What to Expect of the 2019 Canadian F1 GP?

This Sunday the 50th edition of the Canadian Grand Prix will be held on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. It's the home race for Racing Point driver Lance Stroll.

The 2019 F1 season has been dominated by both Mercedes drivers so far. In Monaco the team made a very small mistake during the pitstop that led to a P3 for Valtteri Bottas instead of P2. On the track where the Mercedes didn't win since 2016 they now scored their 6th race win of the season. The last time that happened was in 2014, when Hamilton won his first title for Mercedes and his 2nd overall.

This weekend we go to Montreal, Canada to hopefully see that Mercedes will be beaten by one of it's rivals. Mercedes expects Ferrari to be strong in Canada, but haven't we heard that song already the whole season?

Let see what we can expect during the upcoming 2019 Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

2018 Canadian GP Facts & Figures

The track that represents the Canadian GP this weekend is circuit Gilles Villeneuve. the circuit is build on a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River. The most of the island was originally built up for the Expo back in 1967.

Michael Schumacher won 7 times on this track and holds the record of most wins.The German driver won 1 race for Benetton and 6 for Ferrari.

5 of the current 2019 drivers won the Canadian F1 GP. Lewis Hamilton won the most with 6 and the 4 other drivers are; Ricciardo, Vettel, Kubica and Raikkonen . Hamilton can equal the amount of Schumacher this weekend. The British driver also scored his maiden Formula one race win here back in 2007 for McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo won in 2014 and also his maiden race win in a Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel won 2 races here. One for Red Bull in 2013 and one for Ferrari last year. Robert Kubica won his only grand prix in Canada back 2008, the year before in 2007, he crashed in turn 9. It's was one of the hardest crashes ever seen.

If Hamilton scores his 86th F1 pole position here, he will set the record of 7 poles on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He now equals Schumacher with 6. Sebastian Vettel is the only current driver who has finished in the points on all 11 races he attended to in Canada.

McLaren still has won the most races in Canada. The British team won 13 races in total. Ferrari is runner-up and won 12.

This track also holds the record for longest race in Formula 1. In 2011 the race took 04:04:39.537 hours to finish the 70 lap race. Due to heavy rain and several safety cars the race got delayed over 2 hours!

Gilles Villeneuve Circuit

The circuit is driven clockwise and has 14 turns. 6 of those turns are left-handed and 8 are right-handed. The slowest corner is turn 10, which is a big hairpin. The cars go around 80 km/h. The quickest "turn" is no.12 which is more like a straight and the cars get up to their highest topspeed up 340 km/h at this track names after the legendary Ferrari driver who won the first race here in 1978.

The lap record of 1:13.622 min is already 15 years old. It's set by Rubens Barrichello back in 2004 with the almighty Ferrari F2004 that was fitted with a 3.0L V10 engine revving up to 19.000 rpm. Last years fastest lap on Circuit Gilles Villenuve was 1:13.864 min set by Max Verstappen (Red Bull RB14) on lap 65 with an average speed of 212.547 km/h

2019 Canadian Grand Prix Infographic

What happened in last years 2018 Canadian F1 GP?

Top three finishers Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes GP and Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing celebrate on the podium during the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix 2018

In the opening lap all cars got away clean. Max Verstappen passed the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in turn 1, but could not hold P2 in turn 2.

Daniel Ricciardo who started from 6 did pass the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen for P5 in coming out of turn 2.

In turn 4 Lance Stroll collected with his Williams the Toro Rosso of Brandon Hartley. Both drivers and cars retired with a lot of damage. The safety car came out and after a few laps the race was on again.

Verstappen and Hamilton pitted in at the end of lap 16. Both drivers got the Super soft tyres (red).

A lap later Ricciardo also pitted and changed from Hypers to Super soft and passed Hamilton for P4.

In lap 37 Bottas pitted to switch from ultra's to super soft tyres. A lap later Vettel did the same to drive to the finish without a threat to lose his lead and won his 2nd Canadian GP.

Canadian F1 GP 2019 Tyres

Like Monaco, Canada isn’t a conventional racing circuit, and once more the three softest compounds in the P Zero Formula 1 range have been selected: the hard is the C3, the medium is the C4, and the soft is the C5. But that’s where the similarities end. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – named after Canada’s most celebrated driver – holds a unique challenge, on only the second appearance this year for the softest C5.

• Montréal is a semi-permanent track with smooth asphalt, using roads in the Parc Jean Drapeau that are open to the public for recreational activities during the rest of the year. This means that it’s especially ‘green’ and slippery at the start of the grand prix weekend, with a high degree of track evolution as the surface gets rubbed in.
• Canada is all about traction and braking, so getting heat into the front tyres is part of the challenge. There is no much run-off, so safety cars are a reasonably common occurrence, which of course can affect strategy.
• Weather is variable, but cool temperatures and rain are quite common at this time of the year (in 2011, red flag interruptions because of rain let to the longest grand prix in F1 history, lasting more than four hours). As a result of the cool weather and track conditions, some degree of graining can be expected, especially at the start of the weekend.
• Unlike Monaco, there’s plenty of opportunity to overtake in Canada, with a much higher average speed, long straights, and plenty of heavy braking areas. This makes it a very tough circuit on brakes: something that the teams always have to look out for.
• There was a mix of strategies used last year, with most drivers choosing a one-stopper, also influenced by an early safety car. The top two at the end (and on the grid) didn’t start the race on the softest available compound, and that might be the case again this weekend. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) began on the ultrasoft – the approximate equivalent of the current C4 – before switching to the supersoft, which has been deleted from this year’s line-up.

Selected sets for the 2019 Canadian F1 GP

2019 Canadian GP Weather Forecast in Montreal

The weather forecast this weekend around the Gilles Villeneuve circuit seems to be steady with a 0% chance of rain.

Friday, June 7th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Max. temperature: 24°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Saturday, May 8th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly cloudy
Max. temperature: 23°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Sunday, May 9th - Race
Conditions: Partly cloudy
Maxi. temperature: 27°C
Chance of rain: 0%

Who will be on the 2019 Canadian GP Podium

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel

The Mercedes W10 will be fitted with a new spec. power unit this weekend. That's bad new for Ferrari who had the upper hand on engine power until now. Until now the Mercedes is slower on the straight than the Ferrari SF90, but is much quicker in the corners.

Alexander Albon, Antonio Giovinazzi, Lando Norris and George Russell will drive for the first time in Montreal.

The Gilles Villeneuve circuit has a lot of straights and not many corners. The track is one of the circuits with the lowest amount of corners. So cars who have a high straight speed have big advantage. The temperature on Sunday seems to be quite high, so getting temperature in the tyres won't be a very big problem.

Ferrari should be in favour for the win. But Mercedes won't be far away.

Our podium prediction for the 2019 Canadian Formula 1 GP is: 1. Sebastian Vettel, 2. Lewis Hamilton, 3. Charles Leclerc.

The race starts on Sunday 9th of June 2019 at 18:10 GMT, 14:10 (local) and 11:10 (PT).

Don't forget to take part in our F1 Poule to win 2 tickets for the 2020 Belgian or British F1 GP.
You can change your prediction until the start of the qualifying session. The race prediction can be changed until the start of the race..

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