The Canadian Grand Prix was a tense battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The World Champion and his team-mate had to juggle all the elements to get to the finish without running out of fuel, brakes or tyres. Lewis did the better job and won his fourth victory of the year – and his fourth win in Canada.
Also in GP+ this week…
– We analyse the political crisis that is developing in F1
– We ask whether Haas F1 has an unfair advantage
– We talk to Max Verstappen
– We look back at Jean Alesi’s win in Montreal 20 years ago
– And we remember a team that made an even bigger mistake than Mercedes in Monaco
– The Hack has joyous thoughts about Montreal
– DT and JS disagree about alcohol sponsorship
– Plus some fabulous photography from the Ile de Notre Dame
GP+ is the fastest magazine in the Formula 1 world. It is published as the mechanics are still wiping down the cars after each and every race. It appears in PDF format so that you can read it on your computer, your tablet and even on your smartphone, but it’s an old style racing magazine in a modern format. It goes right to the heart of the sport, inside the F1 Paddock. We are there at every race and we get to the people that matter. We are also passionate about the history of the sport and love to share it with our readers.
GP+ is an amazing bargain. You get 21 issues for £29.99, covering the entire 2015 Formula 1 season.
For more information, go to http://www.grandprixplus.com.
joeblogsf1 
No matter how much you dress it up it was boring, I stopped watching just after Grossjean failed to make a simple overtake maneuver!! Watching Rosberg just follow Hamilton around because of low fuel and brakes was boring. Alonso being told to go slower than he already was the icing on top of a very very poor cake. Im not sure I can wait till 2017 to see proper F1 cars. Loosing interest fast, even Luis seemed a bit embarrassed at how boring it might of looked for the spectators!
We can only lead horses to water. If you don’t drink what can we do?
Maybe the water has become stagnant and the flock at the waterside is turning it’s back ?
That is a bit against other remarks that have been made in the past though. If we want more people to follow the sport and more excitement on screen, then what we need is more on screen action and less off screen strategy. And even that I found lacking. I can only imagine how it must be for people who go to a race to watch a string of cars go by in kind of the same order every lap with nothing else going on really. Pay 2k euro for travel, hotel and ticket. How to get the excitement in again? Make the cars like hell to drive so plenty more mistakes are made and make it so that different driving styles are rewarded / punished in different ways. I’m sure it’s all much like dancing on a suspended wire, but even that isn’t very exciting if you know most artists are so good at it they actually have to fake imbalance to make it look like they have to try. So give us back cars that are way too powerful for their tires and aerodynamics that reward some drifting. Electronics? We’ve come to a point where the only thing left to further develop – apart from autonomous cars – is alternative fuel. The rest is taken care of by legislation and health and safety. So I’ve grown from being pro-realworld developments to ‘just give us the show back’.
I really wonder how would the same people rate the race if they had no access to radio communications, fuel consumption data and so on (not excluding live timing). Just the speed indicators.
PS I also wonder what are ‘proper 2017 cars’, as some ideas have already been dropped.
Luis? Are you sure you were watching F1?!
Robert,
The race up front was not great. But there were a load of sub plots. Scratch the surface. You will see a lot more.
Cheers,
John
Tense? It didnt feel so to me watching at home. It felt..managed. Kudos to Vettel though.
Anyone else having a problem getting on to the GP+ site again? It’s nothing to do with my browser cache as I have cleared it and re-loaded (again and again!) and have no problem with other more heavyweight sites.
It works fine from Canada
Since the beginning of the 2015 GP+ edition I have had regular problems to load GP+. Similar to you Ted, I’ve cleared cache etc. and just not understood why it doesn’t work when all other sites load up no problem.
The fact that it works well in Canada for Joe doesn’t help me much here in Switzerland…
Have you changed anything for this year Joe?
Nothing has changed and the numbers are not wildly different. I do not have other complaints. The only logical conclusion is that the local networks do not have the bandwidth that you need. Sadly, I cannot do much about that.
Bandwidth would not affect getting on to the GP+ site, which is the problem, not the download. This has only occured recently in 2015, there was no problem in 2014 or early 2015. Maybe you host the site on your own server/s, but if not, it might be an idea to give a heads up to your host? There’s more than me have commented (not complaining) and that is probably only the tip of the iceberg.
We have thousands of people each weekend accessing the site, downloading the magazine and everything works fine for them. If there is a problem it must be specific to the people concerned and the most likely reason is the local bandwidth in your neighbourhood. There is no other explanation that fits.
Hi Joe
Following our discussion on this after I had problems getting the Monaco edition, it all returned to normal and has been OK for me since. Interesting though that this week others have been experiencing similar problems. It can’t be bandwidth though, if all other sites are behaving normally.
We have thousands of people accessing this site. If three have had trouble it can only be a local problem at their end.
i would suggest ppl try accessing from several different browsers, chrome, IE firefox, all can have diff issues
other important thing is the adobe flash cache is different from the browser cache. try going to the flash settings on the control panel with the browser closed and emptying the cache from there
i would also suggest posting on joes blog isnt the best way to try resolving technical problems, he likely pays a 3rd party to run it and its their problem if it doesnt work for you.
May I suggest those with problems perform the following:
open up a DOS box by typing cmd in the Run prompt, then type tracert followed by the web address you’re trying to get to, this will reveal the ‘hop’ that is causing a problem if it’s a network issue.
Nope – no problemo
Yes, me too. It’s very frustrating
it was only tense whilst you thought Rosberg could actually catch him, once Lewis turned the afterburners on. I realised he was managing the gap again!
One of the key elements in any sport is suspense
To be honest I was really looking forward to the race, last year was a cracker but alas it was actually boring, the tense feeling of strategy gave way to a bland nothingness that escalated to a predicable conclusion. Without the seemingly mandatory Canadian safety car or wet weather it really was dull, which is a shame but this is typical of the ‘new’ F1. Highly managed fuel / tyre runs based on economy or ‘performance window’…..pseudo endurance racing with lame sounding engines…… more like being an airline pilot I hear….
ok here (UK). Good thing, nice work Joe, it’s the only part of an F1 weekend that’s worth looking at
We watched it at the campsite in Holland on Veronica’s website, not bad coverage but the commentary was gobbledegook to us. Fortunately we local wifi gave us good pictures as well.
Didn’t bring my GP+ password with me so will have to wait until we get home next week.
Regarding fuel, Rosberg and Hamilton’s fuel usage was flagged up as almost identical on-screen, so not sure what issues Rosberg had, other than being told ‘No Comment’ by the pitlane crew?
Not an especially interesting race but worth watching nonetheless.
I’m with you there. F1 has always been like that, good race, bad race. Sign of the times, some want instant gratification and I feel that maybe F1 isn’t the sport for them.
That is an interesting reflection
It was good to see an F1 journalist conduct the podium post race interview as opposed to some celeb like Arnold or Benedict, though I could’ve done without Ted Kravitz ‘stirring the pot’ with his questions for Lewis & Nico.
Joe when do we get to see you conduct the post race interview?
So how soon til someone at McLaren and/or Honda gets fired?
So Lewis has to be told by his engineer where to lift off the throttle. F1 has really lost its way. And it was a boring race.
I am sorry but I didn’t think it was boring. I guess that one’s opinion depends on what one can see is happening.
No offence Joe, but you seem very defensive today. I read some comments above about some issues accessing GP+ website and you kept saying about 3 times the same thing that thousands access it without problems etc. Maybe a quarter of those have issues, but they still manage to access it in the end and don’t bother saying anything. How about saying “thanks for pointing out, I will look into it” ?
Also, very defensive about this race. If you read the comments here and maybe those on James Allen’s website, you will see majority say it was boring, but you still think it was a good race. I will have to respect your opinion, of course, but you do seem pretty defensive about it.
There is no other answer to the problem. That’s not defensive that’s helpful.
I suppose it is much more exciting when you’re actually at the track and your senses are immersed in the atmosphere. However, when you watch it at home, if even people like us who are fans and have watched it for years are finding it dull, then how is the sport going to grow it’s TV audiences if people find it dull ? It doesn’t matter how many sub plots there are and strategy with fuel and tyres which is basically invisible on screen, if the racing is processional, it makes for a boring spectacle. I’m sure glad i’m not paying Rupert Murdoch £30-40 (or however much it is..) per month to watch it. I’ll stick to the BBC highlights as long as they are around.
I watched until mid distance, when I really did fall asleep…no joking! I woke up around lap61-2, and during the Beeb after show Coulthard said that if he knew who his MP was, he’d write and complain, as constantly hearing ” manage tyres ” and “manage brakes ” and ” don’t forget to lift & coast ” , was in his personal view, a big turn off for the audience. Now David isn’t one to rock the boat usually, so it must have been pretty bad for him to make those comments, especially as he gets paid to promote the sport via the BBC!
Disregarding the engine/pu pros & cons, fact is that these cars do not provide an exciting and stimulating contest, and droves of people are now saying exactly this. The tyres need bunging, the DRS slinging, and most of all the engines should not be fuel restricted….those issues need addressing at a minimum for the rot to stop. However, the likely outcome will be Toto & Co providing what are now called Franchise Cars…..since these will have no hope of beating Works cars, they will just be as TR is today, a proving ground for young drivers, with the race wins decided by Merc/Ferrari/McLaren ( eventually ) and the rest of the teams cast forever as bit part players from 7th place down.
This direction is ruinous for the sport, but people have to get real and accept that things are wrong, before they can be put right, otherwise it will just ” lift & coast ” to oblivion!
+1 Damian
Seems to me he should write to FOM and have them keep those messages off the air…
Take your point about lift & coast, but re team domination, you’ll remember the Senna/Prost days when it was the same, or even the MS period (but can’t believe how long ago it was now) where virtually no one else got a look-in? I think we have to be careful we don’t confuse technical disenchantment with what is, after all, ‘traditional’ F1 racing. At the moment one of problems lies with Lewis being on a roll and Nico not upping his game enough to provide a better spectacle – and Renault’s rubbish engine/Red Bull’s chassis problems (come back Adrian all’s forgiven)/Ferrari’s 2nd driver not being up to it/McLaren, apart from Honda’s problems, well that was a good idea nicking Red Bull’s aero guy at zillions of pounds wasn’t it? But apart from that………!
Yes Stephen, I do remember, and the Schuey domination could be boring too, however Hakkinen & Coulthard used to spice things up back then, and Renault too, and even little old Jordan could mount a challenge. The thing is that then Schuey worked damned hard to be dominant, his car was usually very good, but had the same limitations as the Renault/Merc/Ford engines of the day, with only engineering and combustion peaks run by electronics as differentials, so engine performance was pretty equal. Tyres were an area Schuey gained an advantage from, but also he just never stopped developing anything whether it was his team his car or himself. One could have placed Hakkinen in the Ferrari and it would have been a WCC winner, but probably by a lesser margin.
With Senna/Prost, they had one year of total domination with the car, but they were also 2 of the greatest drivers of all time. Again, pure hard work and skills were used, and although it was boring that only Mac were likely to win, the sheer intensity of the rivalry between the 2 drivers was of a magnitude that is unlikely to ever be seen again. It some respects it was rather unpleasant, but it was damned exciting to watch….and nobody was ” lifting & coasting ” it was hammer & tongs all the way to the flag….unless Prost gave up which he sometimes did.
The big problem at present, apart from Tyres & DRS, is Fuel restriction. Throttling back during a race, unless there is no opposition, is dreary beyond imagination.
I don’t regard the engines as being a good idea for F1, but restricted fuel is always a bad thing in motorsport. DRS is awful, there’s no battle with it, a lack of different tyre companies is also something that reduces excitement, as do the aero shapes that mean pretty much all cars over the last 15 years or so, look almost exactly the same….no differences, and with Mac & FI, even the paintwork is dull and boring!
Single element front wing, 2-3 element rear wing, no extra aerofoils, wider cars, bigger tyres, big capacity naturally aspirated engines in sizes from 6cyl to 16cyl, rev cap at 13,000 or so, scrap 80% of the electronic controls, no Pit to car radio ( like MotoGP ), and more tyres so Practice & Qualy can result in more action on the track, and then we might be getting somewhere…add in 1 spare car per driver, if the team wishes, and a minimum 30 car grid, and there will be chance to see more drivers in action too, new ones against the more established guys.
We can all knock Renault and Honda, but frankly, watching guys like JB & Ferdy trunking around at the back for 1 year or 2 years, coupled with a total lack of any car getting within 30secs- 1 min of Merc, over a race distance, is killing the series quite quickly. And, no matter how Lewis tries to act Senna like when the name Rosberg comes up, it just is not Senna/Prost…..can you imagine Marr/Obama really being as riveting as Frost/Nixon??
Even if Merc end up supplying everyone except Sauber & Ferrari, just having the Customer Merc will be no different to having the Customer, sorry, Franchise Merc chassis as well….Williams will only win if the Mercs retire in a race. Ferrari will only win if they get lucky on strategy and Merc has technical issues. No one can win on pace, nor will they be able to do so next year and by 2017 there might only be 4-5 teams left? It isn’t a good situation and I feel very strongly that the motorsport media should wake up to this fact. So far only Nigel Roebuck seems to understand the frustrations of the fans….oh, and while we are at it, it would be nice if 75% of the driver’s rulebook was thrown out, all these penalties are getting utterly pathetic!!
I’d decided to only bother this year with Monaco/Silverstone/Spa/Monza & Suzuka. However the limited amount of F1 I’ve watched so far, as now resulted in me deciding to only watch any races where there is going to be rain involved, as those are the only ones which will produce any action or excitement and any chance of a random victory by anything other than the Merc factory team. Don’t get me wrong, MB are doing a fantastic job, but as with Penske-Posche in Can-Am, they are squeezing the life out of F1.
The funny thing about the Franchise Cars issue (apart from the damage it would do to the sport in the not-very-long-term) is that the Red Bull franchisee (Toro Rosso) is currently very close to out-performing the franchise owner!
It is not a franchise
Not the most exciting race ever run in Canada, certainly, but interesting all the same. Getting a bit tired of hearing about Ferrari being a threat though, starting to sound a bit like bank holiday weather forecasts to me – always suspiciously bright and sunny and somehow never coming to pass.
It was an exceptionally dull race. I’ve now reached the point in F1 when I find Ted’s Notebook more interesting than both the buildup and the race itself, can’t be good. At this rate F1 should be comparing itself to scripted reality shows not sports. And Bernie professed in his interview with Ted (Yep, that’s how he got the podium gig) that he is in ‘showbusiness’ – if that’s true the obvious suggestions are – fireworks, loud music, fanboost, ‘drivers, start your engines’ and more loud music. Has to be one thing or the other.
It would be good though to have a bit of showbusiness – “ladeeez an gennelmen – pleeez put yur hands together for mister kimi raikonnen” – “Hey Kimi you must be pretty exited today?” “You bet, Ted, the Number 7 Marlboro Fiat felt real good, gotta thank the boys a UPS and Shell for giving me a great car…”
You forgot to mention “the good Lord”
Great issue of GP+, Joe. Really enjoyed your in-depth analysis of all the current political machinations.
Can’t tell the actors without a proper playbill.
You do us readers and F1 an enormous service with your talents Joe…but surely even you have to admit that that race was dull?
At least in 2004 the occasional pass made it watchable, now even the passing has no value.
Boring.
I do not agree, but then I had access to more information. The problem with the racing is that we are at the start of a new formulae and traditional one manufacturer will get it right. When the others catch up things get interesting. However, the short term solution is to produce better TV. The technology exists to do great things but inevitably the Formula One group wants to use this only to make money so you have to pay.
Those of you who continue to find these races boring should engage in a little multi-tasking – such as listening to Mozart piano concerto 21/Spy Who Loved Me. Who can forget this piece that was played in the movie when Carl Stromberg was offing a few scientists? Next, compare & contrast the movie soundtrack quality to a regular CD by listening to Yeol Eum Son playing the same piece by Mozart.
Now to be mesmerized & enthralled do watch & listen to Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (d-minor) K.466/ Echida. Even if you neither understand nor like classic music you’ll fall in love with Mitsuko Uchida dramatic interpretive & brooding intensity performances playing and conducting. Enjoy a tour de force by Eucida’s Mozart PC #9, #20 & Beethoven PC #3.
Subsequent to Spectre, Bond should next focus on combating a genius bent on world domination in all of motor racing and auto manufacturing. The character might be called Bernie Max (named after an American Comedian). And Bond’s foil should be played by Alan Rickman
Plz note: … s/b “classical” music…
EXCELLENT Alex T!!!!
Merci. I’m indeed a big fan of Amadeus, and I find that there is an undeniable beautiful symbiotic relationship between Mozart and racing. So I do recommend that others try the combination commencing with the next race in his native Austria.
I do not find any F1 races boring; Yes, I do indeed multi-task. I watch each race on two screens – (i) NBC, (ii) TSN; since Autosport provides the best live-blogging of races then I access its timely updates on one computer while I work on my main computer. Of course, there is either classical music or opera playing in the background.
Joe, going back to Monaco, had LH re-entered the track ahead of the Safety Car, wouldn’t he have committed an infraction thus earning a penalty?
At least there’s no “manufactured performance technology” in classical music. or moaning/blaming/sulking at the end of their performances
Hi Ben
Both Damian and I do have legitimate reasons to be mourning what has befallen our beloved McLaren. Will you join us? Now if you would really like to shed some tears, do listen to Pavarotti sing Cori ‘Ngrati as well as Ave Maria – (the version on Pavarotti & friends 2)
You missed the vital information we all wait for Joe.
Which Kardashians were there?
Some bloke who is married to one of them and GIgi Thingy
If one stops to think about it, getting rid of the fuel limitation doesn’t get rid of “lift and coast”. Teams will tend to fuel less if they think there will be rain/safety car etc. So even with the old V8s there was fuel saving, it just wasn’t highlighted as much.
Perhaps remove the fuel tank limit, but keep the fuel flow limit? I can’t understand those (like Gary Anderson) who suggest the other way round.
If you limit the tank size, but allow the driver to crank up and down the boost/revs then you get races like we had in the 1980’s with people staggering to the flag on vapour.
The fuel flow limit is a good idea, it was a good idea when suggested by Keith Duckworth in the early 80s. Shame that we can’t embrace that fully and allow fuel flow energy limit as the sole engine rule (safety rules aside).
Having a fuel flow rate limit doesn’t reduce the racing, any more than making everyone use the same capacity engines does.
Nico looking very comfortable with 2nd place. Mercedes toying with the rest of the field reminds me of my cat with a mouse. Thank god for Vettel’s charge, as this race was just short of a being an all out snooze-fest.
Sorry but I cant comment on the race as I didn’t watch it. I had the opportunity but chose not to, that is probably the first time since F1 has been on the TV that I have done that.
I cooked dinner instead and checked Autosport to see the result before I went to bed.
The Honda McLaren problems are intriguing, to say the least. Honda significantly down on power and miles away from reliability. 2015 a test year! What’s to say that Honda find themselves in a similar state to Renault and not able to find the power that Merc and Ferrari have. How long will it be until they “fall on their sword” once more and bail out in fear of continuingly “looking like amateurs?”
after reading your report Joe and the comments on here, one can only assume that if you were there, it was great race, but those watching on the tele had a completely different interpretation of the race? Is that a fair comment?
Not a great race but a tense and interesting one. The battles down the field were good too
It was not MY race report. It was written by David Tremayne, but I concur with his views. You must remember that I do not write GP+ all on my own. I am one of a team, like all magazines.
Is there any truth in the rumour that Ron Dennis was seen attempting to toss a lit Zippo into the garage as the shutters rolled down…
…but the lighter ran out of fuel?
Even DC said something about getting everyone, out then tossing in a grenade.
Just back from our annual pilgrimage to Montreal. That makes 44 Canadian GPs. It was typically Canadian. Polite folks stopping their cars and chatting during the parade. Groundhog released to add some rustic allure. Corner workers having a full-on shinny game (that’s ball hockey for you furriners) at the east hairpin. Great meals downtown. Ron Dennis furrowing his brows in the lobby of the Nelligan. All-in-all, another great excuse to leave Calgary. See you next year.
@ The Hack: You are indeed correct contending that Quebec’s culture helps to enrich and enhance the Canadian Mosaic.
You wrote: “They regard Formula 1 as something that suits their refined prerences, [sic] being reas-suringly in tune with the old continent which gave French Canada its language…”
Certainly, you are not implying that Anglophones and Allophones – (citizens who speak neither English nor French as a first language) are déclassé’ relative to French-Canadians? Select provinces in Canada are classified as “have-nots” i.e., less-wealthy or poor). Quebec is one such province.
Each year the federal government transfers billions of dollars to these “have-not” provinces. Such transfer payments are termed Equalization payments designed to enable these six provinces to provide reasonably comparable levels of education, health care and welfare to their residents. Each year Quebec gets 50% of the Equalization envelope. Last year it received more than $7 billion. Since 1957 English speaking Canadians have given Quebec a quarter of a trillion dollars in equalization payments
Next, contrary to your article’s implication, I would contend that at least 50% of the attendees at the Canadian Grand Prix are Canadians from outside Quebec. Each year tens of thousands of us travel to Montreal for the race. These include a few of my fellow faculty members, a few of our IT specialists & their families; managers from my local TD bank as well as well-heed folks such as the owners of the Performance Group of Cars. So maybe we Anglos have become fully acculturized to the elevated milieu of the F1 world
Thanks, Alex T, for the useful information about ‘Equalization’ payments. The UK has a similar system which subsidises poorer parts of the Union at the expense of the wealthier bits. No sign yet of Scotland spending any of the budget on the promotion of a WC Grand Prix, although I live in hope of one day seeing Mr E wearing the kilt.
Wales, however, is to have its own international motorcycle circuit, provided that various difficulties that have mysteriously arisen over funding and planning permission are sorted out. Good luck with that, boyos, although you don’t need to be a cynic like me to wonder just how many two-wheel fans will be attracted by the charms of Blaenau Gwent.
You mention that you’re not a Quebecer and say that you were accompanied by fellow faculty members. Unfortunately you have not identified the part of Canada where you live. Where is it and how many people from your province did you meet at the GP?
Sorry for the late response. I only just spotted your comment.