F1. Canada 2023 review

By Chelsea Wintle, Aiden McLaughlin and Gavin Huet

Driver of the day

Aiden – Take a bow Alex Albon. P9 in qualifying, P7 in the race and enough points to lift Williams off the bottom of the constructors championship. Whilst most drivers around him stopped twice to change tyres, Albon only stopped once, during an early safety car period, and then ran a set of hard rubbers for 58 of the 70 laps. The Williams has good straight line speed, and his car had an upgrade package, but  Albon’s resilience under pressure was great to see.

Chelsea – Exceptional tire management sees Alex Albon take it this week. After topping Q2 and starting the race in 10th, Albon used a single stop strategy to his advantage, finished in seventh. The Thai driver spent 40 laps nursing his tyres to keep the pack in his rear view – not a fun afternoon by any means, but a testament to both his skills and focus.

Gavin – Max Vertappen is unstoppable – the drive, the choices, the strategy, everything. And now he has equalled Ayrton Senna’s career total of 41 victories. Every race Max is on the team radio moaning about tyre grip and every race he dominates, to me this speaks of a driver who is seeking perfection and demands it of the Red Bull Racing team and of course himself. Late in the race he did show that he is human as he went flying over the kerbs hard enough for him to laughingly say he was close to knocking himself out. I am not a Max fan, and I was not an Ayrton fan either, but there is no denying their brilliance.
Special mention goes to Alex Albon who had a good qualifying session, chose a one stop strategy, and then held everyone at bay in a long DRS train to finish seventh.

Moment of the weekend
Aiden – People may love or hate Red Bull, but it’s hard not to like their chief technical officer, Adrian Newey. Now 64 years old, and with successful spells at Williams and McLaren before he joined Red Bull in 2006, Max Verstappen’s win at the weekend was the 200th Newey has been associated with in Formula One, and when this quiet man took the stage for the presentations, he fully deserved his moment in the limelight.

Chelsea – Halfway through the race, Nyck de Vries made a manoeuvre that could charitably be called bold – outbraking himself while tussling with Kevin Magnussen on turn 3. Both drivers ended up in the run-off area, and out of the points. Stewards deemed it a racing incident, but the pressure continues in de Vries’ faltering performances

Gavin – Seeing a DRS train, no really, hear me out. One of the criticisms levelled at F1, which always rears its head when a driver or team is so dominant, is that it is boring. So seeing a bunch of cars in a DRS train like that means that those cars are performing relative to each other which in turn means closer racing and attempts at overtaking and therefore excitement. Yes Max was still out in the lead but even then he finished less than ten seconds in front of Fernando Alonso who was less than five seconds in front of Lewis Hamilton. Seventh to fourteenth were covered by under fifteen seconds and there was some flat out racing there right until the chequered flag. Maybe the DRS rule should be tweaked, if you are less than a second behind someone you only get DRS if you don’t have anyone less than a second behind you in turn…?

Hot take of the weekend
Aiden – Stick to what you do best Daniel Ricciardo – this ain’t it.

Chelsea – Lando Norris’ penalty for unsportsmanlike behaviour has us both equally flummoxed. After finishing in ninth, Norris was dropped to 13th after slowing down behind the safety car to allow a gap to form between himself and teammate Oscar Piastri. The intention was to create enough time for McLaren to change the tyres on both cars without delaying either, but this fell afoul of a singular, very ambiguously-worded regulation. It was enough to furrow my brow, and I’ll be interested to see if similar penalties are issued in the future.

Gavin – Ferrari made a strategy call in the race and basically got it right! Usually when a safety car is deployed teams will call their drivers in to change tyres as, relatively, there is less time lost. George Russell hitting the wall ensured that the safety car was deployed and Ferrari did the opposite of most teams and kept their drivers out thereby moving them up the order cheaply. The Ferrari’s would still need to change tyres but the hope was that they could build a lead and keep in front of that mid-pack battle. Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull (remember him?) did the same and even though he had the better car could not make inroads on the Ferrari duo. Now if only the Scuderia can get it right when qualifying as their decision to get a banker lap in meant Charles Leclerc did not get into Q3.

Cold take of the weekend
Aiden – 

Question: Have we seen it all when it comes to F1?
Answer: No, definitely not – the first practice session was curtailed because (drum roll please) of an issue with CCTV at the track! The cameras were not synced correctly to what was happening on racetrack, which was deemed to be a safety risk as they help marshals know what is taking place when sessions are live. Not good for teams, drivers or spectators, although the second practice session was extended by 30 minutes to compensate.

Chelsea – Sad news this week as the all-female racing series W-Series went into receivership after three years. The series has done wonders for raising the profile of women in the sport, with names like Jamie Chadwick, Marta Garcia and Abbi Pulling gaining impressive followings. With F1’s broader reach riding on the continued success of Drive to Survive, and the launch of F1 Academy in 2023, there’s still never been a better time for women in racing.

Gavin – McLaren are on struggle street. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri (who I think is showing great potential in his rookie season) fought valiantly and made some great moves on their opponents but the car is just not good and the updates are only going to be available from the next race in Austria in two weeks time, and even then the upgrades will be trickled in over three race weekends. The McLaren weekend was not helped by Lando getting a five second penalty for unsportsmanlike behaviour for slowing down too much behind the safety car when trying to make some room to double stack the cars when changing tyres. It’s a long season for them with only glimpses of any potential. There is always next year but it is not a guarantee that 2024 will be any different as none of the other teams are standing still in terms of developing the car.

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