Grand Prix 2016 Canadian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Battle for the drivers championship recommenced in Monaco and next we are off to one of Lewis Hamilton's favourite and most productive races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Only Michael Schumacher has won more races at this track than Lewis.

But wait, Red Bull are having a resurgence and back in 2014 Daniel Ricciardo recorded his maiden win. Only kidding, expect this to be a battle royal between the two Mercedes drivers for both pole and the race win. Lewis has exorcised some demons after Monaco and Nico looked to be back to the sort of form he had at the start of the 2015 season.

Red Bull are taking the fight to be "best of the rest" to Ferrari and with the upgraded Renault engine might even have gone past the Scuderia. Canada has not been a happy hunting ground for either Vettel or Raikkonen and it will be very interesting to see how the red cars stack up against the fizzy drink machines. What money on Max Verstappen have some sort of interaction with the Wall of Champions at least once during the weekend.

Williams must hope that Canada will better suit their cars than Monaco did. Force India are pushing them to be next best after the big three and will be boosted by Sergio Perez's podium in the principality. Toro Rosso can certainly mix it with Williams and Force India but last years Ferrari engine might not have quite enough puff to allow them to keep up on the faster sections.

McLaren look to be getting some form back with both cars scoring points in Monaco. Haas and Renault will be next up. Jolyon Palmer will have to get a wiggle on or I suspect he might well be out of a driver at some point in the near future.

Last, and probably least, Sauber and Manor will be at the back. After the fun between the two Sauber drivers in Monte Carlo I expect them to be a little more circumspect in Canada. Over at Manor, Pascal Wehrlein needs to up his game against Rio Haryanto if he wants a better drive for next year.

Canada often gives us a fun race, I wonder what we will get this year?

 

[Viscount]

I realise it's Hamilton, but we've seen defending drivers on the racing line force overtaking drivers wide round corners for years without leaving a space, with the stewards rarely investigating it let alone penalising drivers for it. I honestly don't see what the debate is with this.
Even Verstappen did it Rosberg forcing Rosberg to lift.

 

[teabagyokel]

It seems that some people simultaneously argue that Hamilton is not denying Rosberg space, and that Hamilton is within his rights to deny Rosberg space.

He is frequently, cynically and determinedly pushing Rosberg off the road at any given opportunity at Turn One, knowing that:

1. He is well within a grey area
2. He is thus not going to be punished for it
3. If Rosberg goes on the grass, then he'll usually win the race
4. This is the only way he'll ever take more than 7 points off Rosberg per race

All of them would do it, they're professional sportsmen. Suggesting that Hamilton doesn't or wouldn't implies that Hamilton is naive to the point of idiocy. He isn't.

 

[Il_leone]

One person questioned the Mercedes fighting for the same piece of road was Nigel Mansell who labelled Mercedes drivers " Unprofessional!

Viscount

no one was more blatant than Michael Schumacher at doing it and he would seriously leave it right until the last minute to chop your nose if he had to

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[Il_leone]

Canada is one of those circuits where going for lunge down at the first corner is fraught with danger if you come off second best due to the lack of run off

 

[KekeTheKing]

TBY - What most everybody has said is that Canada 2014, Austin 2015, and Canada 2016 featured fairly common first corner racing. And that's exactly what it was.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Both Toto and Nico described the move as hard with Toto adding that the team are having to have these kind of discussions after almost every race.

I think teabagyokel is spot on, they would all do something similar in the same circumstances and many have done. The problem being if you are a fan of one drive and not the other it may be a little difficult to be objective at times. We've all been there I'm sure.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Several people have said that in one way or another.

And just so we're clear now, Hamilton fans need not bother discussing any incident he may be involved with as our opinions have been invalidated already?

 

[cider_and_toast]

Not at all. Anyone is welcome to discuss any aspect of Hamilton's racing, career etc. Anyone's opinion is as valid as the next (providing it's delivered within the forum rules of course).

 

[KekeTheKing]

But it's clear that TBY is operating from the position that when Lewis is involved in an incident (can we even call this an incident?), then whatever stance his supporters may take, the exact opposite must be true because we're blinded by our fandom.

Trying to apply that presupposition to this incident seems a bit much.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Both Mercedes drivers have come off second best in the court of fandom at times. It has been argued on these pages that Rosberg shouldn't have attempted to even put his car there.

To my mind it was a poor start and cooler tyres due to being held on the grid for an age that lead to Hamilton understeering his way through turn 1. Not enough grip and not giving an inch of track to a car alongside did the rest.

 

[The Pits]

at least we'll have plenty to talk about during the summer break.

 

[KekeTheKing]

No doubt it was a bad start for Lewis. Rosberg's was obviously better, but it takes a Vettel-like launch to jump the Pole-sitter from P2. Montreal has a very short run to T1 and history has shown that being on the outside there is not where you want to be.

Nico's problems were an inadvertent consequence of Lewis' subpar start. Quite literally, he had nowhere to go.

 

[Bill Boddy]

But it's clear that TBY is operating from the position that when Lewis is involved in an incident (can we even call this an incident?), then whatever stance his supporters may take, the exact opposite must be true because we're blinded by our fandom.

Trying to apply that presupposition to this incident seems a bit much.

Equally it could be argued that if Hamilton is involved in an incident neutrals and non- Hamllton fans are wasting their time commenting because there are Hamilton fans who will go to extreme lengths to deny that Hamilton never does any wrong. Some will even post multiple times in multiple numbers of threads. If you can't come to some sort of agreement within 3 postings it probably isn't worth continuing.

TBY has every right to take a point of view unless the Mafia ordain otherwise.

 

[cider_and_toast]

If I need to start mod'ing the Mafia I'm outta here. I've seen Goodfellows.

 

[FB]

I ate one of their pizza's once.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Hamilton did not leave that space and so should have yielded the place to Rosberg at the very least.

How can I possibly come to grips with comments like these when in Spain you (and others) were obstinate that Rosberg was fully entitled to do whatever was necessary to keep Hamilton at bay?

 

[racecub]

Just thought I'd throw in at this point the issue of the Merc starts. They haven't been good. Both were bad on Sunday, Lewis' worse than Rosberg's. It was due to an issue with the clutch........seems Merc have improved somewhat on the issue of strategy...which is great. But they have an issue with their start system, the clutch.
Lewis has said he made a perfect start for the formation lap, did the same thing, what the team asked him to do, for the race, but the clutch slipped and had no torque.
Clutch issue caused Hamilton's poor start in Canada

Ps. I must concur with KekeTheKing regarding the hypocrisy that surrounds incidents involving Hamilton and Rosberg.

 

[Bill Boddy]

How can I possibly come to grips with comments like these when in Spain you (and others) were obstinate that Rosberg was fully entitled to do whatever was necessary to keep Hamilton at bay?

Of you could show me which post(s) you mean I would be grateful.

 

[Lewywo4]

I read, but can't confirm regarding a comment that Lewis may have made after the 2015 Brazilian GP. Supposedly he said the following, " it's motor racing, We got to Interlagos and he pushed me wide, and that's what I expect. I would have done exactly the same thing. I was like good on you man."
I don't know, but it sounds to me that's something that Hamilton would likely say.

 

[Lewywo4]

Ps. I must concur with KekeTheKing regarding the hypocrisy that surrounds incidents involving Hamilton and Rosberg.

That hypocrisy racecub, I don't believe was just limited to Rosberg, regarding incidents involving Lewis.......