Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2018

Canadian GP was “pretty boring” – Raikkonen

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In the round-up: Kimi Raikkonen said he wasn’t able to get close enough to fight for positions in the Canadian Grand Prix.

What they say

Raikkonen said the processional race was little different to the Monaco round.

Well, not a lot happened, it was difficult to get even close enough to try to have any chance. I think everybody expected different but it was pretty similar story than last race. It was pretty boring…

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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On this day in F1

  • 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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45 comments on “Canadian GP was “pretty boring” – Raikkonen”

  1. I agree with Mr Räikkönen — it was totally boring. The only redeeming factor was that I was there, and the “ambiance” was, as always in Montreal, absolutely superb.

    1. It is a great event; just don’t get general admission tickets.

      1. I was there this year and last. They sell WAY too many GA tickets considering how the GA areas are laid out. At least 5% of the crowd left after they realized Stroll was out. Another large chunk left when Alonso’s car broke. Even I left w/ 20laps to go to hopefully avoid the rush out, but by then it was a strong out-flow. I have been to a decent number of racetracks in North America, and this is one of my least favorite to visit.

    2. Great venue, and like Kimi said, last year wasn’t great either, it has only worked when the race goes wrong for someone. The layout the venue is not to blame, not here not Monaco, like Rahal said, with tge right cars, you would get better racing. Honestly f1 should look at super formula, just watched Sugo, amazing race amazing championship. Our saving grace is that there’s a lot to f1 besides action, the title fight is still alive and perhaps alive and strong.

      1. @peartree ”The layout the venue is not to blame, not here not Monaco”
        – Actually, in Monaco, it indeed is ‘purely’ about the layout. Overtaking will never become any easier there no matter what you do to the cars, or the tyres, etc. Overtaking has always been next to impossible there ever since day one purely due to the lack of space and proper overtaking spots. I agree with you on the venue of the most recent race, though.

        1. José Lopes da Silva
          11th June 2018, 14:02

          A World Championship needs to have one Monaco to test drivers and cars under such conditions, otherwise you’re diminishing the sport value to make it a show.

        2. @jerejj in the 50’s and 60’s racing at monaco had overtaking.

          1. @peartree I doubt it to a certain extent that it was really any different overall to the more modern times of the sport after all, though.

  2. I’m glad it was one of Ch4’s highlights races and not a wasted live broadcast.

    1. JungleMartin
      11th June 2018, 10:30

      … except that we had to wait until 10:40pm IE/UK time for the Ch4 broadcast, the actual race coverage didn’t begin until ~11pm and continued well past midnight. I’m a night owl by nature but circumstances (a young family) don’t allow that at the moment, so having to wait until that time of night for ‘highlights’ was a PITA. In fact, my thoughts on the highlights, by the end of the coverage, was: there were none.

      F1 had better do a good job of sorting out the following and overtaking over the next few years otherwise even more fans are going to be leaving in droves, and why would youngsters be interested in watching a race such as that? (Apart from a few seconds clip of Hartley getting up in the air.) Canada with its long straights followed by slow corners and still it was dull as dishwater. How depressing.

      Incidentally, anyone know a good place to get a quick answer to ‘Is today’s race worth watching?’ without getting a spoiler of the result?

      1. SparkyAMG (@)
        11th June 2018, 18:21

        I think getting a highlights package out under 4 hours after race start is pretty good going to be fair. What if the race had been red flagged or started late etc etc?

        They have to allow for all that and still leave time to put it all together.

        1. Where I live highlights of football matches are regularly started literally 10 minutes after they finished. Why would it take much more time for F1?

  3. Hartley was blameless for that crash, as the replays show. He has had an incredible run of bad luck, and I hope he gets to prove himself before the season is over.
    Also, Kubica’s reaction to the crash was priceless. Give the man a chance to race already!

    1. I agree .. I was a bit annoyed at Cofty’s original statement that Brendon caused the crash which David Croft made before an actual view of the cause of the crash was seen…

      1. @potsie159 Indeed. I don’t know why Hartley doesn’t get any simpathy from Sky or media in general. I think the pressure is getting him, Gasly is over rated and as a response, Brendon is either too cautious or too anxious. Hartley made a cautious approach to t1 and then tried to make it back by hanging on the outside of an awful car.

      2. @potsie159 actually Brundle started the whole Hartley to blame rhetoric and Mr Pie n Chips just followed suit.

        In general the quality of Brundle’s observations seems to be declining, I dont know if its just me but he rarely used to put a foot wrong.

        1. Brundle and Croft have both declined massively at Sky. Sky’s entire coverage is based around controversy, who to blame, and Hamilton.

          The instant there’s a crash or incident, before they even see a replay they’re deciding who to blame for it, every time.

        2. I have been a fan of Brundles since the mid 80’s, and I really enjoyed his commentary with Murray Walker. He is still the best Sky commentator in my opinion, but on Sunday even my wife, who has only been watching for a few years, got upset when he prematurely blamed Hartley for the crash. And we’re Canadian! That being said, he was correct about the Sainz/Perez incident later in the broadcast. I must say that ultimately Croft is the weak link in Sky’s commentary. Maybe they should give Ted his job for a weekend and see how that goes? In all seriousness though, imagine the team of Brundle and Button…

          1. As a U.S. fan, I must say Mr. Croft annoys me no end. He works too hard to make everything exciting, and when his voice goes up about 3 octaves and nothing happens…man, I miss Varsha, Hobbs and Matchett. In general, I have been very disappointed in ESPN’s coverage.

      3. I was watching the race via SkyF1 yesterday in the UK instead of my usual home which is C4. I must admit I really did not enjoy the commentary and I think C4s is far superior. Croft never shuts up and makes a drama out of everything.

        Here in the UK C4 won’t even be an option next year though thanks to Bernie’s greed.

  4. 3 DRS zones couldn’t save it :O

    That telegraph article is overly critical. Some choice quotes:
    “Earning just 44 points in his 18 months in the sport”
    “Sources at the team already accept that he is not a driver in the class of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen”
    Drivers with long careers in F1 have earned far less in their first 18 months and very few really can claim to be of the same class of Max Verstappen.

    Looking back to times past when car/engine manufacturers weren’t spending anywhere near what they are now comparatively and expecting smaller racing teams to be competitive and magically “turn things around” without any financial support is simply not understanding the sport at all.

    I’d be keen for a RacingLines feature on Williams along the lines of the HAAS and McLaren ones recently to get some idea of what the hell is actually going on over there. Is Claire Williams unravelling?

    And finally in that Force India article preview that’s an Ocon quote ;) Sainz is good but not quite good enough to overtake himself…

    1. Actually @skipgamer I think their worst slippage in that article is talking about Stroll’s matinee-idol looks… though maybe they meant that matinee idol standards have fallen as low as Williams? aaargh the layers of meaning!

    2. I think it is blatantly clear williams is only looking for drivers who bring in money. If williams cared about speed at all they’d have massa in one car. Stroll brings in so much money that it basically makes sense to hire him but taking sirotkin over massa… williams is getting exactly the kind of results one can expect with these drivers. But I think the performance in the check books is all that matters.

      When you get second rate inexperienced drivers you don’t just get slower lap times. You get drivers who lack the information and ability to identify flaws in the car. You get a driver that is all over the place and can’t do enough similar laps to give the engineers good reliable telemetry. Sometimes the driver brakes earlier or later, sometimes takes slightly different lines, sometimes spins the tires, sometimes don’t. Just because he is not able to keep the car at the limit corner after corner, lap after lap, race after race.

      And needs more laps to get up to speed. Has no experience to identify flaws which he has seen and seen fixed before. And more things like that. Makes more mistakes causing ruined tire sets, flaky performance making it harder to plan strategy, unpredictable speed making it difficult to adjust the car. Bad sensitivity to car setup changes which means his technical feedback is unreliable. Harder to estimate tire wear, slower to adjust to changing conditions, needs to work harder to keep track of things around him. Gets into weird collisions because he needs to spend all his attention and mental energy to driving the car and does not have any extra left to manage his gizmos, strategies or watch where his competitors are on track. Does not have the ability to identify changing conditions when track is improving during a session, has no experience to fall back on when practise sessions are lost due to car issues.

      1. In summary: it’s not the drivers’ fault but Williams’. The team built the car and the team highered the drivers.

        PS There is another historical team seriously struggling: McLaren. Less YoY performance improvement than any other Renault powered team and even less than Toro Rosso.

        1. highered = hired (djussed reet id fonettikalee)

  5. At least he is making money while doing it.
    Unbelievable that nothing happened apart from the crash at the first lap.

    I don’t recall watching a race as boring in Montreal before.
    The three last races were really bad entertainment, and the other four were about the same, but saved by the Safety Cars.

    If things keep like this i can imagine some emergency regulation being adopted before ’21.

    1. If things keep like this i can imagine some emergency regulation being adopted before ’21.

      Like the one for next year?

      1. Can’t say i’m aware of that.

        1. Do you follow the sport?

          Aero rejig for next year to allow closer racing and the battle to get it approved has pretty much been the biggest F1 news story of the year.

          1. Thank God then.

  6. Keith, re. your tweet, their thinking was “Hey, ONE interesting thing happened this race… and guess what? We’re going to show it to you. Again!”

    1. To be honest I was quite glad they kept showing it. It was genuinely far more interesting. I wouldn’t have minded some replays from other races thrown in too

  7. I consider myself a big F1 fan, but this race was the first race I gave up watching 20 laps before the end in a decade or so.
    It was “unwatchable”. I guess MotoGP was killing my passion for F1 little by little. MotoGP is sooooo much more exciting.
    It keeps getting better and better in contrary to F1.

    1. @rogercamp really? Motogp has tried to spice up but it’s struggling, the michelins haven’t equalized the grid as much as intended and riders keep winning races from start to finish. Sure it’s a lot better than the Stoner dominations or Lorenzo’s and one can’t blame marquez for being quick, but even last week Lorenzo led all laps at Mugello. The BSB is a better championship.

      1. @peartree Perhaps if you don’t know anything about MotoGP you should first read up on it before making such statements.

        1. @flatsix what? You meant @rogercamp . People raving about motogp that only watch races like Qatar this season don’t know where tge championship is and where and how good it used to be and still can be. Qatar was good, argentina was wacky, and tge rest has been boring including mugello, all comparing to what motogp can deliver.
          I watch motogp non stop since 2005, I watch the Bsb since 2012 the TT since michael dunlop had 0 wins.

  8. Mark in Florida
    11th June 2018, 5:07

    Well that was a snooze fest. I fell asleep watching that race when I woke up I tried to watch all of it on the dvr. I failed the attempt, I had to fast forward through it to get to the end . Vettle was the only one that was happy with that race. Stroll…. He Strolled into Hartley at high speed. I guess a high speed wreck can now be called getting Strolled. Poor Hartley his luck is terrible I feel sorry for him. The aero on these cars are killing the passing along with these sub par Pirelli tires. I can only hope that the new aero regs will help the passing. But Pirelli is going to have to make a tire that’s less sensitive. Cut some of the aero add more mechanical grip then I believe the passing will get better.

    1. more mechanical grip somehow it hasn’t worked with the new gen, bigger tyres were completely overshadowed by more aero. Of all that has been agreed for next season Horner confirmed that the team believe they’ll offset the lost downforce, so we’ll end with a different front wing and an even bigger rear wing, if the teams agree on something Liberty should just do the opposite.

  9. The Race was almost as Boring as Kimmis Driving

    1. @prelvu Savage, LOL.

    2. Spot on. He’s a waste of a top seat in my opinion. I am sure someone like Ricciardo would get much closer to Vettel or beat him sometimes.

  10. “I came close to catching Sainz in the final few laps, but it wasn’t possible to overtake, especially after he cut the track and gained some time on the final lap when I was about to overtake him.”
    – Where and when did that happen? It was never shown on the world feed.

  11. Slash aero, V10 3.5L NA engines, H-Pattern Gearbox, no more fancy electronics

    ..hahaha..one can dream.

    1. Why do you want 2+ minute lap times?

      Or do you want to go back to having a driver killed every other week?

      Vintage motorsports is a thing– Take your rose-tinted nostalgia-lined glasses and go watch that, and let those of us who actually escaped from the 20th century enjoy racing. There are problems with F1, but nothing you said is a solution to any of them.

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