It’s not really a sport when you know who’s going to win before the race starts, but F1 has become more competitive this season.
Article content
Unlike hockey superstars Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, I don’t want to promote gambling and all the problems that can come with it.
However, it does look like a pretty safe bet Red Bull driver Max Verstappen will win Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix (2 p.m., CTV, ABC, TSN1, TSN4, TSN5, RDS).
Verstappen has won the last two races on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and the last three F1 world driver championships. Last year, the 26-year-old from the Netherlands led all 70 laps of the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. It was Verstappen’s sixth win in the first eight races.
Advertisement 2
Article content
During the post-race news conference, I asked Hamilton if a sense of frustration had started to set in, realizing he simply couldn’t catch Verstappen in the superior Red Bull car.
“It’s not a frustration anymore,” Hamilton said. “It was. You know how it is and you know what you’re faced with, and there’s nothing I can do about their amazing performance. It’s likely that they will win every race going forward this year, unless the Astons and us (Mercedes) put a lot more performance on the cars or their car doesn’t finish.”
Verstappen would go on to win 13 of the remaining 14 races last season. The only race Verstappen didn’t win was the Singapore Grand Prix, where he finished fifth after starting 11th on the grid. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won that race.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Hamilton said after finishing third at last year’s Canadian Grand Prix. “But it’s not as frustrating. I’m happy to firstly be back in the mix, and I’m just hoping at some stage we can have a little bit more level (playing field) so we can get back to some of the good races we had back in 2021, and to have all three of us (including Alonso) in a super-tight battle would be sick.”
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
Verstappen finished only eight points ahead of Hamilton when he won the 2021 drivers’ championship. Hamilton won the championship in six of the seven previous seasons, including four straight, when he had a superior Mercedes car. Last season, Verstappen ran away with the drivers’ championship, finishing with 575 points, followed by Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez with 285.
This season, things are much tighter — which is nice to see.
Advertisement 4
Article content
Heading into the Canadian Grand Prix, Verstappen leads the driver standings with 169 points after winning five of the first eight races, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (113), McLaren’s Lando Norris (113), Ferrari’s Sainz (108) and Red Bull’s Perez (107). Leclerc is coming off a victory two weeks ago at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Verstappen finished sixth. Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix on April 2 and Norris won the Miami Grand Prix on May 5. Verstappen didn’t finish in Australia because of a fiery mechanical failure on the fourth lap, ending his streak of nine straight victories. He finished second in Miami.
Hamilton, a fan favourite in Montreal since winning his first F1 race on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in 2007, has struggled this season and sits eighth in the driver standings with 42 points with two sixth-place finishes his best results.
Hamilton has won the Canadian Grand Prix seven times with Mercedes, but this will be his last race on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve with that team. Hamilton has already signed to drive for Ferrari next season, one of the strange things that can happen in the world of F1. Imagine the Canadiens’ Cole Caufield heading into next season already having a contract signed to play for the New York Rangers the following season.
Advertisement 5
Article content
“I don’t particularly feel emotional this weekend,” Hamilton said Thursday when asked about his final race in Montreal with Mercedes. “But thinking about it, it would be amazing to finish off with a great result with Mercedes, where I had my first win with them here.
“The car’s continuing to improve,” Hamilton added. “I think everyone’s obviously taken a step hopefully closer to the Red Bulls, and I think that’s been really positive.”
Indeed.
It’s not really a sport when you know who’s going to win before the competition even starts. F1 would be much more compelling if every driver was given the exact same car, but that’s not how this sport works. Hamilton has a record 103 victories in F1, but he hasn’t won since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen will be the heavy favourite to win on Sunday.
The son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen made history at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix with the Toro Rosso team when he became the youngest driver to compete in F1 at 17. The next year, after moving to Red Bull, Verstappen became the youngest driver to win an F1 race at the Spanish Grand Prix. He now has 59 career victories to rank third behind Hamilton and Michael Schumacher (91).
But before you bet the mortgage on Verstappen to win his 60th race this weekend, remember something Gretzky, McDavid and Matthews won’t tell you in their constant TV ads for online gambling sites:
Eventually, the house always wins.
scowan@postmedia.com
x.com/StuCowan1
Recommended from Editorial
-
Stu Cowan: F1 driver Lance Stroll happy to be back home this week
-
Pierre Houde’s passion for Formula One racing shines through
-
When checkered flag drops, Montreal’s the ultimate Grand Prix winner
-
Sergio Perez stays at Red Bull in F1 with contract extension to 2026
Advertisement 6
Article content
Article content