Everyone made mistakes except Max: the Canadian GP is his!

Judging by the result of the Canadian Grand Prix, it seems that Formula 1 has returned to the values ​​that characterized the last two seasons. But upon closer inspection, victory number 60 of Max Verstappen's career hides a much greater significance than many of his other race wins, because it's the result of mistake-free driving in a scenario made even more complicated by the changing weather conditions.

But as always, before analyzing what happened in the race,here's the final classification (beside the positions swing over the 70 laps covered):

So let's retrace the dynamics of the race...

The gamble of the two Haas at the start, as both Ferraris immediately struggle

Ever since the warm-up lap, the water-filled clouds gathering over the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve had made it clear that the weather situation would dictate the entire course of the race, and ultimately that was the case.

The first unexpected event concerned the choice of the Haas pitwall to start Magnussen and Hulkenberg on Full Wet tyres, whereas all the other 18 starters had opted for the Intermediates: unlike what one might think, however, the strategic gamble seemed to pay off immediately, with the two drivers of the American team engaged in a comeback that in the space of a few laps took them to fourth and eighth place respectively.

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Unfortunately for Kevin and Nico, the problem only emerged from lap 8, when the progressive drying of the track caused the compound of their Pirelli Full Wet tyres to "open up". At that point, the Haas strategists decided to split the tactics of the two cars, calling Magnussen back to the pits and leaving Hulkenberg on track, dealing with an increasingly accentuated sliding - in the hope that the German could switch directly to dry tyres in a few laps, thus avoiding an additional pitstop.

After all, it can be said that the gamble didn't pay off, and the race of the two above-mentioned drivers brought them back to the anonymous positions they're used to...

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Speaking of anonymous positions, the second reason of interest in the initial stages of the race was linked to the lack of any form of comeback of the two Ferraris, which with both Leclerc and Sainz struggled to recover positions, entangled in an unedifying battle with Williams, RB and Alpine ... For the Monegasque driver, in particular, the Canadian GP was an immediate disaster due to an engine problem which caused him to lose approximately 80 HP of power, which in turn meant a lack of 1.2 s/lap on the Canadian track.

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

To make matters worse, when the drying of the asphalt allowed the Race Stewards to allow the use of DRS, Charles was easy prey to Albon and Tsunoda, by virtue of a speed delta close to 35 km/h in DRS on conditions for the two. Delving more specifically into the above-mentioned drop in power, after the race each Ferrari spokeperson didn't say too much about the extent of the problem, only stating that it was something related to engine control, rather than a mechanical failure.

This thesis also explains why, just under halfway through the race, a long pitstop for Charles allowed him to carry out a "power cycle", simply a reset of the Power Unit which effectively turned off the alarm, restoring full power for the winner of the last Monaco GP. At this stage, despite having solved the issue, a strategic gamble saw him back on track with Hard tyres, on a tarmac that was getting wet once again: that marked the lapping by race leaders, which was followed by the retirement of the SF-24 number 16.

The McLaren pitwall throws away a possible victory for Norris, to the advantage of Verstappen

Returning to the top tier positions, after a start without any change of position, on lap 20 it was Lando Norris who broke through, overtaking Verstappen at the entry to the last chicane, after having recovered a gap of around 10 seconds on the Dutchman, bottled up behind leader George Russell.

On the following lap it was Russell himself who was overtaken by Norris, with an MCL38 which in that phase of the race (as well as in many others, to be honest) was the fastest car on track. On the occasion of the overtaking - which took place at the same spot as the one on Verstappen - the Mercedes' Englishman made a mistake which led him to cut the chicane, returning on a particularly damp spot of the track: Max didn't waste a single moment, and overtook him without offering him any opportunity to reply.

Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

With these positions, the twist came on lap 25, when Logan Sargeant's spin and consequent collision with the barrier led to the introduction of Safety Car: everyone took the opportunity to pull into the pits and fit a new set of Intermediate tyres, except race leader Lando Norris. At that stage, the McLaren pitwall, as well as the driver himself, had plenty of time to come in and make a relatively calm pitstop, but a hesitation meant that the Englishman stayed on the track one lap too long, losing not only the leadership, but also the second place from Russell...

The second Safety Car brings the group back together and Hamilton is back into the fight!

When the race restarted, on lap 29, the first four positions were therefore - in order - Verstappen, Russell, Norris and Piastri (being them consistently the fastest throughout the race, if we exclude Hamilton who lost a lot of time behind Alonso's very slow Aston Martin, but as we know the Spaniard is very hard to overtake). For almost 20 laps the situation remained stationary, until the track dried up enough to encourage the front runners to fit dry tyres.

Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

And so, similarly to what happened during the previous Safety Car regime, here too Lando Norris decided to delay his pitstop by a single lap compared to Verstappen and Russell, with the result of re-emerging behind them again, due to exiting the pits with cold tyres and a mistake in the difficult braking zone of Turn 10, which exposed him to the return of the Mercedes... Only an error by Russell himself (on lap 51) allowed him to regain second place, but with a gap of 5.5 s from leader Verstappen which he could have closed with great difficulty, provided he wouldn't make any more mistakes!

In reality the race suffered a second interruption, again via a Safety Car, this time due to the crash triggered by Carlos Sainz's Ferrari - and in which an innocent (and unlucky) Alex Albon was involved. Cynically, we could say that this crash interrupted Ferrari's suffering in a race where they never showed sufficient pace even to get back into the points with some degree of comfort... And whereas Leclerc was plagued by the above-mentioned issues, the same cannot be said for Sainz, who had a "healthy" but simply slow SF-24 in his hands: the engineers of the team from Maranello will carefully evaluate whether the poor performance shown in the Canadian weekend was a result of particularly unfavourable conditions, or whether some setup errors have been made - which in this case should be avoided in the future.

Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Taking advantage of the interruption, those who thought about returning into the pits and making an extra pitstop to put themselves in a favourable tyre life condition against the others were the two Mercedes drivers, opting for exactly the opposite compounds compared to the previous stint: Medium for Russell, Hard for Hamilton. On the other hand, it must be said, they were the only two drivers who could afford a similar choice without sacrificing too much track position, which instead would have penalized Verstappen or Norris a lot!

Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

In any case, the last 12 laps saw the overtaking of the aforementioned Russell and Hamilton to the detriment of Oscar Piastri, who's ultimately the driver who has the most to regret after a race run with excellent laptimes, aboard a McLaren MCL38 which - as mentioned - was for large stretches the fastest single-seater on track. The Canadian GP therefore ended like this, with the victory of an "unblemished" Max Verstappen ahead of a long list of drivers who, for one reason or another, threw away an important race win opportunity. After Imola, this is another 100% deserved victory for the Dutchman, with a value that is even greater if we think of the "disgrace" made by Perez before his DNF...

Two weeks before the Spanish GP, what changes in the standings?

The classification in the Drivers' World Championship sees the following situation, with Verstappen obviously extending to +56 points on his first pursuer (who is still Leclerc, but now with Norris only 8 points behind). Behind the top three, the gap between Sainz and Perez remains just one point, as the two concluded their GP prematurely.

Even in the Constructors' World Championship we have a "thud" for Ferrari, which after having come very close to Red Bull at the Monaco GP, now suffers a gap of 49 points. Now McLaren is third, a further 40 points away, a gap which in my opinion should not be underestimated either by the Cavallino team or by the Milton Keynes team...

The next Grand Prix will take place in two weeks in Barcelona, ​​in what will likely be the penultimate stage on Catalan soil before the Circus officially moves the venue of the Spanish GP to Madrid, in 2026.

A change of location which I personally find against, as the Circuit de Catalunya is a classic in Formula 1, with such a complete and demanding layout for the single-seaters that we've often witnessed real benchmarks of what the rest of the season would have been. Despite this, in the history of this circuit there were as many as 10 years (from 2007 to 2017) in which we saw 10 different winners, proof of a circuit that knows how to bring unpredictable results.

So, see you in two weeks!

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