Grand Prix 2013 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The Grand Prix du Canada has been part of the F1 calendar since 1967. First hosted alternatively between at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario (not far from Toronto) and Mont-Tremblant (sky paradise in Quebec) between 1967 and 1977 and then moved permanently to Montreal from 1978 onward. Among the races that took place in the early 70s, one of the most memorable has to be the Canadian Grand Prix in 1973, probably one of the craziest races of the 20th century; to this day the rightful winner is still in dispute. You can read an account of that eventful race here: http://8w.forix.com/cdn73.html.

Originally called Ile Notre Dame Circuit, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve debuted in the F1 calendar in 1978 and the Richelieu native of course took the honors and became its first winner (and to date only Canadian). Even though the track looked somehow unexciting compared to those of Mosport and Mont-Tremblant, it has nevertheless delivered some very exciting races.The 1991 race no doubt a memorable one for Piquet and Nigel Mansell. The British driver dominated the race and was so far ahead that he thought he would wave to the crowd to thank the support, only for his Williams’ to stall. His nemesis Piquet went through to win (his last career race by the way). Piquet was for sure excited as he reported after the race ended:
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In 1994, following the deaths of Ronald Ratzemberger, the Ayrton Senna at the Imola race track, the Droit du Casino curve was turned into a chicane. Michael Schumacher would win there for the first (but not last) time. He would go on to win 7 times there. However his dominance was interrupted in 1995 when Jean Alesi won, his one and only Grand Prix victory. It was a truly popular win, held the day of his 31st birthday sporting the number 27 on his Ferrari. It was so popular that mechanics from all teams came to congratulate him. A rare sight in modern F1 racing:
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And who can’t forget 2007, when a young Lewis Hamilton clinched his first F1 victory. However it was almost eclipsed by Takuma Sato’s probably best drive to date. Fighting and overtaking cars left and right and finishing 6th after a pit stop error. That was the same year when Robert Kubica had his horrific accident but walked away after. Unfortunately he wouldn't be so lucky in 2011 when he almost lost his life rally-racing. Some highlights of the race

After the hiatus that the race took in 2009, it came back in 2010 and it will continue for the foreseeable future to the benefit of Canadians and foreigners alike. This is the event the motorsport world looks up to Canada for some serious entertainment and this year promises to deliver an exciting race as we haven’t seen a clear pattern in terms of a dominating driver or team. Having said that, Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull continue to be the ones to beat at the end of the day and they have slowly but surely affirm themselves on the top spots as it seems there’s no clear challenger among the other drivers or teams.
 
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The incident happened when the car was well on the way back to the pits.
The marshal dropped his radio, went to pick it up, stumbled and was run over.

You can't really account for an accident of that nature.
 
Perhaps not but it's the use of a crane in the first place I'm questioning in that instance. In such of pressured environment as track-marshalling the use of a large vehicle with such narrow line of vision for the crane driver be should reserved for incidents when they are the only option. Didn't look like one of these to me.
 
I thought Brundle's comment relating to if someone else came off at the same place and hit the car rather stupid.
It was something along the lines of "they're going to hit the tyre barrier anyway".

Yes Brundle, there's a reason why barriers are constructed from tyres and not F1 cars.

Seriously stupid comment.

The car was unable to pushed out of the way so a crane/vehicle was the only option.
 
I hadn't heard about Brundle's comments but I was thinking more along the lines of a safety-car. I've seen them deployed for less than that.
Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing...
 
They would still have needed a crane to move the car - the suspension was broken.

The accident happened on the access roads to the pits, not on the circuit.
 
Brogan said:
The car was unable to pushed out of the way so a crane/vehicle was the only option.
Click to expand

Brundle's main point was that it could have/should have waited until the end of the race. It was posing very little danger, and that if anybody contacted it, they were surely to be exiting the race soon as well.

I find it unlikely that the crane and the marshal would have been in such close proximity had the recovery occurred after the GP.
 
The marshal was one of two steadying the car whilst it was being suspended so it would have made no difference when it was moved - he would still have been doing that job.
 
The FIA press release talks about "a car which had stopped during the race" and "accident that occurred at the end of this afternoon’s Formula 1 Grand Prix". This seems to imply that it was after the race had finished so any talk of deploying the safety car or it would have been better to leave it until after the race is irrelevant.

This was a very unlucky incident which happened to take place at a GP circuit on the day of a race. Presumably it will be dealt with by the Canadian equivalent of the much maligned HSE and recommendations made. Hopefully an event like this will not happen again.
 
The Sauber was in an area where cars reach their slowest speed. And it was so close to the end of the race. I wholeheartedly agree with Brundle here.
 
I remember in the wet 1990 at the hairpin

I think Nannini rspun his Benetton after lap 2- his car was moved to the back against the tyres at the hairpin

Not moved out of the way

Further on in the race Alesi slid in his Tyrell and the car went sideways slamming into Nannini's parked car instead of the tyre barrier

That could had have been a seriously nasty accident for Alesi. Thank fully he got out of the car okay . They've added extra running area


The problem with Montreal is there is very little room to manouvrer around being a small island
 
Lewywo4

As I pointed it was a lapped car who was yielding supposedly seeing the blue flags

So they can always check the telemetry to show he lifted if ever summoned .. slightly different from Vettel in Brazil when he was passing a car battling for position
 
Lewywo4 said:
ll_leone....I don't believe that you are allowed to pass under the yellow flag, especially under the circumstances that Alonso faced. It looked as if Fernando dodged a bullet today, because if he had received a 25 second penalty, forget about a podium and second place.
Click to expand


It was not a yellow flag. It was yellow and red striped on the display. Go and watch the video in HD...
 
Il_leone said:
That could had have been a seriously nasty accident for Alesi.
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That could have been a hell of a lot nastier for Nannini had he still been in the car when Alesi hit it! The Benetton's monocoque was split in half on impact.
 

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