Formula 1 has invested heavily in ensuring that the sport is as exciting as possible in years to come and it unveiled its ideas for the new 2026 cars on Thursday in Montreal. But Sunday’s thrilling Canadian Grand Prix proved that all it really takes to spice up the racing is a few drops of rain.
The Visa Cash App RB duo were in the thick of the action, with Daniel Ricciardo on particularly fine form, coming away from this brief trip to North America with four more points in the bag, after finishing eighth in this the ninth round of the world championship.
Montreal in June is famous for delivering four seasons worth of weather in the space of a day and that was the case during Thursday’s media day, with giant hailstones battering the Ile Notre Dame. It was a foretaste of what was to come, with Friday’s two practice sessions hit by rain, in what would turn out to be a useful rehearsal for race day. Wet or dry, the VCARB 01 seemed to relish the conditions with Daniel and Yuki ending the day fifth and eighth fastest respectively.
Saturday’s qualifying was run in the dry, but that didn’t make it a walk in the park, as the teams were having to contend with a lack of data regarding the track, as it had been completely resurfaced since last year. The Team on the pit wall did a fantastic job of picking the right moment to send Daniel and Yuki out on a track that was getting faster and faster as the clocked ticked down. The order on the timing page was therefore changing quicker than the cherries on a slot machine, but our boys kept their nerve and once again we had both cars through to the all-important top 10 Q3 shoot-out.
Prior to the session, Daniel had mentioned that it was exactly ten years to the day since he took his very first Grand Prix win right here in Montreal and that definitely seemed to give him a boost as he powered his way round the Gilles Villeneuve circuit to claim a remarkable fifth place on the third row of the grid. Talk about bossing the midfield, this was in a different league!
Yuki also had cause to smile on Saturday as, moments before qualifying, we announced that he would be driving for us again in 2025 – peace of mind for him and the team and a nice eighth place on the grid an hour later.
Sunday’s 70 lap race started on a wet track with the field on Intermediate tyres. A glitch with the clutch on Daniel’s car led to him inadvertently jumping the start, which meant he had to take a penalty, but on a drying track towards the end of the race, the car came alive on slick tyres and, never shy about overtaking, our Aussie scythed past cars to finish eighth. A daring strategy with Yuki – he was one of only three drivers to get to the chequered flag with only a single pit stop – saw him get as high as seventh, but a couple of mistakes in the closing stages saw him drop out of the points to finish 14th.
The team has consolidated its sixth place in the Constructor’s championship as we return to Europe and three races on consecutive weekends, starting with the Spanish Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
