F1. Canada 2026 Review
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By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle, and Graeme WoolfDriver of the Weekend
Graeme:Lewis Hamilton. The multiple Champion has struggled since moving to Ferrari at the beginning of last season, so to see him glide into 2 nd place in Canada was a nice sight. It was great to see his battle with Max Verstappen as well near the end of the race. It was like watching F1 from 3 years ago.
Chelsea: It seems a lifetime ago that a Lewis Hamilton podium was so rote it was almost boring. If you’re under the age of six, it probably is. This weekend – after a thoroughly painful 2025 beset by poor strategy, a fractious relationship with his race engineer, and the quivering angst that is watching Pete Bonnington move on with a younger man – Hamilton came in second. In a race beset by chaos, Hamilton drove steady, and even gave us a classic overtake on Max Verstappen in the final stages. The sun always shines a little brighter when Lewis Hamilton is happy.
Gavin: I feel I should choose Kimi Antonelli but no, this time I am going for Lewis (or Luigi as Team Principal Fred Vasseur jokingly called him) Hamilton for finishing second in the main race on Sunday. He was in much better form this weekend than his Ferrari team mate, Charles Leclerc, who seemed lost all weekend. Whatever Lewis has been doing recently he needs to bottle that and keep it going for the rest of the year.
Talking Point
Graeme:I’ve said it before, but things are getting even spicier at Mercedes. They clearly have the quickest two cars in the field and George Russell & Kimi Antonelli provided some great racing throughout he weekend. Like McLaren in Canada last year, it looks like a matter of time before one of them does something stupid and causes an accident with the other. Dad (Toto Wolff) will be furious on the radio then.
Chelsea: This time last year we were already heavy into the Oscar v Lando debate, and this year it’s same same but silver. Across the sprint and qualifying sessions there were only two serious contenders – Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Antonelli was coming in hot after three victories in a row, while Russell had a point to prove, and took front place on the grid to set himself up nicely. There was some genuinely spicy wheel-to-wheel between the two, to the point where Toto Wolff had to call for calm, but in the end the drama ended with a whimper. Russell’s power unit failed him, and he trundled across the grass “sounding like a bag of spanners,” according to one Martin Brundle. Russell then petulantly turfed his steering wheel onto the track, a move more embarrassing than dangerous, and copped a suspended fine of 5,000 Euro for his trouble. Blues.
Gavin: When do the FIA enforce the rules? It is now very clear that they will only look at incidents if a team complains because surely they should have had a proper look at some of the exchanges between the Mercedes drivers. If the argument is that internal team rivalry is for the team to manage then they are missing a trick as these battles are traditionally the more brutal ones – maybe that is also because the drivers know the FIA won’t do anything about it anyway. One day this lack of action it is going to cause a huge issue for a driver and team.
As an aside, I know they were not the only team to do it, but why did McLaren choose intermediate tyres for the start of the race? From the broadcast snippets, it sounds like both drivers opposed this decision but the team went with it anyway. It cost them any chance of competing on the day.
Gossip Time
Graeme:McLaren is fast becoming the new Ferrari. Ferrari became known in the past few years for making dumb mistakes and weird strategy decisions, but it looks like McLaren has grabbed that mantle now. Half the world was wondering why they started on Intermediate tyres for the Grand Prix when there was only a smattering of rain around and everyone else that matters was on slicks. With all the technology they have at their disposal, how did they not know that the rain would amount to nothing? They effectively threw away their races before the race even started.
Chelsea: It’s also bizarre that this time last year we were agog at McLaren’s ingenious and seemingly unbeatable upgrades. This year they have undoubtedly fallen behind, but even more bizarrely, they seem to have adopted Ferrari’s knack for arbitrary strategy calls. Both Piastri and Norris started the race on intermediate tyres, anticipating that classic Montreal shower. Despite Piastri’s repeated protests on one of the many formation laps, they retained their strategy, with Norris gleaning an early advantage, only to be called into the pits on lap two. Ultimately, Norris retired with a gearbox failure, and Piastri finished out of the points after thwacking into Alex Albon.
Gavin: All the memes dropping with that George Russell quote about Max Verstappen’s “anger and borderline violence” whilst showing him having a tantrum about his engine failure are great entertainment – throwing the headrest onto the track in front of his car, punching his car, then looking at his car like a jilted lover as it gets pushed out of the way was truly funny. Seriously though, he is meant to be the Mercedes team leader and the director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, isn’t this all a bit childish from him?
Looking Ahead
Graeme:Monaco. Probably the most famous of all Grand Prix. The date has been pushed back this year, so we wait another 2 weeks. Ferrari are favoured according to the experts. Charles Leclerc will be keen to win his home race for a second time and Lewis Hamilton will be looking for his first full race win in his Ferrari. Can’t wait.
Chelsea: Monaco! Monaco! Monaco! It’s got tunnels, the best-named chicane in the competition (La Rascasse), the eternally wooden Prince Albert, Charles Leclerc’s dog all the time, a swimming pool right there by the track, and a whole lot of people on boats not even watching the race. What’s not to love? Mercedes say that Ferrari will be the team to beat, but we all know that tune, and I’m making the early call that it’ll be George Russell’s comeback race. Today I learned that the national dish of Monaco is Barbagiuan, which is basically deep fried cheese pie. I’ll take seven.
Gavin: In two week the European races begin with Monaco, so be prepared for the “it has to be on the calendar because it is historic” versus “you cannot overtake so it is not racing” arguments to go into overdrive. I love Monaco and feel it is a small price to pay for such a unique race – at least it is not a race in some oil rich backwater that no one has ever visited and would not know existed if it were not on the F1 calendar.
Bonus Photo
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