Rain, safety cars, strategy gambles, performance fluctuations, plenty of mistakes and an unusually high retirement list – Formula 1’s 2024 Canadian Grand Prix wasn’t pretty, but it was a lot of fun.
While it was a pretty predictable victory for championship leader Max Verstappen, some other teams also had plenty to celebrate – even if some of them only realized it in hindsight.
Here’s our pick of the stars and fails of the day.
Loser: Ferrari
If you thought qualifying 11th and 12th would be a Canadian hangover from the Monaco GP winners, you’d be wrong.
Painful reliability problem? Cheque. Miserably slick tire gamble? Cheque. Is there a lot of communication? Cheque. A points-cost cycle? Cheque.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had a miserable Sunday with very few bright spots.
Even Sainz’s brief run in the points meant he was on par with Williams and Alpine.
All this allows McLaren to take a big chunk out of Ferrari’s advantage in the Constructors’ Championship.
No team walked away from Montreal more than Ferrari, scrambling to make up for lost performance and the weekend standing as a bafflingly poor outing in a season so far advanced. – Josh Suttle
Winner: Mercedes
George Russell took the pole and led for a significant part of the race, but finishing third, today may seem like an occasion to add Mercedes to the ‘loser’ list.
Absolutely…if this is anything from 2014 to 2021.
But it isn’t. This is a season where Mercedes are miles away from being a title contender and didn’t even make the podium before Canada.
Against the background of the usual situation these days, it is very encouraging for Mercedes to be in the discussion with the kind of results it was struggling with in Montreal. That alone says a lot about its post-2021 life. But the Mercedes rollover is old news now. Perhaps this is the beginning of a story of redemption – or another story of misrepresentation. – Mad beer
Loser: Sergio Perez
In Canada, Sergio Perez achieved an equally impressive feat less Like a driver with two more years of eligibility in the championship’s best team than in the previous two races.
Out in Q1 (again). Barely last for most of the race after a first-corner tangle with Pierre Gasly. Finally out after a solo shindig.
The contrast between Perez pushing his wrecked car back into the pits while Verstappen cruised to victory was stark. The gulf between the two Red Bull drivers and Perez’s ability is not a revelation as he has had these poor weekends. Still not harming his future in the team. – MB
Winner: Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen took his second win in three Grands Prix and sixth of the season in Canada – but it could have been a different story.
He followed Russell for much of the first part of the race and looked like he was making a pass for the lead when a dry line formed – but a mistake in Turn 1 cost him three seconds and dropped him into the hands of Lando Norris.
Nevertheless, Verstappen took the opportunity to pit for a new intermediate during the first safety car, and took the lead as Norris was forced to do another lap behind the safety car before changing tyres.
In the dry, Verstappen overcame the second safety car restart to win by 3.8 seconds and collect 25 points – but things weren’t quite as simple for the previously dominant Red Bull driver.
A late-race battle between McLaren and Mercedes – during the second safety car, when Verstappen and McLaren stayed out as the latter team pitted its drivers for fresh tires – played into Verstappen’s hands and helped his championship rebuilding victory. 56 points. – Samarth Kanal
Loser: Logan Sargent
It feels like every weekend there is a Logan Sargent laptime that deserves a commendable nod for how it compares to highly rated Williams team-mate Alex Alban.
Those temporary bright spots will soon be followed by evidence as to why Sargent is on his way out of the team and F1 and he’ll be lucky to finish the season before that happens. In this case, it was the error that sent him on the run-off early in the race and his exit at the end.
Well, in 2025, a very experienced driver who looks like a replacement for Sgt.–Sains–crashed in Montreal. And Alex took Alban’s other Williams out with him on a day when Alban could score.
But poor species are the exception for Science, whereas they are the rule for Sargent. – MB
Winner: Alpine
A winner on the track, Alpine collected three crucial points in Canada and moved ahead of Williams and Saber in the battle for eighth in the Constructors’ Championship. Pierre Gasly finished ninth and Esteban Ocon 10th – but team orders may have caused headaches for the team heading into Spain.
Gasly started 15th and Ocon 18th, although Ocon – with a hangover from a five-place grid penalty from Monaco – would have started last had Sauber not opted for a pitlane start for its drivers.
With the second safety car restart, Ocon finished ninth and Gasley 11th. Okan passed Yuki Tsunoda and then Gasley moved up to the points when the Japanese driver spun. That’s when things came full circle.
Ocon was told to let Gasly pass so he could attack Daniel Ricciardo up front, but the outgoing Alpine driver objected. He later relented and later asked the team to switch positions again, but the team did not comply. It justified its decision by saying there was a suspected power unit problem – Ocon – who made his frustrations known to the radio and media after the race.
So while Alpine collected valuable points in Canada, it further frustrated Okan – who was publicly admonished by team boss Bruno Famin after the in-team incident in Monaco – and further strained the already fraught relationship between its two drivers. – S.K
Loser: Yuki Tsunoda
Tsunoda has scored three points in a row in the weekends before Canada, possibly his fourth.
The RB driver qualified eighth and was running there before the second safety car, but his chase for the points quickly unraveled after that.
He nearly collected three cars as he lapped only four laps and dropped to 15th.
Tsunoda not only had a chance to score points, but held off eighth-placed Ricciardo.
Fortunately for the sixth-placed team in the Constructors’ Championship heading to Spain, Ricciardo’s points extended his gap to Haas to 19 points. – SK
Winner: Aston Martin
Sixth and seventh in the last three weekends and 14 points as a result is a welcome boost to Aston Martin’s season and it’s almost impossible to argue that nothing is impossible.
It was clear that Aston Martin was no match for the top three cars this weekend and the team took full advantage of Ferrari’s slump and Perez’s horror show.
A brilliant, well-run race from both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll didn’t throw everything away on a gamble with no hope.
Alonso tried valiantly to hold off Hamilton, but Stroll showed good patience in getting past the RBs to maintain his strong record on home soil as he jumped into the first safety car charged. – JS
Loser: Haas
Haas is no stranger to making bold decisions in changeable weather conditions: at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen made it from 16th to ninth.
With rain at the track ahead of the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, Haas made another strategic coup, fitting Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg with wet tires instead of intermediates. It paid off as both drivers moved into the top 10 – Magnussen fourth – early in the race.
But as the race line dried up early on, Haas’ chances ended at one point.
Both of its drivers decided to cut their losses and close the gap to the intermediates, dropping out of the top 10 and having to pit for the rest of the race.
Hulkenberg finished 11th and Magnussen 12th. With five retirements in the field, Haas could have done better by not starting his drivers in the wets and going with the trend. – S.K
