Formula 1 drivers may see a repeat of last year’s Canadian Grand Prix weather conditions with rain expected during qualifying followed by a dry race.
The official forecast for the weekend ahead at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve indicates there is a risk of rain on all three days, with the possibility of “intense” showers on Saturday, when final practice and qualifying will take place.A low pressure weather system over Quebec will bring increasingly unsettled conditions on Friday which will deteriorate throughout the day. Second practice, which will start at 5pm local time, is especially at risk of disruption from a sharp shower.
Those conditions will persist into Saturday, which could see the heaviest showers. The threat of rain is currently rated at over 80% and is likely to have an impact on final practice at half past noon and qualifying, which is scheduled for a 4pm start.
The weather is expected to improve on Sunday although the threat of further rain will not entirely recede. The chance of rain is officially estimated at 40%, though that may change over the coming days.
The ambient temperatures are expected to rise from around 20C on Saturday to 23C on race day. The Canadian Grand Prix is typically one of the coolest races of the year even when it doesn’t rain. Only five races last year saw lower ambient temperatures, though the track surface tends to retain heat well.
The rainfall will likely come as further relief to many in the area as a dry spell contributed to wildfires in the region last week. Although the smoke from the fires continued to reach Montreal this week, the air quality has improved. F1 said last week they did not expect the fires would jeopardise the running of the race.
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For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on RaceFans Live and the RaceFans Twitter account.
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Jere (@jerejj)
15th June 2023, 13:58
Usually, I’m unhappy if rain affects qualifying running, but slightly less this time because the track configuration is unchanged & the event in question is evening-centered in Europe.
For the daylight North American races, I care more about the race being entirely dry than qualifying because they already have a late start time in the relevant time zones for me.
However, another rain-affected qualifying for the Canadian GP would mean unclear outright quali trim pace under the present aero regulations for the second consecutive season.
Ken
15th June 2023, 17:02
Yeah, i also prefer dry qualification ,but a little rain in the race is good.
Nick T.
15th June 2023, 15:30
With Niels Wittich as race director, anything wetter than Monaco will probably just result in a red flag until it’s dry enough that the crossover to dry tires will come within 2 laps. Maybe why they should have hired someone who either had actual racing experience or a director with more than a season as director in DTM during which he was blasted much like MM was for the Dubai incident. Maybe, considering Gasly will be in the field despite multiple incidents that should have earned him a one-race ban, that’s for the best.
asd
15th June 2023, 18:30
Montreal is one of the few tracks on the calendar that don’t require rain to produce good racing. But at the same time, rain doesn’t hurt it either.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th June 2023, 19:15
Indeed, I like rain both in quali and race, but I prefer heavy rain, would be nice if the new tyres they brought were able to handle the conditions, although laptime wise I wasn’t impressed at monaco by the 3 full wet runners; a problem with rain in quali though is that if it’s intermittent it can happen that some drivers can set their times on a dry track, then rain comes and it’s impossible to improve, other reason why I prefer when it’s wet from start to finish.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th June 2023, 19:16
For example I found that turkey quali, very likely 2020, very interesting, with drivers who kept doing multiple laps in a row with the full wets and then eventually swapped to intermediates late in q3.
kuvemar
15th June 2023, 21:30
Rain is always welcome, even if it’s still not a guarantee for an interesting race. For qualifying, even a cancelation due to heavy rain is more worth watching than usual quali.
Jay
15th June 2023, 22:22
If the fires are climate change, are these ‘intense’ showers also climate change? It really could be another race cancelled by climate change!
AlexS
16th June 2023, 16:46
You are late to the programme. Everything is CO2 Climate Change. The giant drought in Europe in 1540 – a year without rain – if it occurred today would have all “experts” and “scientists” claiming that was because of CO2 Climate Change. Which shows the “science” quality…