Everything you need to know about the coming 2023 Canadian Grand Prix
The 2023 Formula 1 season continues with its eighth round, the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal. So far, Red Bull has been dominant and has won every race. Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship for Red Bull with 170 points, and his teammate Sergio Pérez follows with 117.
Red Bull having a perfect F1 season
Verstappen has won five races so far, and Pérez won the other two events. Fernando Alonso is third in the WDC for Aston Martin with 99 points, and Lewis Hamilton is fourth with Mercedes at 87 points.
Hamilton's teammate, George Russell is fifth with 65 points, with the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz (58 points) and Charles Leclerc (42) following in sixth and seventh place. Lance Stroll with 35 points is last among the drivers of the Top 4 teams but finished a solid sixth in the previous round at Barcelona.
Red Bull leads the World Constructors' Championship comfortably with 287 points, more than the combined total of second-placed Mercedes (152) and third-placed Aston Martin (134).
Ferrari is fourth in the WCC with 100 points, followed by Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly) with 40 points. McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) is sixth with only 17 points.
Haas (eight points with Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg), Alfa Romeo (eight points with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu), AlphaTauri (two points with Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck De Vries) and Williams (one point with Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant) round out the World Constructors' Championship positions.
2023 Canadian GP Facts & Figures
Sunday’s race will be the 58th Canadian Grand Prix in history and the 52nd race held as part of the Formula 1 World Championship.
The first Canadian Grand Prix was held in 1961 and was a sports car race. The first Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix happened in 1967, with Jack Brabham winning at Mosport Park with his Brabham car.
From 1967 to 1970, the event alternated between Mosport Park and Mont-Tremblant, two fast circuits with elevation changes and many challenges for drivers and cars. Safety concerns with Mont-Tremblant left the track out of the calendar, and the Canadian GP continued at Mosport Park until 1977.
The event moved to Montreal in 1978 and the then Île Notre-Dame Circuit (today’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve). Legendary Canadian racer Gilles Villeneuve won the first event at Montreal, as he put his Ferrari in first place, ahead of Jody Scheckter’s Wolf and his teammate Carlos Reutemann.
The win was Villeneuve’s first of his career, in his first full season in the sport.
Williams’ Alan Jones won the race in 1980 to seal his only World Drivers’ Championship and the first for the team. In that race, Renault’s Jean-Pierre Jabouille crashed heavily and suffered leg injuries that ultimately ended his Formula 1 competitive career.
The 1982 event saw Nelson Piquet win for Brabham, but the race was marked by Riccardo Paletti’s death in only his second F1 race. The 23-year-old Italian crashed against the stalled Ferrari of Didier Pironi at the start of the race and died shortly after.
In recent history, some of the most memorable Canadian Grands Prix include Jean Alesi taking his first and only Grand Prix win in 1995 while driving a Ferrari with the number 27 on top of it, bringing memories of Gilles Villeneuve to the Italian crowd.
Monaco GP winner Olivier Panis suffered a career-altering crash at the 1997 event, which left him with leg injuries and caused him to miss seven races. That was the seventh event of the 1997 campaign, and Panis was third in the WDC with his Prost car.
In the 2001 event, Ralf Schumacher won for Williams with his brother Michael sitting second, which was the first time in F1 history that siblings finished 1-2 in a race. Both repeated the feat in Canada in 2003, with Michael winning the event.
Robert Kubica crash at Canada 2007 F1 GP
Sir Lewis Hamilton took the first of his record 103 Formula 1 victories in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, as well as the first of his record-setting 103 Pole Positions. That event is also remembered for BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica heavy crash heading to the third-sector hairpin, which caused Kubica to miss the following US Grand Prix, despite many expecting bad news after such a horrific accident.
In the 2008 Canadian GP, Kubica returned to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and won the race, which was his first and only Grand Prix win in F1.
The Canadian round wasn’t part of the 2009 calendar but it returned to Formula 1 in 2010 after a new 5-year deal was signed between organizers and the racing series’ management.
Hamilton won again in 2010 before his then McLaren teammate Jenson Button won a crazy race in 2011 (the longest in F1 history) as the rain created dramatic escenarios throughout the race, including red flags.
Hamilton gave McLaren its third consecutive win at Montreal in 2012 before Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo gave Red Bull consecutive wins in 2013 and 2014 (Ricciardo’s win was his first in Formula 1).
Hamilton dominated from 2015 to 2017 before Vettel won for Ferrari in 2018 (the Scuderia’s first win at the track since 2004). The 2019 race was controversial, as Vettel was given a five-second penalty for re-joining the track unsafely after a mistake in Turn 4.
The British driver was following closely and was going to take advantage of the German’s mistake, but Vettel’s unsafe return to the track forced Hamilton to back off to avoid a collision, prompting the penalty for the four-time champion.
Vettel and Ferrari fans were completely against the penalty and there’s still an exaggerated outrage from media members about it.
The race wasn't part of the calendar in 2020 and 2021 due to issues coming from the pandemic, but it returned in 2022 with Max Verstappen winning the event for Red Bull.
Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton lead the all-time table in terms of wins in Canada with seven apiece. The German won once with Benetton (1994) and six with Ferrari (1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004). On his side, Hamilton won three times for McLaren (2007, 2010, 2012) and four with Mercedes (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019).
Among teams, McLaren leads Ferrari 13 wins to 12, while Williams is third with seven wins in Canada.
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Track info
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a 4.361 km with 14 corners that is definitely tough on brakes and has a fantastic dynamic of medium-speed ‘chicanes’, with the last one having the “Wall of Champions” on the exit, an infamous place where several World Champions have crashed through the years, and three former champions (Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, and Jacques Villeneuve) crashed in 1999.
The first F1 race held in Montreal came in 1978, with the aforementioned win of Gilles Villeneuve in a track named Île Notre-Dame Circuit. Since 1978, Montreal has hosted the Canadian GP, with 40 Grands Prix celebrated at the place since 1978.
In 1982, shortly after Villeneuve’s tragic death in Belgium, the track was renamed after the Canadian legend.
The layout of the circuit has had two big changes since entering F1. The position of the start/finish line was placed shortly after the hairpin (which was Turn 19 at the time). Then, the start/finish line was moved to its current place in 1988, and the track had 17 corners after changes were made to the final sector. The first part of the circuit has remained similar since the circuit entered Formula 1.
In 1996, an acceleration zone was added after the hairpin, making that part of the track a straight, creating some overtaking opportunities before the final chicane (Turns 13 and 14). Since then, only small changes have been made to the layout, only being shortened from 4.421 km to the current 4.361 km, after changes made to the pit-lane exit due to safety concerns.
The lap record at the track is held by Valtteri Bottas, with a 1:13.078 min in the 2019 race.
2023 Canadian Grand Prix - Tyres
The dry tyres for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix will be the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C5 as P Zero Red soft, which is Pirelli’s softest choice.
Pirelli explained its choice with a statement from its Motorsport Director, Mario Isola, in a press release: “The Canadian Grand Prix is traditionally one of the most spectacular on the calendar, packed with incidents and surprises thanks to a track that offers plenty of overtaking opportunities but doesn’t take any prisoners. As is often the case for this type of circuit, we’ve brought the three softest tyres in the range – C3, C4, and C5 – just like last year.
We expect the C5 to be used mainly for qualifying, while the C4 and C3 are set to be favoured for the race. The asphalt is fairly smooth with this semi-permanent street circuit not extensively used, meaning that we’re likely to see a high degree of track evolution over the weekend.
On a track with no high-speed corners, the key factors are traction coming out of slow turns, stability under braking, and agility when changing direction. Another important element to consider is the weather. Conditions can change quickly, not just from wet to dry, but also with marked fluctuations in temperature. The asphalt temperature during last year’s qualifying was 17 degrees, while in the race it reached 40 degrees.”
The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 22.0 PSI (front) and 20.5 PSI (rear).
2023 Canadian Grand Prix Weather Forecast
Friday, June 16th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Mostly cloudy with a passing shower or two
Max. temperature: 23°C
Chance of rain: 77%
Saturday, June 17th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Low clouds and cooler with a couple of showers
Max. temperature: 17°C
Chance of rain: 95%
Sunday, June 18th - Race
Conditions: Mostly cloudy with a brief shower or two
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 17%
Who will be on the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix Podium?
General view of the podium celebrations with Race winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), 2nd Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and 3rd placed Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) during the 2022 F1 Grand Prix of Canada
After 70 laps and 305.27km on Sunday, it would be logical to see the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the top of the podium, followed by the next best, the other Red Bull, driven by Sergio Pérez.
However, if anything doesn't go to plan for the Red Bulls, we might see a brilliant struggle for victory between arguably two of the three best drivers of the season so far, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin). Aston Martin has had the upper hand over Mercedes and Ferrari throughout the 2023 F1 season, but Mercedes looked like the second-best car on track during the previous round in Spain.
The weather could change the dynamic of the weekend, as it sometimes can take the results out of the drivers' hands and make it a matter of luck or strategy, and the best teams can often play it safe while others can take more risks and, perhaps, get larger rewards. Will this be the weekend when Red Bull's streak of eight consecutive wins ends? Or will the team match its best winning streak of nine in a row?
Also, Red Bull could reach its 100th Formula 1 victory this weekend, a mark only reached by Ferrari (242 wins), McLaren (183), Mercedes (125), and Williams (114).
The podium prediction for the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix is 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Fernando Alonso, 3. Sergio Pérez.
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I'm surprised about VER not being in the top three prediction here.
Yes, possible under unusual circumstances, but I'm more conservative with my predictions, so VER-PER-HAM.