Canadian GP – Team Overview

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Ali


Red Bull

Red Bull Racing
	Qualifying	Race
Vettel	3	3
Ricciardo	5	1

On Sunday morning, it was likely that Red Bull were praying for one of their drivers to occupy the final step of the podium in a few hours time. Having been constantly reminded that this was their worst circuit on paper, and that the Mercedes Power Unit would dominate them on the straights, they pulled off the most unlikely win seen by F1 in years.

Vettel’s race was hampered by his strategy, if it wasn’t for this, he would’ve been the driver on the top step. Vettel’s problems came about when exiting the pits, both for his second and third stints. Unfortunately, he’d found himself slot behind the equally as quick, one-stopping Force India cars. Due to the nature of the Montreal Circuit Vettel’s Renault PU could not muster up enough power to get past the Mercedes driven Force India cars.  

On the contrary however, Vettel’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo found that he was in good positions after his pit stops. Vettel’s second and final pit stop came at around lap 37, and again he found him-self behind a Force India car. Ricciardo meanwhile pitted during lap 38 and exited just in front of the Force India and Vettel train of cars. This showed how much time Vettel lost being stuck behind the cars ahead of him.

Sergio Perez led Ricciardo then Vettel for a number of laps until his tyres began killing his pace, this was due to his one stop strategy. Ricciardo soon dispatched the Force India before storming past the injured Mercedes-Benz taking an incredible win. Vettel meanwhile kept his wits about him to secure third place as he dodged Massa’s Williams as it came hurtling towards him going into turn one.

Mercedes AMG

Mercedes
	Qualifying	Race
Rosberg	1	2
Hamilton	2	Ret

The race start saw bought no surprise as the two Mercedes cars quickly hurried away from the rest of the field. Hamilton challenged Rosberg for the lead on a few occasions but was unsuccessful on all attempts.

The drama started on lap 37 where Hamilton reported to his engineers that he’d lost power. His lap-times suffered massively as a result of this which meant Rosberg’s lead increased. It  was around a lap later when Rosberg also lost power, and the gap between the Mercedes car neutralised as both cars developed the same problem. Although the gap between the two front runners neutralised, the rest of the field began to catch up at a terrifying rate.

The problem was a KERS failure. It is to my understanding that the KERS on both cars ceased to harvest energy. When the KERS isn’t harvesting energy, it isn’t contributing to the deceleration of the cars velocity as it should be. This meant that the smaller and ‘weaker’ rear brake discs had to be worked harder to make up for the lost braking power that the KERS harvesting provided.

Unfortunately on lap 45, by the time the engineers had realised what was fully going on, Hamilton’s rear brakes had been overwhelmed with responsibility where they failed due to the carbon ceramic material overheating.

Tony Ross (Rosberg’s Race Engineer) saw Hamilton retire and quickly told Rosberg to change KERS settings and adjust the brake bias forwards. From here Rosberg managed to hold out until the end of the race for P2.

Ferrari

Ferrari
	Qualifying	Race
Alonso	7	6
Raikkonen	10	10

Ferrari had a very poor race in Montreal. Alonso fell back a place from his starting position, even with three retirements from the front of the field; it could have been a lot worse.

Raikkonen continued to have his usual troubles. Spinning in the low speed chicane confirmed that he was destined for a disastrous race. The spin most likely occurred due to bad mechanical grip and set up. Recently the Ferrari has been struggling to get its tyres into the operating window within an acceptable period of time; this could be due to the pull-rod suspension geometry settings.

(Which I have discussed in a previous blog! - http://ali-f1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/suspension-geometries.html)

Force India

Force India
	Qualifying	Race
Hulkenberg	11	5
Perez	13	11

There is no doubt about the potential of the VJM07, both drivers have shown promising pace since the beginning of the year.

Force India showed extreme confidence in their tyre wear management by opting to run a one stop strategy on both of their cars. This decision was most definitely the correct one because the two Force India cars were constantly at the front end of the field despite their bad results in qualifying. Hulkenberg started on the soft tyre and pitted for the softer option on lap 42, whereas Perez did the opposite starting on the super soft and pitting on lap 35 for the soft (harder) compound.

Both strategies would’ve resulted in similar finishing positions. Perez’ soft tyres had begun to perish by the end of the race, as Ricciardo and then Vettel overtook him. Massa was next in line but for the eye watering accident that occurred a few seconds later. Either way it looked as if he was going to finish in 4^th position. By this time, Hulkenberg had went almost double the time everyone else did on their own super soft tyres, therefore he had no chance whatsoever of any further overtaking opportunities.

McLaren

McLaren
	Qualifying	Race
Button	9	4
Magnussen	12	9

McLaren did not progress performance-wise through the Canadian GP. Although Button finished a fantastic P4, it was mainly down to the three retirements up front and a mistake from Alonso on the final lap. Magnussen made up 3 places through the race, but again it was due to the three retirements at the front of the field.

McLaren’s problems go on with no let up from Button’s lucky fourth place finish.

Williams

Williams
	Qualifying	Race
Massa	5	12
Bottas	4	7

Williams showed that they have a car that is good enough to be on the podium consistently. Massa also had the greatest opportunity to win the race, but it was all over when a slow pit stop meant he was released behind his team mate and Niko Hulkenberg. Massa still had a good chance to challenge the win as he approached: Rosberg, Perez, Ricciardo and Vettel. Unfortunately he made a mistake at the hairpin before the back straight and couldn’t catch Vettel that lap, then the next lap he either forgot to activate his DRS or there was a DRS failure when he was trying to overtake Vettel on the straight.

Regarding the final lap accident, I believe that both Massa and Perez were at fault. Perez definitely cut across Massa (to defend position) but it was a bit too late as Massa was already very close to the Force India. Massa also steers right (into Perez) as if he was trying to get back onto the racing line, but he did this without noticing that Perez had turned into his path.

Valterri was plagued with various problems and his main aim was to bring the car home without pushing it over the limit.

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso
	Qualifying	Race
Vergne	8	8
Kvyat	15	Ret

 Kvyat also ran into a lot of trouble, he span early on in the race before eventually retiring with a drive train issue.

Vergne had a weekend he’ll be very proud of considering how unlucky he has been this year. He was much quicker than his talented team mate and dominated him all weekend.

 Lotus

Lotus
	Qualifying	Race
Grosjean	14	Ret
Maldonado	17	Ret

Lotus’ woes continue as both cars retired with mechanical problems. Maldonado retired with engine issues and Grosjean retired when his rear wing end plate broke at the bottom mount.

Marussia

Marussia
	Qualifying	Race
Bianchi	19	Ret
Chilton	18	Ret

After having the best weekend of the team’s history, the only way the Canadian GP could’ve went any worse for Marussia is if Caterham or Sauber scored a point or two here.

As the back of the pack filtered in to turn three on the first lap, Max Chilton experienced a major case of oversteer as he clattered into Bianchi, sending him into the concrete wall of turn four, and demolishing his rear end. Chilton’s mistake saw the end of the only achievement in his F1 career, to have finished every race he’d competed in.

Sauber

Sauber
	Qualifying	Race
Sutil	16	13
Gutierrez	22	14

Sauber had a rather uneventful weekend as Sutil started from the pitlane to bring the car home in P13. Gutierrez retired with a battery issue but finished last of the finishers.

Caterham

Caterham
	Qualifying	Race
Kobayashi	21	Ret
Ericsson	20	Ret

The situation at Caterham does not look any better as they were the slowest team at the Canadian GP. With the amount of retirees throughout the GP, Caterham could have had a very acceptable weekend, unfortunately though, mechanical failures doomed them to double retirement.