The Team has taken four wins in Montreal. Sebastian Vettel was first in 2013, followed up a year later by Danny Ric. It was his first win in Formula One and an epic display of driving from P6 on the gird.
And who could forget the 2022 race where Max was being hounded by Carlos Sainz for the final 16 laps and the only noise was GP’s lap-by-lap timing update to Max with how close the Ferrari was? And then, in his year of dominance Max took the win in Canada again, meaning this year he’ll be looking for his third Canadian Grand Prix win in a row, and after Monaco, that’s exactly what he’ll be aiming for.
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a mixture of fast and flowing turns, with some hard breaking corners mixed in. The track has 14 turns in total – eight right-handers, six left – and the drivers are expected to be at full throttle for 76% of the lap, especially on the 1190m longest flat-out section. They will make an average of 52 gear changes per lap. Those figures are why the drivers compare it to a go-kart track! The track length is 4.361km and the current lap record was set by Valtteri Bottas in 2019 with a time of 1:13.078.
And to throw in some more excitement – not that you need it – but the weather can be very temperamental in Montreal, so it could be a thrilling race and expect to see the intermediate tyres at some point, if not the blue-walled full wets!
The Bulls will hit the track on Friday for FP1 at 13:30 local time (17:30UTC). So, keep checking back here to our Race Hub for all the exclusive, images, interviews, reports and videos.
Following a more difficult weekend in Monaco, this week I have been with the Team back at the factory and in the sim preparing for the Canadian Grand Prix. The track there is very unique, has some old school kerbs and there are plenty more opportunities for overtaking. It is even more important to have a good set up of the car and find a balance between the straight line speeds as well as good stability under the braking. It is always good to be back racing in Montreal; the scenery is one of a kind, the atmosphere in the city is great and the fans are very passionate. Finally, it is great news that Checo has signed with the Team until 2026 and I am glad to be able to continue with the successful partnership that we have created over the past few years. We achieved a record-breaking season last year and the Team is very strong, so we are looking forward to building on this success into the next two years as well.
I am happy to be coming to Canada knowing I am staying with Oracle Red Bull Racing. It feels incredible to be trusted by the Team to continue with them until 2026 and I am grateful for the confidence everyone has put in me. I know we have a lot of work to do in the coming seasons but, more importantly, in the short-term. We need to get back to the standards we were setting before Imola and get the car in a better window to perform on both Saturday and Sundays. While the race was a disaster in Monaco, we were in the wrong grid position due to a poor qualifying and we need to solve that in Montreal. The Team and I want to be starting at the front of the grid come race day and the aim is to make our lives a lot simpler this weekend
