2024 Canadian GP: Post Race Analysis

The Canadian Grand Prix is always a banger. A changing condition race just makes it that much better.

Red Bull Racing didn't appear to quite have the best car, certainly not the class of the field. Verstappen did what he typically does and that's perform at a level that the rest can't seem to match. The car, as predicted, struggled over the curbs. In the wet the car didn't look particularly strong, but on a dry line with medium tires the car was the best it was all day. A tough but very deserving win from Max. Perez. Wow. Horrible qualifying and then another driver error taking himself out of the race.

McLaren had a very strong car. Looked to be the best car in the wet, maybe not so much in the dry. Its a shame the race director took so long to throw an obvious Safety Car, but maybe McLaren should have been more prepared and Lando had about 1 second to still dart into the pits. Piastri had a solid race overall, but far from a stand out performance.

Mercedes looked the best they have all year. That's great for the championship. George made that ballsy move on Lewis near the end for a podium. You have to think had this been even just last year that Mercedes would have told both of them to hold position. George again showing he makes significant mistakes when he's on the limit or when there is pressure. Lewis seemed hard on himself this weekend. Claiming he made a lot of mistakes, but he raced his way up to 3rd at one point which is a good performance to me. Technically he moved forward while his teammate moved backwards.

Aston Martin were in a race by themselves. Didn't have the pace to challenge the top 3, and were fast enough safely be ahead of everyone. Alonso we expect to be the leading AMR, but Stroll has proved to be good in these changing conditions. Well done to both.

Visa RB perhaps made an error by allowing both cars to race. Could they have used Ricciardo more defensively to protect their positions. Instead Yuki pushed his way into a mistake that nearly was a monster crash. Overall a good race for Ricciardo, but fans should not expect him to be the team leader after he scores points.

Alpine had a wonderful result. Double points in a difficult race. They completely screwed Ocon in the end, but JV did call it correctly. Ocon in his interview played victim and said he was a team player, but in fact he initially refused, then waited a lap or two which meant Gasly never got the chance to fight Ricciardo. Though it did seem the team wanted Gasly ahead. Ocon may have loads of speed, but his actions appear to have made him an enemy within the teams he has driven for.

Haas nearly got some points. The choice to put both cars on wet tires probably wasn't a great idea. I understand gambling with one car, but they probably should have split the strategy. Shocking that Kmag ended up finishing behind Hulkenberg today.

Sauber chose to start from pit lane after changing both cars to a higher downforce rain setup. Great for the first half but once in dry conditions, they had no pace. Their pitstops remain a disaster as Zhou had what looked like another half minute pitstop.

Ferrari could not have gotten much worse. Returning for this weekend we see poor pace, poor engine power, poor reliability, poor strategy, and of course driver errors. Realistically if both cars finished, they would have collected just a few points anyways.

Williams were in the fight with Albon. Sadly he got collected by some very poor driving by Sainz. He deserved to be in the mix for those 8, 9, 10 positions. Logan, big surprise he couldn't keep the car out of the wall.

Driver of the Day: Max Verstappen. Didn't have the best car. Tricky conditions. Very stiff and non compliant which is not what you want on a wet track. Did make a little blunder early, but not as bad as Russell, and was faster than both McLaren and Mercedes in the end.