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The Canadian Grand Prix gets underway in just over 24 hours. The teams have already arrived and begun setting up for the first of two back to back races in the North American continent.
Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are looking for their 7th win of the season, and their 3rd in a row in Canada. Rubens will be looking to avoid a repeat of last year which saw him exchange his front wing for some paint from Alonso's Renault.
Renault are sporting a new engine that they hope will provide more top end power. On a circuit where Michael's fastest straight line speed last year was around the 350km/h mark, that may prove crucial, given the Renault's generally impressive performance in slower turns.
BAR will also be sporting some engine refinements, Honda continuing to further their F1 program following the sudden surge of form from the British based team. Button will be hoping to put the Honda's speed to good use, whilst Sato will be looking to finish for the first time in 2 races, and avoid any controversy for the first time in two races as well.
McLaren will be hoping to finish as they await the race launch of their promising new MP4-19B. Insiders were apparently so optimistic about the car they wanted to have it ready for racing in Canada and the US, but the car now looks set to debut in France in July.
Williams will be hoping for a better performance than their rather dismal Nurburgring showing. The BMW boasts power aplenty, and with reasonable reliability, Canada may give them a chance to shine as they did last year.
Sauber will no doubt be fuelling their cars heavily and continuing their focus on reliability and consistency with the two stop strategy that has served them well so far and seen them rise to 5th place on the ladder.
Jaguar's future looks more uncertain as HSBC looks to pull their funding, which accounts for some $30 million of Jaguar's budget. The Austrian owner of Red Bull is tipped to pick up the team. Their testing pace at Silverstone recently was promising however.
Jordan and Minardi will be hoping for high attrition ala Monaco to give them a shot at some world championship points.
Thus is the state of play, and here's the place to post as the weekend goes on.
Ferrari and Michael Schumacher are looking for their 7th win of the season, and their 3rd in a row in Canada. Rubens will be looking to avoid a repeat of last year which saw him exchange his front wing for some paint from Alonso's Renault.
Renault are sporting a new engine that they hope will provide more top end power. On a circuit where Michael's fastest straight line speed last year was around the 350km/h mark, that may prove crucial, given the Renault's generally impressive performance in slower turns.
BAR will also be sporting some engine refinements, Honda continuing to further their F1 program following the sudden surge of form from the British based team. Button will be hoping to put the Honda's speed to good use, whilst Sato will be looking to finish for the first time in 2 races, and avoid any controversy for the first time in two races as well.
McLaren will be hoping to finish as they await the race launch of their promising new MP4-19B. Insiders were apparently so optimistic about the car they wanted to have it ready for racing in Canada and the US, but the car now looks set to debut in France in July.
Williams will be hoping for a better performance than their rather dismal Nurburgring showing. The BMW boasts power aplenty, and with reasonable reliability, Canada may give them a chance to shine as they did last year.
Sauber will no doubt be fuelling their cars heavily and continuing their focus on reliability and consistency with the two stop strategy that has served them well so far and seen them rise to 5th place on the ladder.
Jaguar's future looks more uncertain as HSBC looks to pull their funding, which accounts for some $30 million of Jaguar's budget. The Austrian owner of Red Bull is tipped to pick up the team. Their testing pace at Silverstone recently was promising however.
Jordan and Minardi will be hoping for high attrition ala Monaco to give them a shot at some world championship points.
Thus is the state of play, and here's the place to post as the weekend goes on.
. Anyway, JV's absence from the grid, Bernies high demands to keep Canada's GP on the calendar or Ferrari's dominance until now didn't hurt the event much, everything is already sold out.
The current weather forecast shows nothing till Monday, but that may change soon enough.
! Since Gilles is such a hard circuit on brakes it would be interesting to see what happens with brakes.
guess his contacts where busy with others...
