F1 Teardown: Canadian GP 2023
Superb driving, Birds can't even stop Max, CCTVs stop practice, Happy Alonso, and more.
The yearly F1 visit to Canada, a tradition since 1967, is filled with high expectations, and until recently, drew a majority of their spectators from the US. The 2023 version wasn’t the most dramatic, even with the wet weather qualifying, but did provide fans with some surprises and high-quality driving that needs highlighted.
First, tons of upgrades that were brought to Montreal by the teams. The bad part is FP1, where most of the testing for these components occurs, only produced 3 laps of action thus any testing was thrown out. This was due to a “sync” issue with the CCTV system that race control uses to monitor the track. The FIA extended FP2 by 30 minutes to help the teams, but race & qualification setups were worked on by most of the teams.
Red Bull: Front Wing
Ferrari: None
Mercedes: Sidepod Winglet removed
Alpine: Rear Wing, Rear Suspension Fairing, Front Brake Ducts
McLaren: Rear Wing (Flap & Endplate), Beam Wing
Aston Martin: Engine Cover, Cooling Louvres, Floor
Haas: Rear Wing, Cooling Louvres, Floor Edge
Alfa Romeo: Rear Brake Duct
Alpha Tauri: Front Wing Flap
Williams: Albon only; Floor, Engine Cover, Mirror, Halo Fairing, Rear Suspension, Rear Brake Duct Winglets, Rear Wing Endplate
To kick off the results we have to start with the reigning champ, Verstappen, as he once again swept the weekend events. He didn’t put a wheel wrong, flat out dominating the competition for Red Bull’s 100th win, and his 41st for the team, tieing him with an all-time great of F1—Aryton Senna.
Personally, I was impressed with his qualifying run in Q3 to take the pole; he smoked the competition in the wet by over 1 second. If you don’t know, wet conditions are supposed to be the “great equalizer” in racing, but for Max he seems to just get better.
In the race, he took the curbing too aggressively and almost ended up in the wall only to laugh at himself on the radio call to the team. Afterward, Red Bull CEO Christian Horner revealed that the remains of a bird Verstappen hit got stuck behind the front right brake duct for the entire race. Bad news for the competition; not even bad luck can stop Max. Oh, and Horner casually let it leak that the team is already working on the RB20, or next year’s car—being dominate has it’s advantages.
His teammate on the other hand keeps digging himself out of bad qualification runs. Once again Perez didn’t make it out of Q2 costing himself critical track position and a chance to challenge Max. He was able to pull off P6 in the end, along with fast lap for an extra point, but the result only extends Verstappen’s lead over Perez in the driver’s championship.
The next best drive was Alex Albon in the Williams finishing P7 gaining moving the team to 9th in the standings taking them from 1 to 7 points. For a small team way behind the times it was a huge gain. Here is team boss, James Vowles, comments on how far behind the team really is:
"There are some elements that are 20 years out of date, which makes sense if you think through the history of this team.
"The investment it had was zero for around about 20 years, and then an investment firm came through.
"Fundamentally, we're in a situation where a lot of facilities were almost preserved from where they were 20 years ago.
"Composites is behind what I knew when I first came into the sport with a different team 20 years ago..."
To give you another example, the upgrades I mentioned above were only made available for Albon. The team couldn’t produce enough parts to upgrade Sargeant’s car (P20) who experienced a race ending technical error—most likely Mercedes related since it wasn’t disclosed—ending his perfect finishing streak for the season. When you see a Williams on the track they are literally David running against a field full of Goliaths.
The aforementioned Vowles was a big reason the team earned their strong finish as he made sure both drivers got out early in Q2 knowing the rain was going get heavier as the session aged. This enabled Albon to get in an early “banker” lap in on fresh intermediates resulting in Albon moving on to Q3 and starting P10.
A similar approach, or perhaps copycat, for Haas in Q3 let Hülkenberg get in a fast lap early resulting in a P2 starting spot and only his 3rd career front row start in 89 attempts.
This was a big win for the team, and came after a blown motor that almost burned up the entire car in practice. Unfortunately, he was penalized for a red flag infringement in qualifying that regulated him to P5 on race day and lacked race pace thus finishing P15. Magnussen, P17, was no better struggling the entire weekend with the car.
Regardless, it was good to see the much smaller teams pull good strategy and light up the smiles on team members that work hard all weekend.
The happiest driver in the field was once again Alonso (P2) who looks like a “kid in a candy factory” this season. He told the team this is the happiest he has ever felt with a F1 team; for a man that has been around the sport for over 2 decades, and many teams, that’s saying something.
I personally don’t even recognize this Alonso, but sure am enjoying it. In his younger days he was very much a “diva” often creating more drama off track, than results on track.
His teammate, and proud Canadian, Stroll didn’t fair too well in his home race. He was well off Alonso’s pace all weekend, but did have a strong last stint for P9, salvaging some points for what should have been a better weekend. While Alonso continues to chirp in the media that Aston Martin will catch Red Bull at some point this season, Stroll is well back of where he should be and stuck on his cycle.
The team that definitely had some pressure on them delivered good results in the form of P4 & P5; Leclerc and Sainz, respectively. Why the pressure? Well, the second son of Enzo Ferrari, Piero Ferrari, was on site for the fly away race. This is actually a rarity for the second largest owner of the company—the public shareholders are the largest ownership entity. He doesn’t attend many fly away races instead sticking close to home, Italy, much like his father did while he was alive. I couldn’t gain any knowledge on why he was at the race other than to observe his team. Perhaps he met with Lewis Hamilton about a Ferrari contract? I’m sure the Italian media will speculate so.
Speaking of #teamLH, Hamilton had a great day rounding out the podium—full of previous world champions— and following up on a good qualifying run in the wet. He was able to get Alonso on the start and fended him off until the midway point when Alonso got back around on fresher tires. Interviews tell you everything you need to know about Hamilton’s state of mind; he continues to gain confidence in the car, the more his smile grows.
Can Mercedes catch up to the Red Bull & Aston Martin? A big maybe, but all signs are looking good for a some interesting races near the end of the season as long as they keep the cars on track, something Russell was unable to do this weekend.
Being too aggressive early in the race caused Russell to get into the wall breaking the right rear wheel. He was able to limp back into the pits, change the tire, get back out on the lead lap, but eventually retired the car for P19. At least the rain was real this weekend.
The remainder of the field:
Alpha Tauri: Tsunoda (P14) & de Vries (P18); More the same for the Red Bull “Junior” team.
Alfa Romeo: Bottas (P10) & Zhou (P16); Business as usual for the team with the best driver hair styles.
McLaren hasn’t scored points in Canada since 2014 and failed again as Piastri (P11) & Norris (P13) both finished outside the points. Norris was close, but received a 5 second penalty after race conclusion for “unsportsmanlike conduct” otherwise would have been P8. Personally I thought the penalty was a bit petty of the stewards; Norris didn’t do anything that past champions haven’t done in keeping their “delta” under VSC conditions.
Alpine: Ocon (P8) & Gasly (P12); the French “powerhouse” continues to disappoint despite teasing juicy upgrades to both cars.
Not Important Notes
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says it would be an unfair “manipulation” to change rules mid-season to stop Red Bull running away with the championship. When asked if he had considered stepping in, Domenicali said:
“I think it is not fair to say that. It's not correct because we cannot be seen as part of manipulation. This is not correct, and this is not fair. I am not [imagining] at all this kind of approach. The others are very, very close. If you look at the gaps to the other teams, I think that they did an incredible job, [and it] needs to be rewarded. So, as I said, it's clear that the aim of what we want to do is to make sure that these gaps will stay as small as possible.”
Bridgestone have submitted their bid to become F1's tire supplier
BBC's sources have said that it is considered as a serious option to replace Pirelli.
Two multiple F1 champions have expressed support for Bridgestone as drivers will be able to push all race 👀