Spend too long in F1 and you\u2019ll start seeing metaphors in everything. The Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal\u2019s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, for example, sees the cars blaze past the largest casino in Canada. It\u2019s difficult to see that 70 times in rapid succession and not be tempted into headlines about rolling the dice.<\/p>\n
Certainly, this is a weekend to gamble. The cars are new this year, the race has moved forward a month so the track temperatures will be different, and \u2013 by virtue of Pirelli no longer having a C6 compound \u2013 we also have a different selection of tyres. In fact, the only thing reassuringly similar to 2025 is the weather forecast \u2013 which, as usual, is changeable.<\/p>\n
Beyond the tribulations of the new, the Canadian Grand Prix also brings its bag of old-school challenges to the party. The circuit is bumpy and narrow; the concrete walls are ubiquitous, and the relentless sequence of chicanes pushes brake temperatures to the high point of the year. This presents an interesting dilemma: too much brake cooling and the cars are slow; too little and they don\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n
Montreal is a race where the teams would like to get full value from the three practice sessions \u2013 which is a problem this year because they\u2019ve only got one, as the full house at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is being treated to their first taste of the Sprint weekend format. It\u2019s one practice session and then down to business with Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
So how will the teams, drivers and strategists approach the weekend? It\u2019s time to take a look in The Risk Perspective, in partnership with\u00a0Marsh<\/a>, Formula 1’s Official Risk Partner and Official Insurance Brokering Partner.<\/p>\n The ideal set-up<\/p>\n Turns 2 and 10 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve are low-speed, and Turn 5 should be high-speed \u2013\u00a0but is probably so high speed that it\u2019s power- rather than grip-limited and taken flat-out. That leaves an awful lot of track in the medium-speed \u2018Goldilocks\u2019 zone. This incentivises the teams to set-up the cars quite stiff in heave, to keep the aerodynamic platform stable and maximise grip in the low- and medium-speed corners.<\/p>\n How stiff the teams choose to run their cars will be an interesting gamble on Friday. During the recent ground-effect era, with the cars benefitting from running very low and very stiff, often the fastest way around the lap was to avoid most of the kerbs, and take the long way through the chicanes. This year, with the cars not being quite so sensitive, may see cars running softer in roll, to shortcut across those kerbs.<\/p>\n On a normal weekend, the approach on a circuit like this \u2013 with its many bumps and track-hugging concrete walls \u2013 would be to start off with a more compliant car and gradually stiffen it up as the practice sessions progress. But with just the one session, and less desire to spend large portions of that in the garage adjusting set-up, it\u2019s more of a judgement call.<\/p>\n The drivers\u2019 perspective: Liam Lawson<\/p>\n The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a comparatively short circuit, running along the perimeter of the man-made Ile Notre-Dame in the St Lawrence River. For the most part, it is a sequence of short straights, separated by chicanes and a hairpin. It\u2019s one of the heaviest braking circuits on the calendar, and while that often causes problems, in terms of energy, it should be a harvest-rich environment.<\/p>\n As such, energy management is likely to occupy the minds of the drivers a little less this weekend. \u201cI think it’ll be less of a topic,\u201d says Racing Bulls\u2019<\/a> Liam Lawson<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a track at which we, hopefully, can push more and have fewer issues or less of that management \u2013 but at the moment we\u2019re really learning this weekend by weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n As was the case in Shanghai and Miami, the Sprint weekend format limits the amount of learning the drivers, and their teams, can do in practice. This, in turn, places a greater onus on the work done in the simulator, with Lawson prioritising sim laps immediately after the Miami Grand Prix. The virtual world, however, can only offer so much. \u201cOn a Sprint weekend, we have to try and do as much of it as we can in advance \u2013 but we know we’re not going to get everything right,\u201d concedes the New Zealander.<\/p>\n If the Canadian Grand Prix follows the same pattern as the first two Sprint weekends of the year, we can expect to see plenty of experimentation across the first half of the weekend as drivers gamble on different approaches for the Sprint, and then using the knowledge accrued to change set-up during the window between Sprint and Qualifying on Saturday, when Parc Ferme is suspended and set-up changes can be made again.<\/p>\n The key section<\/p>\n Turn 10, aka L\u2019Epingle (The Pin) is a brilliant piece of F1 theatre. The low-speed, second gear hairpin is ringed and capped with a horseshoe of grandstands, packed to the rafters with screaming fans. Or, at least, it would be if the grandstands had roofs, the lack of which may be a problem this weekend, judging by the long-range forecast. Not that a spot of rain will do anything to dampen the size or the enthusiasm of the crowd.<\/p>\n Spectators are treated to overtaking at T10, but it has greater significance to lap time. Slow corners are always where time is made and lost \u2013 because, clearly, the car is in a slow corner for longer than a fast one \u2013\u00a0but the significance of L\u2019Epingle is that it leads onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve\u2019s longest straight.<\/p>\n Make the right choice of line, hit the braking point and carry good speed through here, and the benefits pay off all the way down the back straight to the final chicane. Get it wrong, and there\u2019s every chance of being vulnerable to attack.<\/p>\n The strategists\u2019 perspective<\/p>\n Since the Sprint weekend format was introduced in 2021, Red Bull<\/a> have been its undisputed masters, winning 14 of the 26 short-form races. Hannah Schmitz, Head of Race Strategy there, says the format asks different questions of a strategist compared with a standard race weekend,\u00a0though \u2013 as always \u2013 tyres are at the forefront of everyone\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a Sprint event, and this means we\u2019ve got only the one practice session. The most important decision to make before the weekend is what tyres we\u2019re going to run in that session. Obviously, we want to learn as much as possible, as this is our only practice for the whole weekend, before we go straight into Sprint Qualifying \u2013 so straight into a competitive session \u2013 which makes it an intense weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know, should we progress to SQ3, that we\u2019re going to be using two sets of medium tyres and one set of soft tyres in that Sprint Qualifying session, so the strategy question there \u2013 and in Qualifying on Saturday \u2013 is all about looking at if our lap is fast enough, or do we need to set another one.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the main Qualifying session, there will usually also be a debate on whether we\u2019re going to another new set [of soft] or can we run a scrubbed set? These are typically decisions that strategists will be making.\u201d<\/p>\n The greatest race: Jenson Button wins in 2011<\/p>\n The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix was a record breaker \u2013\u00a0though not necessarily in a good way, depending on your view. It is, at 4h4m, the longest F1 race. It had the most Safety Car deployments with six and the most pit-stops by a winning driver, with Jenson Button<\/a> entering the pit-lane six times.<\/p>\n The latter record has since been equalled, though the first engendered a change in the rules and thus is unlikely to be rivalled. Bernd Maylander in the Safety Car has never had another day like it \u2013 though none of these are what makes the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix great. Its legend lies in Button\u2019s rise from last place on Lap 40 to snatching the lead three corners from home on the 70th and final lap.<\/p>\n If you ignore the victory \u2013\u00a0and you really can\u2019t ignore the victory \u2013 Button had a pretty torrid Canadian Grand Prix. He collided with McLaren<\/a> team mate Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, he collided with future McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso<\/a>, and he picked up a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the Safety Car. Between those particular ignominies however, Button did what Button does best: use that near-supernatural touch on the brakes to navigate a wet circuit better than anyone else.<\/p>\n