Haas F1
Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in the Canadian Grand Prix Sunday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
While the result did not garner any points, it was impressive nonetheless for Grosjean, who started last in the 20-car field and climbed to as high as seventh in the 68-lap race around the 4.361-kilometer (2.710-mile), 14-turn track.
In fact, Grosjean ran the first 48 laps on a set of Pirelli P Zero Purple ultrasoft tires before finally pitting for a new set of Red supersofts. Grosjean stayed out longer than any other driver in the hopes of a full-course caution that would bring out either an actual safety car or the virtual safety car. It never came to be, and after wringing all that was available from his ultrasofts, Grosjean made his necessary pit stop. This dropped Grosjean to 12th, where he returned to the track in front of his teammate, Magnussen.
Magnussen started 11th, but lost a position on the start when Charles Leclerc successfully maneuvered his Sauber past Magnussen’s Haas VF-18. Magnussen held steady in 12th, particularly on lap five when Sergio Perez worked to collect his sideways Force India during a dicey moment in turn one. Magnussen later came under threat from the Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, whose Pink hypersoft tires – the grippiest and fastest tire in Pirelli’s lineup – proved to be quicker than Magnussen’s ultrasofts. Gasly eventually got by Magnussen on lap nine, dropping him to 13th.
Soon, scheduled pit stops began, allowing Magnussen to climb to eighth before he made his own pit stop for supersofts on lap 22. This dropped Magnussen to 15th.
When Fernando Alonso was forced to retire his McLaren after 40 laps, Magnussen picked up 14th. And when Perez made his second and final pit stop on lap 44, Magnussen rose to 13th and later in the race held off Perez who ultimately finished 14th.
It was a gritty performance by both Haas F1 Team pilots in the seventh round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the Canadian Grand Prix in convincing fashion over Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas. Vettel started from the pole and led all 70 laps, culminating with a 7.376-second margin of victory. It was a milestone win for Vettel, as it was his 50th career Formula One victory. He is now fourth on the series’ all-time win list, just one victory behind fellow four-time champion Alain Prost. Michael Schumacher leads the list with 91 wins and Lewis Hamilton is second with 63 victories. This was Vettel’s series-leading third win of the season and his second at Montreal. The triumph also vaulted Vettel into the championship lead by a single point over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Seven rounds into the 21-race Formula One schedule, Haas F1 Team is tied with Toro Rosso for seventh in the constructors’ standings with 19 points apiece, nine points behind sixth-place Force India with a seven-point advantage over Sauber, their nearest pursuer.
The 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship resumes with the French Grand Prix June 24 at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet.
Romain Grosjean
“We didn’t really know quite how long we could go. We had been planning to go long, but not as long as that. The tires were holding quite nicely. There was only a bit of front degradation. I was happy with the pace. I was easily managing keeping up with the Renault in front and the Force India behind. If qualifying had been as I was expecting with a P7, it would’ve been a P7 today, for sure. Anyway, we tried to come back, but our strategy didn’t quite work. When we came out of the pit we had a lot of blue flags and so on. I couldn’t really come back through the field. We did our best. The car is fast and I enjoyed driving it.”
KEvin Magnussen
“Not a brilliant weekend for us. We were thinking that P11 in qualifying was a good result. We thought that would be an advantage for the race – being on a different tire from the top-10. It didn’t really turn out to be that way. I didn’t get a great first lap. I was overtaken by one of the Saubers. They had a really good start, and then a couple of laps after I had a Force India that spun and I couldn’t get on the inside, so I was on the outside and got done by Fernando (Alonso) on the inside. Things just didn’t go our way today. It’s a shame. I think the car was pretty good, especially on the supersoft, the pace was good. I think we just didn’t get it right today.”
Gunther Steiner
“It was a disappointing end to a disappointing weekend. Lady Luck didn’t quite go our way during the race. The only thing we can do is look forward to the next race. I’m hoping we’ll get a break at some stage and show what we can do.”
Williams F1
Race Notes
Sergey Sirotkin finished 17th in the Canadian Grand Prix, meanwhile Lance Stroll retired following a collision with Brendon Hartley
Lance started the race in 16th on the ultrasoft Pirelli tyre
Sergey started on the supersoft Pirelli tyre in 17th position
Both cars made clean starts, with Sergey gaining several positions by turn two
On the first lap, the safety car was deployed after Lance made contact with the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley, bringing an end to both their races
At the safety car restart, Sergey was unfortunate to lose position, and crossed the chequered flag in 17th
On lap 26, Sergey pitted for a set of ultrasoft tyres
Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer
This was a very disappointing result, especially for Lance’s fans and there were many of them here today for his home race in Canada. As for the race itself, we chose to split the strategy across the two cars, with Lance starting on the ultrasoft and Sergey on the supersoft. Both cars made good starts off the line, initially gaining places. Unfortunately, Lance had an accident in turn five involving Hartley, which brought his race to a very early conclusion. On Sergey’s side, due to the harder tyre slow warm up, he lost the positions he had gained at the start after the safety car. He then settled down to protecting a position ahead of Ericsson and Vandoorne. We chose a relatively early stop for the ultrasoft to go to the end, thinking that this would gain an advantage, but unfortunately, we didn’t find any pace in these softer tyres, which appeared slower than the supersofts. We know we are not where we need to be and we have a lot of work to do. We are working very hard behind the scenes and intend to come back stronger as soon as we can.
Sergey Sirotkin
It was a difficult race. The start was particularly tough in the beginning with the prime tyres compared to the much softer compounds of everybody else. Still, I was able to gain some positions at the start. However, with the safety car and an extremely poor warm up with the harder compound of tyre, it was impossible to keep up with the pace. We were the slowest car of the day and we have done our best to finish the race despite the issues we’ve had. That’s where we are and we have to be honest with that.
Lance Stroll
First of all I am really disappointed for the fans. I have had a great welcome here for my home race and I wanted to put on a good show for them. I had a good start, gained a few positions and got both McLarens, but I had some contact when I overtook them. Then I was side by side with Brendon going into turn five. The car got loose on me, I corrected it but there was not much room for both of us, and by the time I had corrected it we had touched. It is not ideal, but that is racing, things like that happen on the first lap as we are close and side by side, so that is how it goes sometimes.
Force India
Force India scored two points in today’s Canadian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon racing to ninth place ahead of Sergio Perez in P14.
ESTEBAN OCON
“It’s good to pick up more points, but we had the potential to score even more today. I had a fantastic first lap and got ahead of Hulkenberg, which was the target, and I was running well in seventh place. Then we had a small issue at the pit stop, which cost us a couple of seconds, and it dropped me down behind both of the Renaults. From there I tried my best to fight back and I came close to catching Sainz in the final few laps, but it wasn’t possible to overtake, especially after he cut the track and gained some time on the final lap when I was about to overtake him. It’s a shame because the strategy should have worked really well. I will focus on the positives because it’s been a strong performance by the team this weekend. We can be satisfied with what we have done here. The pace has been competitive, but we need to keep pushing.”
SERGIO PEREZ
“I am very disappointed to come away from this race with no points. The start was good, although I didn’t make up any places, but the restart after the Safety Car was even better and I managed to pass Carlos [Sainz]. I was very surprised when he hit me because I gave him more than enough room and I was ahead: that wasn’t good enough and that’s why I asked for a penalty on the radio. I was able to save the car [from crashing] but by then my race was compromised. We tried something different with the strategy – going for a two-stopper – but it wasn’t enough to get back in the points. Overtaking was impossible, with these cars you can’t follow another car and pass them unless you have a big advantage. It’s a shame because I feel we had the pace to be mixing with the Renaults and we should have scored some good points.”
OTMAR SZAFNAUER
“To come away with just two points is a bit disappointing considering the speed we’ve shown across the weekend. Esteban drove well and we just unfortunately had a slow pit stop with a delay fitting the rear jack, which ultimately ended our chance of beating the Renaults. Sergio was racing very well until Sainz hit him, forcing him off the road, and dropped him outside the points. He had made the overtake so it was extremely disappointing to lose four or five places as a result. It effectively ended his afternoon. So a mixed result today, but we take encouragement from the speed we have shown in both qualifying and the race, and it’s good to keep picking up important points.”
Sauber
The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team concluded a positive weekend at the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix with one car, driven by Charles Leclerc, finishing the race in the top-ten and the other in the top 15 with Marcus Ericsson. Both drivers gave a strong performance, and did a good job of managing their tyres on the demanding Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. After qualifying in P13 (Q2) on Saturday, Charles Leclerc drove consistently throughout the race, and moved forward, ultimately finishing in P10 and scoring a further point for the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. Marcus Ericsson also did a good job, and advanced during the race, finishing in P15, despite having to slow down in the first part of the race because of traffic. The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team currently holds 9th place in the Constructors’ Championship, with Charles Leclerc in P14, and Marcus Ericsson in P17 in the Drivers’ Championship. The team looks forward to the upcoming races with a boost in motivation and confidence after a successful weekend in Montreal.
Marcus Ericsson
“It was quite a difficult race for me. In the first half of the race, I struggled behind other cars and lost quite a bit of time. The second half was decent; we did a good job getting the tyres to last until the end of the race, which is a positive. The result is disappointing, and we have to work on improving in qualifying, as that is where I still have room for improvement at the moment. I am confident that we will find a way to improve in that area, and look forward to the next races.”
Charles Leclerc
“It was a good race today. I am very happy with the result – it has now been four races that we have been doing a great job, and have been improving consistently. I am proud of the team and the work that everyone has done. It was exciting to discover this track in Montreal, and I enjoyed driving here very much. Now we have to take what we have learned here and look to continue on this positive path for the next couple of races.”
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal
“Overall it was a good weekend for us. We had one car in Q2 (Charles Leclerc) again – it was the fourth time in a row for us. The race today was also good. Charles managed to stay ahead of his competitors and fight his way forward, scoring a point for the team again. Marcus did a good job as well, but unfortunately got stuck behind another car after his pit stop. The team did a good job with a very fast pit stop again. Everything is coming together and looking positive, and good steps are being made as a team. We have to stay focused and continue working in this direction for the upcoming races.”
McLaren
A difficult day in Montreal for McLaren with both Fernando and Stoffel enduring tough races. Both drivers agreed that overtaking opportunities were few and far between this afternoon, and neither could make great headway through the field without the help of a good strategy call. Fernando made up three positions after his first stop and benefitted from opportunities in the Safety Car window, but a points finish wasn’t meant to be – he was forced to retire on lap 41 due to a broken charge air cooler pipe which led him to lose boost pressure.
Stoffel had a right-front puncture after running over debris from the first-lap incident, and endured a slow pit-stop that put him to the back of the field – a situation which gave him little opportunity to move forward for much of the race. In addition, he spent the final laps of the race nursing an intermittent electrical management issue which meant he was unable to push the car to its limits. He finished the race in 16th place.
Fernando Alonso
“The race was fun at the beginning, especially after the restart, when we overtook three cars in two corners. Sergio [Perez] was on the grass sideways and came back onto the track, so it was difficult to anticipate what line he would have taken. Then halfway through the race, I felt a loss of power and was told to retire.
“It’s sad, frustrating and I’m disappointed with this result. We weren’t competitive this weekend. We need to find more performance in the car and a way to become competitive. Reliability is also important, as we saw at the beginning of the year how many points we scored and how many we’ve lost now in the last two races, by retiring today and retiring in Monaco when we were running in seventh position.
“There are a few areas of the car that we need to keep working on and improving, and we’ll see what happens in the next couple of months.
“I’m flying tonight to France, as tomorrow I need to be in Le Mans. It will be a busy Monday and a new experience, and I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Stoffel Vandoorne
“I think we were extremely unlucky from the start today. We had a good launch off the grid, but with the accident that happened there was so much debris to find our way through into Turn Five, and it was impossible to avoid it. We had a front-right puncture, and we basically ran out of tyres already before we even really started the race, so it was a difficult day. A big piece of debris went under the car so we were forced to pit on the first lap and then lost a lot of time in the pit-stop as well. Before we even got into the race it was already over.
“On a personal note, on my side it’s been very positive in terms of the progression we’ve made over the past couple of races. The disappointing thing here was our qualifying performance for the team as a whole. We knew that before coming here and unfortunately it got confirmed. We’ve got a lot of work ahead.
“It’s hard to tell how the next few races will be for us. We don’t want to make any predictions, and if you look at last year there were some races that we thought would be difficult but turned out to be alright. We have to wait and see. Paul Ricard will be a new track for everyone, and then Austria and Silverstone, so a busy couple of weeks ahead but I’m looking forward to that and hopefully we’ll have some better luck.”
Eric Boullier
“Today has been a day to forget and move on for McLaren. While both drivers did extremely well to avoid the chaos on lap one, Stoffel reported a puncture after driving over the resultant debris, and his subsequent stop lost him a lot of time under the Safety Car. From there, he was in last position, and, despite driving well to manage his strategy and pace to his nearest competitors, the unforgiving nature of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve meant he was unable to make significant gains on the pack ahead. To compound his struggles, he spent the final stint of the race nursing an intermittent energy management issue, which we are currently investigating. All things considered, he drove a hard-fought race to bring the car home in 16th.
“Fernando was left in a much better position than Stoffel after the first-lap chaos, and benefitted from the early Safety Car period to jump three places forward into 11th on a one-stop strategy. While we thought a points-paying result was becoming a distinct possibility, he suffered cruel luck once again and was forced to retire the car after losing boost pressure thanks to a broken charge air cooler pipe. Although very frustrating, it’s an unusual problem, and one that we don’t expect to affect us going forward.
“From here, the important thing is to pick ourselves up and turn our attention to our return to Europe and three back-to-back races in as many weeks. With a renewed focus, hard work and better luck, we hope an upturn in fortunes will come our way.”
Renault F1
Renault Sport Formula One Team equalled its best-ever points finish with Nico Hülkenberg taking seventh, leading home team-mate Carlos Sainz in eighth in today’s Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada.
The ten points scored at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve equals the team’s score in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last month. This further bolsters the team’s position of fourth in the Constructors’ Championship as it is now on 56 points, just one point shy of its entire season points tally in 2017.
Nico started from P7 on scrubbed Pirelli Hypersoft tyres, pitting on lap 13 for a new set of Supersoft tyres.
Carlos started the race from P9 on scrubbed Hypersoft tyres, stopping on lap 14 for a new set of Supersoft tyres.
Nico Hülkenberg
“We executed the race well today and it was a good effort from everyone. Ten points in the Constructors’ Championship is positive for us and we’ve extended our lead in fourth ahead of our rivals. It was a close battle today, I lost a position at the start, but I managed to get the overcut on Ocon by going two laps longer, as he was holding me up a little bit on that first stint. From then, it was about managing the tyres, which was quite tough as degradation was kicking in towards the end.”
Carlos Sainz
“It was a good day for the team and ten points for the Constructors’ Championship. It’s another step forward and we had a good race pace compared to the rest of the midfield. We wanted to bring both cars home in the points and we’ll certainly enjoy the result even though it was a largely quiet race for us! The team did a solid job yesterday and again today to jump the Force India. We thought we were going to have a lot more degradation and in the end we came back with good tyre management.”
Cyril Abiteboul, Team Principal
“Today was a highly positive result with Nico and Carlos achieving the best finishes possible with the current pace of the Renault R.S.18 relative to those ahead of us. We enjoyed good judgement from the pit wall which enabled a strategy to recover from a not so perfect start. The ten points achieved today are very healthy for the Constructors’ Championship. The entire weekend illustrated the beneficial teamwork between Viry and Enstone. We delivered upgrades to the Power Unit and chassis and these worked extremely well. We did have difficult moments on Friday and Saturday but the team has done an amazing job of recovering from that, including changing a turbo one hour before qualifying with all hands on deck in a magnificent display of teamwork. We now aim to build on this result by looking at what can be done to reduce the performance deficit to the top three teams.”
Mercedes
Valtteri comes home second in Montreal with Lewis in fifth
Valtteri finished the Canadian Grand Prix in P2 – his fourth podium finish at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and fourth second place of the 2018 season
Lewis came home in P5 – his 32nd consecutive finish in the points
Today’s result marks the 20th podium finish in Canada for Mercedes-Benz power
Sebastian Vettel (121 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by one point from Lewis (120 points) with Valtteri in P3 (86 points)
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (206 points) lead the Constructors’ Championship by 17 points from Ferrari (189 points)
Valtteri Bottas
We tried everything we could, but I don’t think we had a chance to really fight for the win today. I had an exciting start to the race, when I was defending second place as hard as I could. I was on the outside in Turn 1, trying to carry a lot of speed to be on the inside line for Turn 2. I went wheel to wheel with Max, we fought hard, but it was all fair and I was just happy that I managed to stay ahead of him. After that I was trying to put pressure on Sebastian, but didn’t have enough pace. The Ferrari was controlling the race and we just weren’t quick enough today. I backed off late in the race to save some fuel which is why Max got so close. We were the only top team that didn’t bring a new engine for this race, everyone else had an improved power unit. Hopefully the introduction of our new engine in France will help us in the fight with Ferrari and Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton
It was a tough day in the office today, but I’m just very grateful that I finished today’s race and score some points. From the start I was down on power and my engine was overheating. I couldn’t get the temperatures down, so I just thought it was going to fail. Every single lap I was waiting for the power to just drop away and disappear – but it kept going. I could have lost a lot more points today; fifth is not the strongest result, but it could have been a lot worse. Ferrari have been doing a slightly better job and brought a better package, but we are very close. The guys are working really hard, but each and every one of us can always do better and improve. We will just keep our heads down, keep pushing and stay positive.
Toto Wolff
This has been a tricky weekend for us, with Ferrari showing they had the quickest car in qualifying and in the race. We came to Montreal expecting to perform strongly and today’s result is a further lesson to us that the historic patterns of performance between the teams are not holding true this year. It is very hard to see a trend from circuit to circuit, and the race results are being decided by tight margins – which team makes the fewest mistakes, develops its chassis and power unit most effectively, finds the right balance between performance and reliability, and puts together their race weekend cleanly from Friday onwards. Today, the fastest laps table showed three teams within 0.15s and this is the new reality of 2018. Looking at today’s race, Valtteri got a good start then defended extremely well from Verstappen in the first two corners. We never had the pace to challenge Sebastian – but that move was the basis for his P2 finish. After this, he raced hard, hardly put a foot wrong but we didn’t have the pace for any more today. On Lewis’ side, we had an issue with a chassis component that compromised his cooling from the opening lap. That meant the engine was running hot and we had to manage temperatures, costing performance, in the opening stint. We were able to open up the bodywork at the pit-stop to improve the situation, but also lost a place to Ricciardo that we were unable to get back during the next 50 laps. It has been a tough weekend for us – tougher than we expected – and this result is a wake-up call for everybody in the team. We now need to reflect in the right way, understand where we can find more performance and respond in Paul Ricard in two weeks’ time.
Andrew Shovlin
We came here to win so to leave with a second and fifth falls a long way short of what we had thought we were capable of. We’d not seen what Sebastian could do on the UltraSoft or SuperSoft tyres during Friday running so his pace was an unknown, but almost straight away it was clear he had a little bit on Valtteri and was able to keep us at arm’s length during the first stint. Not being able to put him under any pressure meant we couldn’t create any opportunity for Valtteri so second was all we could play for today. Valtteri got a bit marginal on fuel towards the end of the race, having pushed hard to keep up in stint one but he managed it well and was able to defend the threat from Max who was putting in some quick laps towards the finish. Lewis had a tricky afternoon, from the word go we could see that we had a chassis side issue with the cooling to the power-unit that was costing us performance. We couldn’t resolve this during the race but eventually found some means to contain the situation and more importantly, we were able to contain the damage and thereby manage the risk to the PU so we could complete the race. This weekend has not been ideal for either championship and we are only a third of the way into the season with a very long way still to go. We clearly need to be getting performance on the car and we will be working hard to ensure that we can perform more strongly in Paul Ricard.
Ferrari
Maurizio Arrivabene
”Without a doubt, today’s win is down to a very good car and a great drive from Seb. The team, both at the track and back in Maranello, has worked hard and methodically, preparing the car, which right from Saturday’s qualifying proved to be very quick. The tyres responded very well to the strategies we devised. It’s a shame that Kimi’s mistake in qualifying affected his whole race. There is still a long way to go in the championship and we have to continue giving it our all. I take this opportunity to thank our fans and customers who never fail to show us their support and our sponsors and technical partners, especially Shell, for their support in our development programme.”
Sebastian Vettel
”This win is very important for our tifosi and for our team, today is a special day. 40 years ago Gilles won here, then 14 years ago it was Michael and I was thinking of that today. At the start I tried to build up a margin, I was happy with my first lap and then the safety car came out and I had to start over again. During my last 10 laps I prayed that my car would not develop a problem until the end! Points are always important but today this win means a lot and not just in terms of Championship. The season is still so long and there are many races ahead. The main thing is that our car is strong and stays like that, so that we can fight.”
Kimi Raikkonen
“Yesterday’s mistake in qualifying did not put ourselves in a good position for the race. Overtaking was very difficult here; I tried to get ahead of Hamilton after my pit stop, but it did not work out. Then It was even difficult to get close enough to him to open the DRS. It was a surprise, because on this track you would expect to see overtaking and fights, instead it was a similar story to two weeks ago in Monaco. The race was boring and not much happened. We decided to stay out a little bit longer on our first set of tyres and I don’t think that cost us any position: it was our only option to try something different.”
Source :motorsport.nextgen-auto.com
Comments
