2025 Canadian GP: Post Race Analysis

The Canadian Grand Prix almost always delivers one of the best races of the season. Not so much this year. Surprising since Pirelli brought the softest range of tires which forces different strategies and that's exciting. Unfortunately about 60 of the 70 laps were quite bland, but the ending was cracking up to be a pretty exciting. Sad it ended under a SC.

Mercedes were the best car this weekend. George drove a great race, was never really challenged. Too bad for him he still comes out as a whiny cry baby as he slams on the brakes in front of Max and then tries to get Max penalty. That's pathetic. Kimi Antonelli did a great job. He's still on George's level but he withstood a load of pressure and collected a podium.

Red Bull didn't look like a great car this weekend but the lack of corners probably helped them. Max does what he does and brought home a 2nd place. A very strong result to keep some hope in his championship. Yuki made an effort for a recovery drive but just wasn't fast enough to challenge for points.

McLaren had an off weekend. Second best car a distant ways off Mercedes. A fun, tough but fair fight between the two McLaren drivers until Lando forgot how to drive and simply rammed his wing into the back of Oscar with no space on the left. Hats off to Lando for taking full responsibility and accepting it was a silly move. However that excuse it's his own mistakes that are eliminating him from the championship.

Ferrari should probably be happy with 5th and 6th. The car looked well off the pace in outright speed. A very strong performance from Leclerc. Very good tire management and kept moving forward. Unfortunate to again hear him disagree with the strategy. Though I believe the pitwall was correct over his beliefs, but it probably could have been optimized better. Hamilton apparently hit a ground hog and got damage. Believable and if it damaged the fences on his floor then it surely cost him some performance.

Aston Martin have definitely shifted the balance in their car. Alonso is consistently fighting in the points, even getting the car into Q3 in quali. Meanwhile Lance is literally last of the running cars.

Sauber have done something good with their recent upgrade. Hulkenberg a brilliant 8th place. Bortoleto has fallen off and is a long ways from his teammate's pace. He needs to figure something out while the car is it's best form of the season.

Haas get some points with Ocon who kind of flew under the radar all race. We saw a scruffy race from Bearman who was battling all day but failed to score.

Williams really missed a good opportunity. Canada is a track that suits their car. Sainz gets hosed in quali but has a fantastic recovery to score the final point. Albon probably was on a failing strategy but the engine issues didn't help his performance and eventually forced a retirement.

Alpine not that strong. Probably expected since Canada is a power track. Colapinto looked to be back in top form. A solid race by him. Gasly, one of his worst performances of the year.

RB's just looked awful today. Not a big surprise from Lawson but Hadjar has been solid all year and just didn't have anything to show today.

Drive of the Day. One could say Russell for controlled win. One could say Antonelli for his first podium. I'm going with Nico Hulkenberg. Once again solid points on merit. He could single-handedly change Sauber's championship standings this year. Great job.

 

Nice write up as usual ! Maybe F1 needs yet another rule, if a safety car is needed with 5 laps or less, there is an automatic red flag, stop the race, clean the track and do a standing start

 

Or hold them in the pit lane and then let them go after the safety car pulls in on the next lap.

The order can be sorted on dollies.

 

For me the big take way is that Norris may be losing the Championship race by race. This was another example of not being
in control and not seeing the bigger picture. Having lost out in quali, left him with extra pressure and had to force the issue.

Kuddos to Russell, I'm not so fond of him, but he was "cooler" and a bit more humble in the win than in the past.

 

Great analysis as usual, Chris. I’m not sure I agree with the pit wall to bring in Charles. I think he could have done a one stop and maybe get a podium. I would split DOD between Hulk and Alonso. Showing the youngsters how it’s done!

 

I like the idea of a stoppage of the race. I hate F1 red flags as it allows everyone to fix damage, make changes, and change tires. If F1 can fix their red flag procedure then I absolutely agree. What a finish it would have been.

 

Maybe. I'm not sure since nobody did a good job making the one stop work. It's likely it would have resulted in the exact same position. I just don't think Ferrari were ever fast enough to challenge Mercedes or McLaren.

 

Also agree on the plan to stop the race, but no changes to the car! Parc Fermé conditions. If you need to do changes to the car because there was damage,
then you have to let everyone one go by. The car had issues anyway and the others did not, so it is only fair to go to the back.

 

There is no need to restart a race that has been red flagged a few laps from the end.

I believe the rules say that if 75% of the race distance has been run, the positions at the time of the stoppage determine the result.

 

Charles made a rare mistake in practice and qualy and that costed him a frontt position on the grid, not sure if blame him for missin pole or a front row seat or to compliment him on actualy having a shot at it with that cliford!
Still, the fact he missed almost q1, all q2, and was still confortably faster than elton says something about how useless Ferrari's latest aquisition is.... I'm glad we have the WEC!!!!

 

The intent on that is unsafe weather or if someone dies. There was still racing to be done in good weather.

 

Hmmmm, that gives me an even better idea…

Red Flag, then one lap dolly sprint to the finish. May the strongest team win.

 

Great point ! I also dislike that cars can be fixed during red flags, it seems so unfair.

 

Hey Martin - Its long overdue lol 7 seasons in the series now. He's fast becoming less attractive as a WDC contender and less impressive overall. 2019 rookie season was a long time ago in F1 career years. F1 is starting to find youth again. Norris needs to sharpen up soon.

Brundle: Norris must bring A-Game to title race after 'clumsy' Canada error

 

One reason: Seeing a race for the win. I would think everyone would want to see a race finish under green.

 

Skysports doing everything possible to push their British pride and keep their fan base tuning in with the fantasy that Norris is the title favorite.

 

Martin should have been more blunt. The pattern this year is beyond obvious. Errors consistently and at the wrong time. Can you imagine the commentary had Stroll done this? Sorry but Lando is starting to look somewhat over - rated. He's degraded not improved vs last year. If a turn around is on the way he faded in Canada badly. He forgets to finish, gain points then adjust. He acted as if he was going to take the win.

 

Not everyone !! I hate seeing drivers who have gained an advantage by superior driving and created a gap with their pursuers being robbed of their effort by a restart for a few laps.
We have seen that this can lead to manipulation by officials, suspicious strategy by the teams, etc ...
The result taken one lap before the red flag, in accordance to the rules, is totally fair.

 

I've watched Lewis' in-car from laps 7-13 (period the poor, dumb groundhog supposedly met his or her end) and didn't see anything that looked like a slow blob in front of his car, but he was hanging pretty close to Piastri for at least the 1st 10 laps (while Charles, on Hard tires, dropped further behind Noris) until the gap starts to grow around this point.

Not much love from the peanut gallery as usual but nice job by Lewis keeping his battle-damaged car on the road for a respectable points haul.

 

I posted a video and pic of the carcass in the racing thread.....last page for the time being.

 

Jacques says the rules allow for a red flag with restart at the end.
Piastri pulled a 'nasty' move on Norris causing Canadian Grand Prix crash

 

The key takeaway from this is the Oscar definitely has the upper hand on Norris. I think Norris has more raw speed (not much, but clearly there) but Oscar has better race craft and that’s likely to be decisive.

What the hell is going on at Ferrari? Whilst everyone else is positively developing their car, Ferrari just seem to be stuck in the wilderness and look just as clueless as usual. A shambles.

Hopefully RB and Merc can continue to be competitive and give McLaren a proper fight in the second half of the season.

 

I don't see why I should agree with Jacques Villeneuve's opinion.
I think the 75% rule still applies after any Red Flag interruption.
The Clerk of the course has discretion to restart the race or not.
I stand by my statement: "There is no need to restart a race that has been red flagged a few laps from the end."

 

Maybe if the leader is 10 seconds away and gaining, but not if there is a legit battle between the top few.

 

Take an example.
A huge shunt occurs involving several cars 10 laps from the end of a 70 laps race, calling for a Red Flag.
The race is stopped, for the rescue intervention, to evacuate the casualties, to clear the track, repair the guardrail and rebuild the tyre wall.
It takes almost 2 hours before the track is declared safe and racing can resume; by which time it starts to be dark.
Should the race be restarted ?