2023 Canadian GP Heroes and Zeroes

[Jericoke]

Heroes
Max/Newey - they're the most unbeatable team the sport seen in a long time, if ever.

Alonso - it might be impossible for him to defeat the Max/Newey juggernaut, but he's putting in a serious effort

Hamilton - It took a long time for him to get over the disappointment of 2021 and 2022.  Happy Lewis is one of the best things you can see in F1

Ferrari - bad qualifying but good results?  Maybe they've been approaching the sport the wrong way.  It was a little weird to hold Sainz at station if he really did have pace.  They've never been shy about swapping drivers if they thought the trailing driver had pace.  The call not to 'fight' was right to save the tires, but to not even try a swap?  Maybe just going off line to do it was considered too risky?

Alex Albon!  Another in a long line of talented drivers who never quite manages to make his mark finally puts a dent into the sport.  Getting a 7th place in a Williams is a great result, and shows that he's able to handle the pressure of F1.

Zeroes

I don't know that any drivers truly belong here.  Sure, Russel hit the wall, but it's a tough circuit, even the best get caught up in those walls, so it's not exactly a 'zero' result.

KMag and DeVries were in a fight and got mixed up, but I'd applaud the fight more than 'zero' the result.

Double no points for McLaren, but they were just outshined by people having a better day.  With any luck, McLaren could have had solid points too.

The FIA was busy, with blocking penalties, but then quite lenient about unsafe releases in the pits.  I was sure that Hamilton at least would get a penalty for almost hitting Alonso.  I hope that the FIA/drivers/teams can agree on what is/isn't acceptable.  On the 50th anniversary of the safety car, I'm glad that F1 really does put safety ahead of spectacle most of the time.

[Dare]

Looks like Strong didn't listen to the pep talk earlier
this week. Makes you wonder what the RB, Mercedes, and
Ferrari drivers could do with Strong's car.

Get real the Stewards were never going to punish Hamilton.

[Willy]

It was a decent race and the wet quali was fun to watch.
The track is rather tight and punishes those who lose focus but has better passing chances than Monaco.
No sense in writing the same stuff as Jeri has done as she always gets it right in her assessment.
And Jeri, I too was surprised Hamilton did not get a penalty for an unsafe release.

[Monty]

Can’t help thinking that Ferrari and Perez made Hamilton’s final position a bit artificial but I did enjoy seeing Lewis really pushing the limits on the Mediums trying to catch Alonso.
I genuinely believe that Lando did not deliberately back up the pack. He seemed shocked and hurt by the accusation and the penalty seemed harsh.
I nearly choked on my coffee watching Alonso trying to make Hamilton’s release appear to be ‘unsafe’ 😂 The overhead shot showed that he didn’t even need to brake, yet he was putting-in massive steering inputs to make it appear that he was close to losing control 🙄. He really is a Wiley old fox - but this was a bit underhanded.
I really would love to criticise Max but he drove perfectly - my only complaint was the unnecessary whining about tyre grip (while he was still pulling away from the pack by half a second a lap). Even his engineer made it clear he was sick of hearing Max’s complaints 🙄

[Dare]

Max almost knocked himself out of Canadian win. It least he
laughed about it


from Planet F1


Max Verstappen almost KO’d himself over the sausage kerb that led to George Russell’s Canadian GP shunt, risking his and Red Bull’s F1 2023 winning streak.

Having led every lap of the race from pole position, it seemed only an uncharacteristic error or poor reliability could possibly deny Verstappen a fourth win in succession, and Red Bull’s 100th in Formula 1.

The former almost did the trick though, Verstappen thankfully able to laugh about it afterwards as he jolted over the sausage kerb at the Turn 8/9 chicane.

“F***, I almost knocked myself out on that kerb, haha!”

On Lap 12 that kerb had given Russell a huge helping hand into the wall, the Mercedes driver able to carry on but dropping from P4 to last after crawling back to the pits, though for Verstappen there were no such dramas as he drove on to take the chequered flag.

With that, he made it six wins out of eight at the start of F1 2023, while ensuring that Red Bull would maintain their 100 per cent winning record in F1 2023 and bring up that century of victories in the series.

As for Verstappen, his new tally of 41 F1 wins moves him level with the late great three-time F1 World Champion Ayrton Senna.