The Canadian Grand Prix was a popular destination when I was a driver and it still is with the current generation. There was a lot of disappointment last year when the race was not held. I know the drivers and teams were all pleased when it returned to the calendar for this year's championship.
Montreal always makes a big effort to make sure the race is a hit when it comes to town. They close off a couple of streets and there are Formula One flags everywhere. There are lots of things to do in the city. The track is on an island and there is a rowing lake behind it, which gives it a nice feeling and a really good buzz. That is one reason why the drivers and teams enjoy going there. The other reason it is popular is because the event usually produces a good race.
The track is very tough on the cars with lots of hard braking. You have fast parts followed by slow second-gear corners. That will take a toll on brakes, especially with the cars now carrying a full load of fuel in the early laps, something that they have not had to do here since 1993. Brake problems used to be an issue back then, but teams coped, and they will do now as the technology in the sport has improved since the early 1990s.
The other thing that makes it tough is that there are number of parts to the track with little or no run-off area so there is no margin for error. If you make a mistake in Montreal you are usually punished for it and more often than not you are out of the race on the spot. As a driver it is very difficult to set the car up around Montreal due to the bumpy nature of the circuit. The fast track and the long straight at the end of the lap mean you try to go for a low downforce set-up, the only problem is that it makes it very tricky and hard to control under braking on the bumps.
I know they have done work to try to flatten the circuit a little, but watch for the drivers having to work hard under braking, particularly in qualifying. I did not have the best of luck in Canada, with only two fifth-place finishes to show for my races there. I had a lot of mechanical unreliability there. It wasn't that I didn't like the track, it was just that I did not have much luck there. As to Sunday's race, I would expect it to again be the Red Bull-Renault and the McLaren-Mercedes cars at the front, but I think the nature of the track will make it a bit closer than at previous races and may allow Robert Kubica's Renault and the two Mercedes GP cars to mix it with them at the front.
It will be closer in qualifying as well and I would not be surprised if there are a couple of upsets on Saturday with some of the frontrunners missing out on the final part of qualifying. The F-duct will again be another factor due to the long straight and the straight-line speed advantage it will give the McLarens. The interesting thing is when will Red Bull be able to start using their F-duct. They tried it out in practice for the Turkish Grand Prix, but found it was not performing to a satisfactory level.
How soon they get it working is going to be crucial. The McLarens were able to pressure Red Bull hard in Turkey and that may have played a part in forcing the mistake that led to the two Red Bulls colliding while contesting the lead. Red Bull need the F-duct mechanism and quick. They could do with it for Canada and there are other races coming up where straight-line speed is going to be crucial, and without it they could be giving McLaren an advantage.
Johnny Herbert is a former Formula One driver who competed in 161 races, winning three times.
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