Hello and welcome to another edition of TGTB&TB, a weekly run down of all things Formula One. This week I’ll be covering this past weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, which was layered with excitement from the front of the grid to the back. With tyres for next season being an issue of debate, how did the Bridgestones hold up in the first two-stop race of the year? Have McLaren overtaken Red Bull as the dominate team? I look into these question and more!

The Good

Montreal always holds an exciting race, and it’s exclusion from the calendar last year made the F1 circus feel a little less fun. Surprisingly to see that that there was no safety car as well, seeing as every year a race is held here it makes an appearance considering the walls are as close as Monaco in places. Even Kumai Kobayashi tried his best with a first lap accident. The lack of track time for nearly two years, added to the pre-race rainy weather, meant that the track was highly abrasive. This brought tyres into the fray and strategy became more than changing from the option tyres to the prime in one stop as we’ve seen all season, and about bloody time too.

Lewis Hamilton will go down in the history books as the race winner, but in all honesty it was down to any of five men that could’ve taken the top step of the podium. Hamilton, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso all put themselves in with a fighting chance of victory, but in the end Hamilton led Button home for a McLaren 1-2. I mentioned in last weeks preview that I was looking forward to seeing the McLaren-Red Bull fight unfold in Canada and it didn’t disappoint at all. McLaren had a great strategy (even though it was based around a safety car appearance) and both drivers raced superbly, using traffic to maximum effect to get past Alonso. Great stuff. The boys from Woking seem to have the swing of momentum that keeps shifting around the top teams this season, from Ferrari to McLaren, to Red Bull, now back to McLaren. I keep banging on about F1 being an arms race this season and more upgrades due for them, and Ferrari for that matter, are stopping one team from running away with both titles as 2010 continues.

Speaking of the Prancing Horse, the recovery from Turkey a fortnight ago is simply breathtaking. If it wasn’t for Alonso’s hesitation around backmarkers he would have been in the lead heading into the final laps, although the way both McLaren drivers look after their tyres these days (has Button been passing on tips to Hamilton?) meant that he would been caught quite quickly. I am eating a large piece of humble pie after last weeks edition of The 3-Stop Strategy when I declared Ferrari wouldn’t be anywhere near the podium for the remainder of the year, let alone race wins. Just shows what I know I guess!

Just a quick mention for Sebastien Buemi; a man under pressure from a rapidly improving young team-mate. This weekend he chose the right tyres to start on and led for a lap, diced with Micheal Schumacher and got ahead, and eventually brought the car home in eighth for a decent haul of four World Championship points. Not bad for an afternoon’s work at all.

The Bad

The driver masquerading as Michael Schumacher made another hash of it in Canada. The seven-time Champion’s return to F1 has never sat quite right with me, as regular readers will know. His driving on Sunday was not only his worst of the season, but maybe ever. There were at least two major errors of not yielding to faster cars, one coming out of the pits and putting Robert Kubica onto the grass, then moving Felipe Massa nearly into the wall. All F1 fans wanted to see how Schumacher would get on against the drivers of this generation, but occasional cameos for all the wrong reasons. It’s ironic that he gets punished for an opportunistic overtaking move in Monaco, yet driving people off the road and into the pits for repairs gets nothing.

Red Bull have had a tough fortnight keeping the press out of their affairs after the coming together of their drivers, but Canada just magnified their weaknesses like Spain did for McLaren. The gamble to qualify on the prime tyre looked to have paid off in the early running of Sunday’s race, but the softer option tyre was terrible and all their rivals ultimately had the better strategy by getting the option out of the way right at the start and taking longer stints later in the race. Their demon of reliability also reared its head as Mark Webber took a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change, and Sebastian Vettel had a gremlin of some sort preventing him from challenging the eventual front three. Christian Horner even had to get on the radio to tell him not to push too hard which, after Turkey, demonstrates that the crackdown Red Bull’s mistakes have well and truly and begun. On that note, anyone else here thinking Vettel is a little over-rated? He can’t seem to overtake without hitting someone and is getting the reputation of a car-breaker as well. There’s only so far raw pace can take you as a driver.

Jenson Button is doing extremely well as reigning World Champ, and even better considering he’s only in his first year in a new team. But, the down side is that he’s in Lewis Hamilton’s team. Last time out in Turkey, he challenged for the lead because he made better use of his tyres and was only told to yield as Lewis had track position for 99% of the race. This weekend, he was closing only to have Hamilton maintain a steady gap, in my view down to team orders yet again. Wait, I’m sorry, he was “saving fuel”. The crux of the matter is if Jenson wants the number one position at McLaren then he has to get grips with the car as soon as Friday practice begins, then try to out-qualify him on the Saturday. If you ask me, Jenson is the fastest man on Sunday for race-pace out of the two, probably down to his management of tyres.

The Backmarkers

Lotus pace and positions through the race were impressive to say the least. Even though everyone watching were safe in the knowledge that they wouldn’t challenge for points, to see Heikki Kovalainen move up to 12^th on the first lap, then run 7^th for a while during the first round of stops. They are now light years ahead of the other two start-up teams, and that gap to the established teams, whether it be Toro Rosso, Williams or Force India (dependent on their form), is growing smaller after each and every race.

Sauber’s day in the sun in Turkey quickly became a memory after yet another double retirement. That’s now eleven DNF’s out of a possible sixteen race finishes for both drivers. Granted this weekend’s retirements were down to clashes on the track instead of mechanical issues, but that’s still poor by today’s standards, and the standards Peter Sauber expects. It’s a shame, as they were so close to moving out of The Backmarkers after Turkey.

Hispania and Virgin are really in a fight with each other over not finishing last now. It’s an intriguing battle as Virgin have the money, backing and drivers to be ahead. But, Hispania keep matching them and beating them on pure pace with a car they ordered and are developing on a shoestring budget. There’s competition from the front rows of the grid all the way to the last this season, and it’s great to see for the integrity of the sport.

It’s interesting to hear there’s a now a carrot dangling in front of the new teams this season as well. Whoever finishes in 10th place in the Constructor’s Championship will recieve £17m in prize money. For teams like Lotus, Hispania and Virgin, that’s alot of money for them. Another race along the same lines of Canada, with a little bit more reliabilty issues for all the other teams, and one of these six drivers could be sitting in the top ten and heading for a single point that would seem so much. We’lljust have to wait and see which round that happens at.

That’s it for this weeks edition, many thanks for reading. For those of you who want to take part in future articles, feel free to comment in the large blank box below! Anthing I missed? Anything you disagree with? I want to know! Have a good seven days and catch you next week.

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