years. I'm very aware that Alonso and Hamilton see each other as one anothers biggest threats. I'm also aware that Lewis is amazed at the results Alonso has been able to achieve with Ferrari this season. It's not a criticism of Lewis, I just don't believe there's another driver on the grid that would have been leading the championship in that Ferrari. The results speak for themselves. At best the fourth best car on the grid for the opening four races yet Alonso is leading the championship, possibly not after Canada, though he may well open up a bigger lead.
 
I don't see how you know Hamilton is amazed at Alonso's results? The Red Bull was behind the Ferrari in Spain, Hamilton was sent to the back of the grid and Button may also disagree with you about the mcLaren's speed however I would actually put it down to him struggling, much like Massa. Hence you can't compare Alonso to Massa when Alonso has been wiping the floor with him for two seasons now. In Monaco Grosjean binned it and that McLaren was nowhere on race pace (3 seconds slower on the in-lap than the Ferrari).

Anyways there's no point in this, we're just speculating about relative car performance and none of us truly know how fast each car is in qualifying and the race.
 
its very obvious why button is struggling.
1-lewis is slowly getting back to his best
2-jenson struggles to do a good job unless he's completely comfortable in the car,this is a major weakness of his.
i mean ANY driver should be able to do a good job in a car they feel completely comfortable in.
its the drivers who can also do agood job in a car theyre not comfortable in who have the real skills,jenson is not one of those drivers.
3-quali is even tighter than in previous seasons,which means if you are 3,4 or 5 tenths slower than your teammate,you will start 4,5,6 or so places behind instead of only a place or 2 like in previous seasons.
jenson is a good driver,BUT imo if lewis is at his best or anywhere near it he will be jenson every time.
lewis should be a extra 21 points ahead of jenson already,but having to start from the back of the grid in spain denied him a chance to win that race.
 
Pretty stupid miscalculation by Mercedes vis-a-vis Schumacher.

Button has to run the soft tyre at some point, obviously. He doesn't seem to have the pace for the podium if he copies what everyone else is doing, but if he times the switch to the super-soft tyre right in the race he could make up some ground. Obviously having five laps on the tyres isn't ideal, but presumably McLaren thought he would be able to get ahead of di Resta, maybe Grosjean, given the small gap between the compounds?

The Safety Car is likely to determine whether the strategy works or not. I can see Bruno in the wall before half-distance based on his onboard camera footage from qualifying.
 
Grosjean will whack it on his first lap just to stay true to form, then he'll do it again on the next lap before he realizes he hasn't got any wheels left on his car. ROFL
 
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