The 2024 Canadian Grand Prix was a classic which will sit well in the pantheon of the greatest races in F1 history. Rain just before the start meant the event was declared wet by F1 race control and meant the drivers didn’t need to run two different sets of the dry tyres. 

All the drivers started on the reliable intermediate tyres, but the Haas F1 duo decided to use the extreme wet which proved exciting as they carved through the field as the others struggled with grip. Kevin Magnussen made it up to P4 in a handful of laps having started in fourteenth place.

 

 

 

Chaotic start to Canadian F1 GP

Yet the failure of the rain to come in the first ten minutes which the Haas F1 team had predicted meant that Magnussen and Hulkenberg eventually lost the places they gained during the opening phase of the Montreal race.

Up front the battles in the wet were robust. Lando Norris went down the inside at the final chicane to pull off a move on George Russel for the lead of the race. Norris had capitalised on a mistake from Max Verstappen to move into P2 and proceed to hunt down the Mercedes at times two seconds a lap quicker than those around him.

Piastri fending off the advances of Lewis Hamilton was asked whether he felt he could challenge Russell for the lead if team orders were issued orders to allow him to pass his team mate. Yet the humble Australian informed the team he was more concerned with keeping Lewis Hamilton behind as the two battled lap after lap.

The TJ13 team had a sweepstake as to which driver wold cause the first caution of the race. Favourites were Zhou who had been in the wall twice before the race along with Logan Sargeant, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. And duly it was the Floridian driver Sargeant who cause the first caution of the race which meant everything changed.

Alpine confirms Schumacher talks

 

 

 

Sargeant predictably hits the wall

Norris by now was leading the Grand Prix and some eight seconds ahead of the current world champion. Race control delayed their decision to deploy the safety car as they waited to see if the marshals could manage the situation without intervention. Yet his appeared a poor decision given Sargeant’s car was stranded in a part of the circuit where no nearby access road was available to remove the car.

The lap before the safety car being deployed as race control were deciding what to do with Logan’s stricken Williams, Max, George and Lewis decided to pit for fresh rubber given rain was imminent, so they switched their drivers to another set of the intermediate wet tyre. As these drivers emerges from the pits it appeared those who had stayed out had benefited because their worn, but warm, tyres still performed better than the new ones which struggled to get up to temperature as they trundled down the soaking wet pit lane and its exit.

It was over a lap falling Sergeants predictable error before race control decided to deploy the safety car for the broken Williams and the timing of this decision and its communication was critical for McLaren and Lando Norris fortunes.

Following a genius move to overtake leader Max Verstappen, and leading the race, Norris came upon the safety car decision earlier than Russell and Verstappen behind him, and initially it appeared he was too far into his new lap to take advantage of a cheap pitstop as he arrived at the final chicane before the start/finish straight.

Dominos in the driver market fall as BIG contract announced in Canada

 

 

 

McLaren error exposed

Yet video replays show the safety car was deployed as Norris was half way along the final straight where the pit lane is positioned at the end, and had the team strategists been on their game the moment race control sent out Berhd Mylander, Norris could have been called in for a set of fresh rubber and retained the lead of the race.

When suggested to Norris in the media pen following the chequered flag, the race was wild. Lando replied: “It was. It was chaos. It was eventful.

“To be honest, I felt like I drove a good race from start to finish. The first two stints were very strong, I had amazing pace, then the safety car had me over. Just like it helped me in Miami, now it had me back over.”

In Miami, Norris won the race benefiting from a perfectly timed safety car as Lando had the best strategy to run long while the others around him pitted for fresh rubber. In Canada this was not true and McLaren threw away a maiden race win for the British driver with their failure to be ready to call the winner of the Miami Grand Prix in at the last second.

Russel 8-2 to Hamilton: The secret of his success

 

 

 

 

The evidence demonstrates Norris saw the safety car deployment notice from both the lighting system around the track and his steering wheel with enough time for him to have immediately slowed and entered the pits.

Yet Lando did another lap given he had been two seconds quicker that those who had pitted for new rubber, but he picked up the safety car half way around the lap and lost ten seconds before he could enter the pit lane.

Assessing the first safety car in more depth, Norris added: “The first stint, I was in the lead by what, 10, 12 seconds? [I was] pulling away by two, three seconds a lap.

Marko insults Perez AGAIN: claiming “mental issues”

 

 

 

Norris ‘sort of happy’ with the result

“Things were going beautifully, but this is Montreal,” Norris told assembled media. “And there’s always something that’s got to come into play, but it was good, and fair play to Max, he drove a good race, no mistakes.

“I’m happy with the second, good points for the team, and a good weekend,” continued the British driver.

It was suggested to Norris that it was not ultimately one of those races that got away from him, he replied: “That’s the way it is. It helped me out in Miami, so I’m not going to be the one to complain. It happens. That’s racing.

“I drove a good race, the car’s been great all weekend, so thanks to the team. We’re close, it’s nice to be so close again, and on the podium. We’ll keep fighting.”

Hamilton’s plot to stymie Russell in Canada

 

 

 

 

F1 to ditch hybrid power

Towards the end of the first decade of this millennium, the FIA to make the sport more relevant to ordinary folk and designed a set of regulations to reflect the road cars of the future. Hybrid engines were believed to be the next big thing in terms of power, and so the V8’s were ditched and the V6 1.6L turbo hybrid F1 power unit was born.

Mercedes had bought the one year wonder Brawn GP team in 2010 and they set about the task of building the new FIA specification motor, with great vigour. $1bn of R&D later, the soon to be uber dominant F1 power train went into production… READ MORE