F1 Preview: Can Anyone Catch Mercedes in Canada?

The Canadian Grand Prix breaks up the European rounds of the Formula One season nicely, as the F1 circus heads to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel cruised to victory last year but Mercedes will be the ones to beat this weekend having scored six wins and six pole positions from six events, including a record-equalling five consecutive 1-2 finishes.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull had the pace to stop the Mercedes run of dominance last time out on Monaco but failed to overcome Lewis Hamilton’s faultless drive as the five-time champion held off the young Dutchman.

Montreal is a demanding circuit which is essentially all about straight line speed and chicanes. With the drivers getting up close and personal with the walls on the exits of the chicanes, the track will prove to be a real test for each of the 20 drivers.

How much speed do they dare take through each of the chicanes? How early will they be able to apply 100% throttle? How close will they get to the wall on the exit? All of these things must me maximised to get a good laptime on the 2.7 miles circuit if you are to have a good weekend and those who are able to take a risk and get away with it, will be rewarded.

Each driver will be looking for a car which can ride the kerbs well, have a good change of direction and obviously a power unit which can carry you down the straights in no time. Its unlike Silverstone or Suzuka which have plenty of high speed turns, the chicanes and the one hairpin are more slow to medium speed.

The final chicane with its infamous Wall of Champions has become slightly easier over the years but it remains a big challenge. It became famous after the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix which saw Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill – all world champions, hence the name of the wall they hit.

One of the reasons it is so tough is because it is the last technical challenge on the track. If you have lost a few tenths somewhere else around the lap then you will be desperate to make it up in the final chicane by braking as late as possible and carrying as much speed as possible whilst trying to almost straight line the chicane.

Ferrari were the team to beat in Bahrain, which is a circuit that requires slow speed turns and long straights. This will probably be Ferrari’s best chance of winning a race, until Silverstone.

The Italian manufacturer have said that ‘no significant improvements are coming soon’. Whether they are trying to play things down or they are just trying to take the pressure away I’m not sure, but the performance on the racetrack will tell the whole story.

Qualifying was very close in Montreal last year, with the top six cars within 0.3 of a second. Max Verstappen managed to haul his car into 3rd on the grid and a podium. It was Canada where Verstappen started his excellent run of form which has continued 12 months on to now.

Red Bull shouldn’t be as fast as they were in Monaco and will be battling to try and stay ahead of Ferrari this weekend and take advantage of any chaos that evolves at the front of the field – something that can happen in Canada as we have seen in its 58-year history.

But, Mercedes will still be the ones to beat. They are introducing their second power unit in Canada which will have more power (reported to have 1020BHP) without any negative affect on their bullet proof reliability.

In the 2014-2016 years, Mercedes had an outright power advantage over the rest of the field. Ferrari are at least matching the Silver Arrows on power (if not ahead) but its the fuel efficiency reliability which puts Mercedes ahead of the game.

Nobody really talks about the fuel efficiency side of things but it is incredible how a car can have over 1000BHP and be so efficient. Whilst others have caught up with Mercedes on the power unit side of things, Mercedes have proven that they are now arguably the team beat in terms of the chassis.

For the last 2-3 years, people have always said Red Bull have the best chassis but in 2019 I think this isn’t the case, now they are a very close second to Mercedes. It is a testament to the effort Mercedes have put to remain the team to beat by working on areas where other teams were better than them.

Three DRS zones, coupled with the long straights should promote good overtaking opportunities. Hopefully, we will see some strategic variation between the teams during the Grand Prix too, with Pirelli bringing the softest tyre compounds to Montreal (the C5, C4 and C3) tyre compounds.

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a rear limited circuit due to the cars tending to be more on the ‘oversteery’ side of things and the multiple high traction zones coming out of each of the chicanes and the hairpin.

It is a race that is more often than not, full of incident so Mercedes will need to be more weary than usual.

Off the track, silly season has begun with plenty of rumours flying around. I think I have heard it all already in the last 2-3 weeks alone. I’ll leave my thoughts for another article but it looks like if one driver in one of the big three teams move on or change time, a huge chain reaction will be set off yet again.

The 2021 regulations is becoming a bigger and bigger talking point but it looks like negotiations are going nowhere. The teams have far too much power and Liberty Media have not been bold enough to lay the rules down on the table.

If Liberty did simply state the rules and put up a sign up sheet, the manufacturers and all the current ten teams will sign up to it. Formula One is still by far the biggest motorsport out there, and is a global sport which can bring in the biggest sponsors and attract millions of fans around the world. For a team to walk away from this would be surprising.

It looks like, the current turbo-hybrid power units are here to stay despite the huge costs and the complexity of them. Mercedes have already stated they are staying until at least 2025 suggesting the 2021 rules have had little change and will have little affect on the big teams. Nothing is confirmed but it is beginning to appear that Liberty have missed a massive opportunity to make some major changes.

Hamilton is looking for a 7th win in Canada; it would be a record-equalling feat alongside Michael Schumacher. He is the favourite going into the weekend but I suspect things will be closer than some think and it won’t be a straightforward Mercedes victory.