Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director
We come away from Montreal with mixed feelings. Well done to Kimi and the team for the win, our fifth to start this year and Kimi’s fourth, but the failure on George’s car is bitterly disappointing. We will work hard to make sure we understand the cause as it’s been very costly for him and the team in terms of points.
The cold and windy conditions made the race challenging today. We didn’t have any idea how the tyres would behave with such a low ambient and track temperature. The warm-up was certainly difficult but once up to temperature the tyres were working quite nicely. We were also able to quickly identify that the one stop strategy was the best option.
It wasn’t particularly relaxing watching our pair race in the first stint; the advantage of the overtake mode meant the cars could not separate so they were locked in a dual for the first 30 laps. Whilst it was close, they gave each other room. It did cost them both race time but the advantage over their competitors was enough for them not to be threatened. That fight was brought to an abrupt halt with George’s car coming to a stop with an issue in the battery pack. We don’t have any more information on that at the moment, but it goes without saying we’ll be doing everything we can do understand that ahead of the next race. Thereafter, Kimi’s run to the finish was quite straightforward. We seemed to have a bit of a pace advantage over our competitors, although the margins are small and everyone is developing at such a rate that we will be trying to bring every bit of performance we can to the upcoming races.