2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix highlights

Introduction

 

Max Verstappen made it six victories from eight races in 2023 with a dominant display during the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, leading home the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, as Red Bull maintained their 100% winning record for the season so far.

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Mario Isola, Motorsport Director, Pirelli:

It was a very interesting race, the most closely balanced so far this season, as can be seen from the results sheet, with four drivers from four different teams all finishing in the space of under 20 seconds. Yesterday’s prediction that a two-stop strategy was the best option was confirmed as the top three all went down this route, even if they each managed it in different ways. However, the one-stop proved to be a valid alternative, as demonstrated by the two Ferrari drivers: Leclerc and Sainz went to over half-distance on the Mediums without any significant degradation in terms of tyre performance, a sign that their car is making progress on the set-up front.

Temperatures were lower today than on Friday and that contributed to reducing the risk of overheating the tyres. Another factor that played an important role in tyre management was the fact the track rubbered in very quickly during the race, even though it was initially very dirty after it had rained for almost all of Saturday.

Personally, it was an honour for me, on behalf of Pirelli, the race’s Title Sponsor, to hand over the winning constructors’ trophy to Adrian Newey, someone who has contributed so much to the history of this team and of our sport and indeed, who continues to do so, on the very day when Red Bull celebrated its 100th win.

How the race was won from the tyre point of view:

Max Verstappen won the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. It was his 41st victory, which puts him level with Ayrton Senna in fifth place on the all-time winners list which is headed by Lewis Hamilton on 103.

This was Red Bull’s 100th win from 355 Grand Prix starts. Its first dates back to 19 April 2009 when Sebastian Vettel won in China. Red Bull is the fifth team to have reached a century of wins in a category headed by Ferrari (242), followed by McLaren (183), Mercedes (125) and Williams (114).

Of the top ten finishers, six drivers stopped twice with only four making just the one stop. However, it is worth noting that Perez’s second pit stop, just two laps from the end was carried out purely to allow him to pick up the extra point for setting the fastest race lap.

16 drivers opted to start on the Mediums: three of the remaining four – Perez, Bottas and Magnussen – chose the Hard tyre, while only Gasly preferred to start on the Softs. As expected, the C5 was the least used compound in the race, completing just 12 laps: ten of those were in Gasly’s first stint and two with Perez at the end of the race.

The most used compound was the C3 (70.4% of all laps completed) but a significant number of laps (28.7%) were run on the C4. In terms of stint length, the standout performance came from Albon, who is no stranger to this feat, running 58 laps on a set of Hards. He finished in an impressive seventh place. Leclerc drove the longest stint on Medium tyres doing 39 laps.

What’s next?

The next race takes place at the Red Bull Ring from 30 June to 2 July. The Austrian Grand Prix will be the second round of the season, after the one in Azerbaijan, to be run to the new F1 Sprint format. Qualifying for the main race takes place on Friday afternoon, while track action on Saturday is entirely given over to the Sprint. First, there’s the Sprint Shootout, with the short 24-lap race following later in the afternoon. In Spielberg, drivers will use the same compounds as in Montreal: the C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and the C5 as Soft. As with all F1 Sprint weekends, each driver will have just 12 sets of dry weather tyres available to them instead of 13.

2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix Race Results

Pos	No	Driver	Country	Team	Time	Points	Overall
1.	1	Max Verstappen	Netherlands	Red Bull Racing	1:33:58.348	25	195
2.	14	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Aston Martin F1 Team	+9.570s	18	117
3.	44	Lewis Hamilton	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	+14.168s	15	102
4.	16	Charles Leclerc	Monaco	Scuderia Ferrari	+18.648s	12	54
5.	55	Carlos Sainz	Spain	Scuderia Ferrari	+21.540s	10	68
6.	11	Sergio Perez	Mexico	Red Bull Racing	+51.028s	9	126
7.	45	Alexander Albon	Thailand	Williams Racing	+60.813s	6	7
8.	31	Esteban Ocon	France	Alpine F1 Team	+61.692s	4	29
9.	18	Lance Stroll	Canada	Aston Martin F1 Team	+64.402s	2	37
10.	77	Valtteri Bottas	Finland	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+64.432s	1	5
11.	81	Oscar Piastri	Australia	McLaren Racing	+65.101s	0	5
12.	10	Pierre Gasly	France	Alpine F1 Team	+65.249s	0	15
13.	4	Lando Norris	Great Britain	Mclaren Racing	+68.363s	0	12
14.	22	Yuki Tsunoda	Japan	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+73.423s	0	2
15.	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	0	6
16.	24	Zhou Guanyu	China	Alfa Romeo F1 Team	+1 lap	0	4
17.	20	Kevin Magnussen	Denmark	Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	0	2
18.	21	Nyck De Vries	Netherlands	Scuderia AlphaTauri	+1 lap	0	0
3.	63	George Russell	Great Britain	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	DNF	0	65
20.	2	Logan Sargeant	USA	Williams Racing	DNF	0	0

2023 Constructor Standings

Pos	Picture	Team	Points
1.		Red Bull Racing	860
2.		Mercedes-AMG F1 Team	409
3.		Scuderia Ferrari	406
4.		McLaren Racing	302
5.		Aston Martin F1 Team	280
6.		Alpine F1 Team	120
7.		Williams Racing	28
8.		Scuderia AlphaTauri	25
8.		Alfa Romeo Racing	16
10.		Haas F1 Team	12

Here are the team-by-team highlights:

Red Bull Racing

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen continued his remarkable start to the season as he secured a sixth victory this year with a commanding performance at the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, equalling three-time world champion Ayrton Senna’s record of 41 career wins in the process.

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The two-time world champion started Sunday’s race from pole position and rarely looked troubled round the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, finishing almost 10 seconds ahead of the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso to secure a 100th race victory in F1 for his team.

Having started from 12th, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez did his best to cut through the field and eventually battled his way to sixth. The Mexican driver was also able to earn a bonus point after securing the fastest lap of the race.

Max Verstappen, Driver, Red Bull Racing

I’m of course very happy to win here in Canada. It wasn’t an easy or straightforward race though, it was quite difficult to switch on the tyres and get them to the right temperature. This is our 100th win and it’s an incredible moment for the Team, the hard work doesn’t stop here though, the new target is 200 now! Right from when I was young kid karting, I was always dreaming about being a Formula One driver and I would have never imagined actually winning so many races, so to tie with Ayrton Senna is incredible and I feel really proud of that. Hopefully, w will have plenty more wins in the future, I don’t want to stop now.

Sergio Pérez, Driver, Red Bull Racing:

Today was a bit of a surprise, we just didn’t have the pace. It was looking good on the hard tyre initially but once the safety car came in I couldn’t recover the grip on that tyre and we didn’t have the pace on the medium. It is important we take time to understand the weekend because this race, in particular, has been poor in pace and we need to get on top of it. I have confidence in myself and know what I can do but today we were not good. Right now, I am more concerned about my drop in performance than my place in the Championship because the pace is just not there. You never have any pressure on you, it has been a difficult period but I am here to perform and I need to do that in the next few races. On a positive note, we achieved 100 wins today and it is really great for the Team, I am very happy for everyone, Max has done a tremendous job, not just today but throughout the whole season.

CHRISTIAN HORNER – CEO and Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

It’s a landmark day today and one for our history books, 100 victories for the team, 200 for Adrian and Max’s 41st putting him up there with Senna. An amazing result for the whole team, not just the people here, but everyone back at the factory who works so hard, ensuring we continue to perform at such a high level. I remember our first victory in China in 2009 and being happy that we’d won just one race, and here we are with 99 more. To get a century of victories is an incredible achievement, competing in 100 races is a feat in itself, but winning 27% of all races we have entered is something truly to be proud of. It’s been an amazing journey in a relatively short space of time and it’s down to our incredible people, our spirit and our culture. Max has obviously been a big part of the journey with 41 of those wins, he’s driving so incredibly well and it’s a privilege to witness the level that he’s delivering at. It was a tricky race for him because the tyre temperatures were not in a happy window but he made the most of it and secured the win. Checo equally had a fairly tough race. I know he is hungry for more and will already be looking at ways to improve his performance. Tomorrow, we’ll celebrate as a team back in the factory, but of course, we’re still in the middle of a championship and have a lot of races to go, so after tomorrow the attention is on our home race in Austria in two weeks.

Red Bull Racing Honda best pictures:

Aston Martin Formula One Team

 

Hear from Fernando, Lance and Team Principal Mike Krack following a dramatic 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, which was affected by a late rain shower, as the AMF1 Team equalled its highest finishing position of second.

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Fernando secures second and Lance battles into the top 10 in front of his home fans as AMF1 Team comes away from Canada with another points haul.

Lance, meanwhile, battled a grid penalty and an unfortunately timed Safety Car as he gained seven places to complete a comeback to P9 – making a stunning last-gasp pass on the final lap – adding more points to Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team’s tally.

Both drivers began on Medium tyres, switching to Hards and pitting for Hards once again as two pitstops were the order of the day – while the rain held off on Sunday. That was after a wet and stoppage-hit Friday and a Saturday that saw plenty of rain and plenty of action, leading to a mixed-up grid.

Scroll down to read the thoughts of Fernando, Lance, and Mike as they entertained fans and brought home a solid result from Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Fernando Alonso

It was a great result for Aston Martin today and another podium for the team. I think it was our most competitive race yet and the upgrades on the car are working well.

I lost the position to Lewis [Hamilton] at the start, but we had some good pace and after a close battle we retook second. It was then like a qualifying session as Lewis was pushing at the end and we had to keep him there and not make any mistakes.

We hope to put more pressure on Max in Austria.

Lance Stroll

It was a good recovery drive to score a couple of points this afternoon. We got unlucky with the Safety Car; pitting a lap before it was deployed meant we missed out on a cheaper stop while the cars around us were able to take that opportunity.

Our focus had to shift to damage limitation and trying to pick up a couple of points for the team. There are still positives to take from the race; the AMR23 felt strong and was performing well.

I had a fun final lap too, overtaking Valtteri [Bottas] just before the finish line. To hear the cheers from the grandstands when I took the position was great, and I want to say thank you to all the fans who have shown their support this weekend.

Mike Krack, Team Principal:

Congratulations to Fernando, Lance and the entire team on another great result. It was a very well-executed race with a strong pace, clean pitstops, and important overtakes.

There was not a moment to relax as Fernando stayed close to Max [Verstappen] and kept a gap to Lewis to finish second. We also had to play it safe with some lift and coast to manage a fuel system issue.

It was good to see Lance make a great comeback and score valuable points too. He was heavily disadvantaged by the Safety Car. It came out a lap after his first pitstop, which cost him several positions and undid much of his hard work in the opening laps. He kept his head down and recovered well to take ninth place on the final lap. We leave Montréal, our second home race, with 20 important points for the Constructors’ Championship.

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team best pictures:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

 

Lewis Hamilton finished third whilst George Russell was forced to retire from the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix. Starting from the second row, both drivers made strong starts. Lewis vaulted ahead of Alonso off the line to take second, with George putting the Spaniard under pressure but remaining fourth.

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The Safety Car was deployed on lap 12 after George hit the wall at turn nine. He continued but dropped to the back of the field; both drivers pitting for the hard tyre.

Lewis was forced to relinquish P2 on lap 22 with Alonso passing. He kept in touch with the Aston Martin and stopped on lap 40 for the medium tyre. Re-joining in third with a deficit of over five seconds, he began closing the gap but ultimately had to settle for the final spot on the podium.

George meanwhile battled gainfully following the earlier incident and was running in P8 when the Team opted to retire his car with a front brake wear issue.

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a great weekend. To have this consistency and to be up on the podium once again here is fantastic. It’s quite an honour to be up on the podium with two other world champions.

We didn’t quite have the pace today to challenge for more. We knew this wouldn’t be our strongest circuit though as we struggle in the low-speed corners in particular. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to add more performance and efficiency. We are slowly chipping away at those ahead though. I do believe we will get there at some stage and we are going in the right direction.

George Russell

Apologies to the Team. We’ve put so much hard work and effort into this weekend and a small mistake has had massive consequences. I was doing everything I could to put Fernando (Alonso) under pressure. I then ran a little bit wide and hit the kerb; the next thing I knew I was in the wall. That’s at least 12 points that we’ve left on the table today.

We did a good job after that to get back into the mix. Sadly we had an issue with the brakes which forced us to retire the car. They felt OK from my side, but the Team can see the data and could see that we couldn’t continue. I’m disappointed with the race today but there are positives we can take away. The car was quick on a circuit that we weren’t expecting to be that competitive and we took the fight to those around us. The Team is doing a great job and the future is exciting. Let’s see what the upcoming races bring.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

Today’s race was an encouraging one for the Team. We knew that Canada was going to be one of the more difficult circuits for us, so to come away with a podium is a solid result. We were also not too far away from Max (Verstappen), much closer than we would have expected at the beginning of the season. The margin is still large, so we have lots more work to do. We are on a positive trajectory though and the update package clearly works well.

George was unlucky today. He hit a large kerb and tried to keep it cornering and ended up in the wall. He was pushing hard, and this car is still a little bit difficult at times. He ultimately retired with brake wear issues.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We knew this track would be more difficult for us than Barcelona, so it’s encouraging to see that we were very close on pace to Aston Martin and Ferrari. Lewis did a great job to get on the podium today. We didn’t quite have the pace we needed to get second but when we look at the tracks that lie ahead of us, we should have a car that can regularly fight for the top-three. We’ve clearly got a bit of pace to find before we’ll be worrying Max, but the Team is working well to bring performance and is very motivated to close that gap.

George meanwhile is clearly disappointed with his mistake but we’re second in the championship because both drivers have delivered so consistently over the season. His race came ended due to a front brake wear issue; that was not a direct result of the incident but because of the traffic he faced as he battled back through the field. We know he will come back strongly in Austria, as the Team continues to push forward.

Mercedes-AMG F1 Team best pictures:

Scuderia Ferrari

 

Scuderia Ferrari leaves Canada having shown clear signs it has made significant progress. For the first time, the SF-23 performed consistently throughout the race, so that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were able to run at a strong pace while doing a good job of managing the tyres, to the extent that both drivers made one less stop than their closest rivals.

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Alongside this progress on the technical front, the strategy calls from the pit wall was effective, especially the decision to leave both cars out on track during the one Safety Car period. It allowed the drivers to clear a train of slower cars which otherwise would have been very difficult to overtake because of the very significant DRS effect at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit.

Race. After not having much luck in Saturday’s qualifying, Charles and Carlos lined up tenth and eleventh on the grid and then were stuck in traffic up until lap 12, when the Safety Car came out after George Russell hit the barriers. Charles and Carlos both stayed out on the Medium tyres, moving up to fourth and fifth places, so they were then able to push harder, going longer than any of the others. They were thus able to build up enough of a gap to pit for Hard tyres without losing position and then match the pace of those ahead, not losing ground to the eventual top three finishers, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. There is still room for improvement, but today’s race produced clear evidence that the team has made a step forward.

Spielberg in a fortnight. The World Championship is back in action in two weekends’ time, with the ninth round of the season, the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.

Carlos Sainz #55

Today was a positive race. We were able to push continuously and recover after a challenging qualifying. We made the right strategy calls and we had a strong pace, especially with the Medium tyre. The car felt good and we could push a bit more, also extending the first stint quite a lot, so I’m happy with that.

We’re making progress in the right direction and we need to keep up the good work.

Charles Leclerc #16

It was a solid race that confirmed the good feeling I had in the car on Friday. We stayed out during the Safety Car phase to be able to run in free air, because we knew that it would be key for us and our strategy proved to be the right one. We couldn’t have done better than P4 today considering where we started.

We must not forget that this is quite an unusual track, so we will keep pushing to reconfirm these positive steps in Austria.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal

It was a good race for us, confirming that we are working in the right direction. After a poor qualifying yesterday, we rediscovered the race pace we had seen on Friday, helped in this by a good strategy that took us out of traffic, so that Charles and Carlos had the confidence to push throughout the race. It was notable that in the second half, our drivers were matching the lap times of the top three. We are progressing race by race. We will continue to focus on working solidly on the course we have set ourselves while going into every small detail to ensure we can have a perfect weekend from Friday through to Sunday.

Scuderia Ferrari best pictures:

McLaren Racing

 

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix.

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Both drivers had a clean getaway with Oscar getting the better of Lando for P7. Oscar got ahead of Hulkenberg with a nice move into Turn 1 for P6. The Safety Car was deployed after Russell collided with the barrier. Both drivers took the opportunity to pit for new Hards. Lando was subsequently given a five-second penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. After the green light, Lando regained his original position ahead of Oscar. Lando P10, Oscar P11. Lando squeezed ahead of Hulkenberg with an aggressive move into Turn 1. It was then Oscar’s turn to overtake Hulkenberg which took him back into the top 10. Lando pitted for a new set of Hard tyres, emerging from the pit lane in P12. Oscar pitted two laps later, again for Hards. Russell was forced to retire promoting Lando to P10 and Oscar to P12. Lando passed Bottas with a super move to climb up to P9. Oscar finished P11 and Lando P13, following Lando’s penalty.

Lando Norris

An intense race. We were a little bit unlucky that I lost the position at the beginning but happy apart from that. I think the pace was OK, it was good to compete on track for some points. A difficult race though in terms of tyre degradation and overtaking, but I think we made the most of it today, so I’m happy. Of course, unfortunately, we got the penalty but we’ll review that as a team. Next up is Austria, one of my favourite tracks, so I’m looking forward to it. We’ll give it our all and try to score some points.

Oscar Piastri

P11, a shame to be one spot off the points. Very good first stint and then after that we just didn’t quite have the pace or the tyre life, but plenty to learn from the race. Big thanks to the team for getting the car ready to go again today. Bit of time to reset now before we go again to Austria.

Andrea Stella

It’s a shame to leave Canada with no points at the end of a race where we were keenly competitive in the midfield. Lando crossed the line P9 but was penalised five seconds and demoted to P13, which is unfortunate. The positive that we’re taking away from Montréal is that the car had a good race pace today in some parts of the race, but again we struggled, especially in the second stint, when the tyres get too hot. We’re looking forward to the future now and to upgrading the MCL60, with a view to strengthening our pace and getting into the points consistently in the future.

McLaren Racing best pictures:

Alpine F1 Team

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team extended its points-scoring streak to four races as Esteban Ocon finished eighth in the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montréal. Team-mate Pierre Gasly finished narrowly outside of the points in twelfth place after starting from fifteenth on the grid.

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The race began favourably for the team with Esteban rising from sixth to fifth by the end of the opening lap and Pierre climbing two places from fifteenth to thirteenth. Pierre pitted early after finding himself stuck in traffic before a Safety Car two laps later prevented any hopes of leapfrogging cars ahead.

Esteban pitted under the Safety Car from fourth place, which benefitted the one-stop runners, notably both Ferraris and Sergio Perez in the Red Bull. From there, both drivers held position – Pierre pitting on lap 34 and Esteban on lap 37 for Hards. Esteban was unable to pass Williams’ Alex Albon who was on a bold one-stop with Pierre narrowly short of the points at the chequered flag after pressuring a number of cars in front.

Esteban Ocon:

I think we can be satisfied with finishing another race in the points but we know that perhaps we did not maximise our opportunities today in Montréal. Our car and our pace was strong but, in the end, it was not enough to pass Alex [Albon] in the Williams, who was quicker on the straights. We’ll review everything as a team as to how we can improve and also how we can better seize opportunities on Sundays. Our pace in Qualifying has been good and we must continue that. I did enjoy the battles with Valtteri [Bottas] and Lando [Norris]; that was good fun! Overall, we have a lot to learn after a challenging weekend and I’m already looking forward to Austria in two weeks’ time.

Pierre Gasly:

Unfortunately, we were unable to come away with points from today’s race. It again shows the importance of track position and I think our weekend was damaged by what happened in Qualifying yesterday by exiting in Q1. We had very good pace in the car today, which we were not able to demonstrate further up the grid and in the positions that matter. We were a little unfortunate with the timing of the first Safety Car but even so, we had a decent race in terms of pace. I gave it my all at the end, overtaking was difficult, and we couldn’t quite put ourselves into the points. I’m already looking ahead to Austria where we must be on it from the start of the weekend and come away with points both in the Sprint and in the main Race.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal

It’s not been a straightforward afternoon with Esteban in the points and Pierre unfortunately missing out. I think we have many things to learn from the race as we saw both Ferraris, Sergio [Perez] and Alex [Albon] make the one-stop strategy work, whereas we planned a one-stop but converted to a two-stop on both cars, which probably was not the optimal approach given the final outcome. That’s something we’ll review to see what we can do better going forward. Esteban did a good job, especially at the start of the race where he was running as high as fourth behind the leading pack. It was a much more difficult afternoon for Pierre who was unfortunate with the timing of the first Safety Car as he pitted early to try and jump the traffic ahead. Again, like in Spain, it highlights the importance of Qualifying and benefitting from track position. His weekend was compounded by yesterday’s impeding incident and it meant he was always going to play catch-up in the race. Looking forward, we’ve made it four consecutive races in the points and we must capitalise on our stronger race pace by converting that performance level into bigger points. Next up is the Austrian Sprint weekend where we must come away with a better outcome from both races.

Alpine F1 Team best pictures:

Haas F1 Team

 

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen finished 15th and 17th respectively at the Canadian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal.

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MoneyGram Haas F1 Team sits in eighth position in the Constructors’ Championship on eight points.

Kevin Magnussen

We were just lacking the pace to where we wanted to be and we struggled with tires again, at least more than the others, so it was a tough one. I think over one lap we have really good pace, we’ve shown that several times this season, but we need to work hard on trying to keep that strength for Sunday.

Nico Hulkenberg

It was a one-way street in the wrong direction today. It was to some extent expected, but we obviously always hope for the best so that it’s better than what you had in the previous event. It just once again confirms that we have a lot of work to do on the long-run pace and entire consistency because that’s really hurting our Sunday.

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal:

It’s pretty clear now, obviously, the result is not what we should be doing and it’s very disappointing. I think we know where to look, the issue is as soon as we get into traffic and behind cars, our degradation is immense, we cannot get the tire performance back and we just slip back. We can clearly see it, as soon as we get away from free air and start to fight, we just degrade. We know really what we need to look for, and we’ll be looking for it. We need to put our heads together and try to find a solution to this and not hide behind good qualifying results.

Haas F1 Team best pictures:

Alfa Romeo Racing Stake

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake brought back one important point from the 2023 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, as Valtteri Bottas made up four positions to finish within the top ten at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Finn executed a solid race, supported by a good reverse strategy that saw him move up the rankings, eventually missing out on a tenth place on the road to Lance Stroll in the final metres of the race. His P10 was immediately restored as Lando Norris, ahead, received a five-second penalty that relegated him behind Valtteri.

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It was a more challenging race for Zhou Guanyu, who endured a more difficult race, starting from the back of the grid. The Chinese driver still managed to extract good speed from his C43 and was involved in several battles for position, making up four places and finishing P16.

The point scored today brings Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake’s total to seven, allowing the team to overtake Haas in the standings, into seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Valtteri Bottas (car number 77):

I am pleased with our race today: I made up four positions during the race, and it’s always a good day when that happens, especially when you get a top-ten finish, which had been our main goal all weekend long. It could have been P9, but my tyres began to wear out towards the end of the race, and Lance [Stroll] got me on the finish line. Still, I think it is safe to say we executed a solid race today, and a good strategy as well; since Monaco, we have been making decent progress, and it’s proof of all the hard work put in by the team back home in Hinwil. Even though we are bringing home only one point today, it’s a reward and a motivation boost to keep hunting for more. Now, it will be important to keep working in this direction and focus on improving our Saturday performance. There are still some steps forward to make, and I am confident we can achieve this all together.

Zhou Guanyu (car number 24):

We knew the race was always going to be difficult, considering where we were starting, but I still believed we had a chance to turn it around: unfortunately, we didn’t manage to take it. After the Safety Car went back in, I felt we could have gotten in the fight; we had started on the Mediums, and they were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, the race didn’t unfold in the way we needed, and after the final pit stop, there wasn’t much we could do. There’s no denying we still hoped to improve our results, but this weekend just hasn’t been easy for us. It can happen, but it is important now to switch our focus on getting back to the good performances we have shown recently, to come prepared in two weeks’ time in Spielberg. We have seen before how anything can happen during a Sprint Weekend: if we play our cards well, we’ll be able to get back in the top ten.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative:

We must be happy with the one point we scored today with Valtteri, even though it’s always a bit bitter to lose one position [to Lance Stroll] with just metres to go. Still, one point can make a fundamental difference at the end of the season, and we have now scored in two races in a row. I want to thank the team for their hard work towards this result, which was not a foregone conclusion after yesterday’s qualifying session. We know Saturdays are where we need to focus our attention: a better qualifying position can allow us to fight for higher places and, ultimately, more points. In terms of race pace, our cars seem to be better, so we know the C43 as an overall package can be competitive. It was a more difficult weekend for Zhou; starting from P20, we had to try something different so we tried an alternative strategy with him to recover some ground. Nevertheless, we take this point and we get back to work to continue our streak in Spielberg in two weeks. We will race on permanent circuits until the summer break, and we are confident they can better suit our qualifying performances. We have seen, once again, how tight the battle is: one single metre could cost a position, just like one single tenth in qualifying can make the difference between Q2 and Q3: we will need to keep on working as hard as possible, both at the track and at the factory, to constantly improve.

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Scuderia AlphaTauri

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda was able to fight his way from 19th at the start to 14th by the chequered flag, while Dutch team-mate Nick de Vries finished in 18th place.

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Nyck de Vries

Until the fight with Kevin (Magnussen), it was a decent race. We fought each other hard but I think we both missed our braking point, and with the low grip, I locked up and went straight. Compared to previous race weekends, we weren’t quite quick and competitive enough, so we need to see why we were lacking performance to understand how to improve. Equally, it was a DRS train and wherever you were, you maintained your position. Points were going to be a challenge today, but qualifying further up the grid certainly would’ve made a better result possible.

Yuki Tsunoda

Our aggressive strategy worked until the virtual safety car and our pace was really good. The timing didn’t work in our favour and we couldn’t gain as much as we wanted to, struggling with pace after that. Our car performance was ok, though not as good as Barcelona, which meant we weren’t able to gain as many positions as we wanted. It’s not the position I wanted to finish, but I had some good overtakes, so it was good learning. Looking ahead, I need a clean race weekend with a higher qualifying position, to maximise our chances of scoring points in the future.

JODY EGGINTON – Technical Director

Yesterday’s qualifying positions made today’s race more difficult than it needed to be. This, combined with Yuki’s three-place penalty, forced us into trying something different and unfortunately, it didn’t work out. We made a very early stop with Yuki to use the free air to recover race time. The strategy was working quite well and Yuki got back into the pack, however, losing a bit of time behind Magnussen on older tyres, the decision was made to convert to a two-stop. This cost a bit more track position than expected due to a slow stop so ultimately, we couldn’t get back to the pack led by Albon. Nyck’s race was mainly in traffic and unfortunately, his first stop was made the lap before the safety car, meaning he wasn’t able to take advantage of the undercut. Subsequent contact with Magnussen later in the race cost him more time, along with a raft of blue flags. We need to review Yuki’s race to determine if sticking with the one-stop strategy could have potentially provided a better result. In terms of pace, had we managed to qualify further up the grid and been able to utilise a more conventional strategy, I believe we could’ve scored points today. Qualifying was the key aspect of the weekend, and we need to be executing better going forwards, so we’re better placed to start scoring and recovering from our current situation where we are dropping points and letting our closest competitors move away from us in the Constructors’ championship.

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Williams Racing

 

It’s been a very strong weekend and I have to thank the team first and foremost. We had the upgrade on the car, and I think it shows that we made a good step and the circuit suited us. The work that has gone on at the factory to get this upgrade ready has been monumental and everyone has been working so hard. We also fitted a new PU, so we threw everything at this weekend. We had a great qualifying yesterday and now the race today was great. To get these points on the board and move up to ninth in the Championship is a nice place to be and it’s great to be able to say thank you to the team and have this reward for everything that everyone has done.

Logan Sargeant

We had a really good start to the race with a car we could fight with. I had the AlphaTauri ahead under quite a bit of pressure and I felt quick. Unfortunately, I got the message to stop the car as soon as possible due to an issue which ended my race. I’ve learned a lot this weekend from using the full wet tyres, driving in the wet, and driving on the inters on a drying track. Honestly in the dry, I feel like we’ve been pretty quick. It didn’t work out today, but we can be positive about going to Austria

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance

There were mixed fortunes for the two sides of our garage today. We were forced to retire Logan’s car after we spotted an oil leak, which was starting to affect his power unit. We need to inspect the car tonight and find out exactly where the leak is coming from. It was a shame for Logan as he had a good opportunity for some close racing and a good result. With Alex, we benefited from a well-timed safety car but were also able to put together a very strong 1-stop race. We have seen in the past that Alex is exceptionally good at managing a race and defending against a group of cars. Today, he was able to overtake on track and then couple all of his past experience with the strengths of the updated FW45 to pull off a very good result. His drive was outstanding and the help he received from the team was equally impressive. We suspected that the circuit in Montreal would suit the car quite well and this has been enhanced by the upgrade package, which was delivered well today. The whole team in Grove has worked tirelessly to deliver this upgrade and they can be suitably proud of their achievement.

We still have a lot to learn about the revised FW45 and this work will continue in Austria in a couple of weeks.

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