F1-Blog

Canada Preview

The Canadian GP is our only romp into the northern America’s this year.

We have been coming to the Track de Gilles Villeneuve since 1978 for the F1 championship, and it usually makes for an interesting race, with 2005’s GP still holding the record as the most watch GP event, and the third most watched sporting event ever! So it must be good.

The track is named after the first person to win at the track, and Quebec native, Gilles Villeneuve an was named after him after his death in 1982.

This track used to suit the driving style of Michael Schumacher, as he hold the wins record of seven wins, the next best driver is Nelson Piquet on 3. Let’s see if the nephew can better his previous results here, as he certainly needs the boost in confidence that a good finish would give him.

In recent years the car to beat at the track has been the McLaren. This may sound strange as the team have only won here twice since 2000, but the cars always look quick here.

The McLaren’s will be strong off there winning finish in Monaco, and if they can get the setup honed down then will be difficult to beat.

Ferrari though will be trying to get back on top, the team are used to winning here, and Kimi knows how to do it, having won in 2005 in the McLaren. Massa is looking the more rounded driver this season as well, and will also be strong here.

Williams also know what it takes to win in Canada, and will be looking at improving their performance and getting back towards the front of the grid, however they have to take on BMW-Sauber, who were the teams engine supplier when they last won in 2001, and that will be no easy task.

I think the Robert Kubica will be quick here this weekend, as he will be trying to show that his crash here last year has not scared him, and that the BMW’s have found their pace again.

Renault are dark outsiders, Fernando has a checkered history at Canada, in 2006 he won here, but last year he struggled badly in the McLaren, making lots of mistakes, and famously being overtaken by Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri.

Then we have the Toyota and Red Bulls, I think that the Toyota team may just have the edge this weekend in raw pace, as the kerbs are very hard here, and the Red Bull has been shown to not like them much, and perhaps be a little fragile over the big kerbs.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what the Force India team have to offer, they drove a stunning race with Adrian Sutil in Monaco, and deserve a result after their engine supplier ended their race last time out when Kimi shunted the back end of Adrian’s car.

The weather in Montreal this weekend looks quite changeable, and although there was talk of rain on Sunday, it currently looks like it will be thunder showers, and rain has been forecast for Saturday, so could make both the race and qualifying interesting.

See map in Google Earth! / Weather Forecast

Stats :

Fastest Lap 2007 : 1:16.367 (Fernando Alonso)
2007 Pole Time : 1:15.707 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
Most Wins : 7 Michael Schumacher

Link to ITV Web Simulcast for the GP and Practice/Qualifying sessions.

Broadcast Times for Canada in UK time

First practice Friday 15:00
Second practice Friday 19:00
Qualifying Saturday 18:00
Race Sunday 18:00