It’s back to North America for a quick hit and run mission in Canada for one of the best races of the season. Talking of hitting and missing, our 2024 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Preview will give you a bit of everything without promising anything ahead of the upcoming big weekend of F1.
The Gurgler’s 2024 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Preview brings some thoughts on the race itself, a few bold predictions here and there, a more than a few barely interesting stats.
Essentially a quick summary of what a casual F1 fan needs in the shortest possible time for your convenience.
READ MORE: 2024 F1 Season Summary
It looks a b it like a fish, which suits given the track is in the middle of a river. It has a first corner/s section ready to punish over-ambition and under-talent. The fast sweepers after the start also catch out amateurs and are spectacular. There’s a couple of chicanes where overtaking is very hard but thankfully doesn’t stop people trying. And the long run into the hairpin and final chicane at the pits should produce decent overtaking opportunities.
2024 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Preview – Race Rating
The Gurgler does like to use some obscure drivers in our Race previews and report, so who better to use than Teo Fabi to determine a race rating system.
So before each race we give a rating out of ten for four key category that are loosely based on each letter of Teo Fabi’s surname. Don’t know who Teo Fabi is, you should.
FAST? 7/10 – It’s pretty fast, and being set in an island park in the middle of a river, there’s not much space with barriers close, so probably feels quicker than it is. But it’s still quick with some fast sweeping sections, and a long back straight-ish section, which dives into the dangerously fast Wall of Champions chicane.
ACTION? 10/10 – It’s a track where stuff happens. A difficult left-right at the start usually catches out the occasional amateur, and at the end of the lap the Wall of Champions claims as the name suggests, Champions. In between there’s barriers and fast enough corners to test the ambition and talent of the entire field. Given the Red Bull didn’t like the bumps of Monaco, Canada is only a modest improvement, and there’s more compeditive teams than ever it could be another mixed grid. Over the years we have seen a few wet races, the longest modern race ever, a safety car called because a car picked up newly laid turf in its front wing and deposited it on the back straight, races where there were two consecutive first corner prangs in the same grand prix involving the same drivers each time. Try the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix is you will.
BIG HISTORY? – 7/10 – The Canadian Grand Prix has been around since the 1960’s and was one and off until 1978 when this track became a permanent home. It occasionally drops off the calendar due to financial reasons, but is mostly a regular fixture, and a race many look forward to. Big names have won the race over the years and a few smokies too. It was of course the venue of Lewis Hamilton’s first win, which always helps the history.
INCLEMENT WEATHER? – 7/10 The Weather Channel says between a 55% and 58% chance of rain on all days over the weekend, including potential thunderstorm on Saturday. Perfect.
RACE RATING 78% – Bias here as it is one of our most favourite tracks. Like Monaco with the barriers, but just not a consistently sh!t with racing.
2024 Canadian F1 Grand Prix Preview – Stats
Want to know if your favourite driver for this weekend is a master of the track or the track is a master of them? Here then are some barely interesting facts and stats.
These visuals go back to 2000 to cover the current drivers, thanks to Fernando Alonso. The all time history goes back to 1950.
- The Canadian Grand Prix has the third highest DNF % since 2000 at 23% of all cars that start retire. Although that drops to 10th worst and 15% since 2014.
- The 2011 edition was a wet race and took four hours and four minutes from start to eventual finish after a red flag. It prompted a change in regulations for overall time allowed. It also forced a change in watching habits in the Australasian region, as staying up for this Grand Prix is no longer advisable.
- All but one of the seven races since 2015 have been won by the pole sitter.
- Five drivers have completed the perfect race triple with win from pole and fastest lap. The last was in 2017 by Sebastian Vettel.
- Maybe it’s not a bad place for Oscar Piastri to win his first race. Six drivers have won their first race at Montreal. Including the man who the circuit is named after Gilles Villeneuve, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo.
- Yuki Tsunoda will surely improve in his current form, he hasn’t qualified off the back row here in two starts. Lance Stroll probably won’t improve and he hasn’t made it out of Q1 in five attempts.
- Three drivers have never missed Q3 here – Lewis Hamilton since 2007, Esteban Ocon since 2017 and Oscar Piastri last season.
- Lando Norris is yet to score a point in Montreal.
- Kevin Magnussen has made six consecutive non points finishes here.
DRIVER GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT – CURRENT DRIVERS
TEAM GRID POSITION vs RACE RESULT
HISTORIC DRIVER RESULTS
99 = a DNF. Grid position 20 is overstated as that was also used for cars starting in pitlane.
HISTORIC TEAM RESULTS
GRID POSITION INTO RACE RESULT
99 = a DNF. Grid position 20 is overstated as that was also used for cars starting in pitlane. Results from 2000.
- Oscar Piastri will take pole position and win.
- Max Verstappen will qualify on the third row again.
- Fernando Alonso will pull something out of his bag of tricks in qualifying.
- Sergio Perez will not and spin out on Q1.
- Lance Stroll will cause a red flag in Q1.
- There will be four safety cars.
- Esteban Ocon will go all guns blazing since announcing he’s leaving Alpine and finish in the points from Q1 elimination.
- RBs will both qualify in the top ten and score points.
- Guanyu Zhou will be forgotten about again by TV cameras.
ALL RACE RESULTS – CANADIAN F1 GRAND PRIX
ALL TIME RESULTS
