Circuit de Monaco | Monte Carlo | Monaco
23-25 May | Round 8
I missed last weekends GP notes, and am struggling to get this weekends’ put together too. Will make a meaningful effort tomorrow to get it done. In the meantime, here’s the schedule at least.
That’s for the impeding with Max I guess? Fair.
Yeah that’s quite fair, not his fault but yeah that’s usually the case with impeding, wrong team info.
Unless you’re Stroll and just not looking in mirrors lol. Double the penalty 
What happened? Was it in practice or qualifying? I missed most of it only got the last 5 mins
Stroll or Hami?
Stroll #1:
In Practice(think FP1?), gave way for someone, then went back on line, not seeing LeClerc also coming and Le Clercs car got rekt
Stroll #2:
Similar, thought he had to give way to one car, but two was around him, blocked the wrong car. Blamed the sun.
Hamilton:
Got told Verstappen is coming, then engineer said no he’s slowing, then boom, Verstappen came flying because he was still actually on his fast lap, not sure what engineer was thinking, classic Ferrari. But the incident wasn’t as bad, just ruined Verstappen’s lap.
thanks meant Ham
I just know this race is turning into a farce, Monaco is not a F1 track anymore at all.
And the holding up car games teams where playing makes this officially not a race for me to watch anymore
At least Lando got his win and the new lap record!
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya • Barcelona • Spain
30 May - 1 June • Round 9
Third of the European Triple Header races and we’re back in Barcelona for Round 9.
A new Technical Directive will have the teams rethinking the flexibility of their front wings and bringing a host of upgrades and new bits to the circuit that used to be used for F1 testing in the before times.
Everything you need to know about the Spanish Grand Prix front wing Technical Directive.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are the only people who have won every Spanish Grand Prix since 2016. The McLaren duo remain the team to beat this year, but Max will be out to maintain that stat and make it a fourth win in a row in Barcelona.
Last five Spanish GP polesitters
Last five Spanish GP winners
Better late than not. If you missed FP1 and FP2, sorry but spoilers ahead.
When was the track built?
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was built as part of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics development programme. The foundation stone was laid in 1989, while the first car race was a round of the 1991 Spanish Touring Car Championship.
When was its first Grand Prix?
Two weeks after the touring cars raced at Barcelona, it was Formula 1’s turn. The track enjoyed a sensational debut, with Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna’s famous eyeball-to-eyeball drag race down the straight, before Mansell took the lead and drove on to victory.
What’s the circuit like?
The drivers love the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which for many years was Formula 1’s pre-season testing venue of choice. The track is a good mix of high- and low-speed corners, with the challenging Turn 3 right-hander a great chance to evaluate the balance of the car your team’s designers have given you to fight with for the year.
Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver:
Barcelona is a nice circuit, but everyone knows it like the back of their hand, which kind of makes it feel like home, because it’s the one that we have historically spent a lot of time driving at.
It’s really flowing and tough on the neck and the body because of the long corners coming through Turns 3 to 4 and Turn 9. It’s also tough on the front-left tyre, with tyre wear generally high in Barcelona thanks to abrasive tarmac.
Overtaking can be tricky, with Turn 1 pretty much the only spot you can pass at – it’s also the trickiest corner. Turn 4 to 5 is a nasty, downhill braking zone, which again can sucker you into braking a little bit late, but because there’s a bit of camber on it, you can miss the apex slightly and not lose a heap of time.
The previous final sector was not a pleasure to drive. You had to balance your tyre performance in the first and final sector, it felt really slow, and you squirmed your way around the final chicane trying to compete the lap. But that’s all gone since 2023.
There should’t be rain in Spain this year, with lots of sunshine and temperatures peaking in the 30s.
Friday – FP1 and FP2
Saturday – FP3 and QUALIFYING
Sunday – RACE
Not only is the track challenging for the cars, it also places high demands on the tyres. After two consecutive rounds featuring the softest trio in the 2025 range, as usual Pirelli has chosen the hardest, namely the C1 as Hard, the C2 as Medium and the C3 as Soft. The three compounds have been revised since last year, especially the C2, making the performance gaps between them more equidistant. That could lead to the Medium and Soft being favoured for the race.
The forces exerted on the tyres are medium to high, because of the many fast corners, such as turn 3 and the final two, both of them righthanders. The corner of the car subjected to the greatest stress is the front left, as right hand turns are in the majority.
Even if the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit is no longer much used for testing by the teams, because of the virtual elimination of in-season testing and a reduction in pre-season work, it is still a very important test bench. That’s why Pirelli has chosen to test here for a third time, following on from September 2024 and this January, working on development of tyres for next season. The test takes place on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 June, with the help of Mercedes drivers on both days, Racing Bulls on Tuesday and Red Bull on Wednesday.
Check out the all-new digital race programme for the Formula 1 Aramco Gran Premio de Espana 2025, with everything you need to know about the Barcelona weekend.
View now at Official F1® Race Programme - Spain
Sjoe… dead race… until safety car…
then alot happened
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve • Montreal • Canada
13-15 June • Round 10
It’s off to Canada for Round 10 of the season this weekend. The McLaren pair still top the standings with Oscar Piastri 10 points ahead of Lando Norris. After his demotion in the last race in Spain, Max Verstappen holds onto 3rd in the standings, but now trails Norris by 39 points.
The P1 and P2 swapping that Norris and Piastri have been doing all season has put the papaya team well ahead in the Constructors’ standings. McLaren now lead with 362 points, over a somewhat surprising Ferrari team currently in P2, almost 200 points adrift. The Scuderia’s 165 points puts them just ahead of Mercedes on 159.
Max comes into the Canadian round with just 1 penalty point left on his license. Any transgression in either of the next two races - in Canada and Austria - and the reigning World Champion will face a one race ban.
It’s a weekend of milestones for the Haas team who will run with a special livery to mark their 200th Formula 1 Grand Prix. And Yuki Tsunoda will drive with a special helmet design to celebrate his 100th GP.
Last year saw a rain affected thriller, with Max ultimately triumphing over Lando and George. Here’s the highlights: Race Highlights | 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.
Last five Canadian GP polesitters
Last five Canadian GP winners
Standard day times in Canada mean some late night sessions for us here. Fortunately, Sunday’s race start at 20:00 isn’t too bad. And thanks to the rule changes after the record longest Grand Prix (4 hours, 4 minutes, 39 seconds) that was Canada 2011, even if the rain does come calling unexpectedly this year, the race should finish by midnight-ish.
When was the track built?
The man-made Notre Dame Island in the middle of the St Lawrence River was created for the 1967 Expo 67 World’s Fair. Once the expo and the ensuing 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics had left town, some clever people decided to make a race track out of the island’s roads. And lo, the Circuit Ile Notre-Dame, as it then was, came to be.
When was its first Grand Prix?
With the Canadian Grand Prix having been in search of a permanent home for a number of years in the 1960s and 1970s, the Circuit Ile Notre-Dame first hosted the race in 1978. Fittingly, Gilles Villeneuve claimed his maiden win, at the track that would end up bearing his name.
What’s the circuit like?
The fast, low-downforce circuit is one of the drivers’ favourites. The track is quite stop-start, with lots of heavy-braking chicanes and the famous hairpin to get the anchors working hard. Out of the corners, though, the track is quick and flowing, while the most iconic piece of the circuit comes right at the end of the lap: the Wall of Champions, so-called after excursions into it from Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher during the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver:
Canada is a really nice track to drive and you get a sense of atmosphere going around it. Overhanging trees give it the feel of a park and it feels like a street circuit – in essence, it is.There are a lot of slow-speed corners, the walls are very close in a lot of places, but it’s a great racetrack. You need a good front-end to get your car turned into the chicanes, which are pretty much everywhere.
Then there’s the hairpin, which launches you into an overtaking area at the final chicane. If not there, maybe you’ll have a little sniff of something into Turn 1. Turns 1 and 2 are pretty tricky because you’re approaching Turn 1 very, very fast, arcing to the right as you’re braking, and then hurling speed to the left.
If you have any sort of moment coming to Turn 1, you’re really off-line or cutting the corner down towards Turn 2. And tyre warm-up sometimes isn’t ideal here, particularly on chillier days in Montreal.
After last years heavy rain, it’s always worth keeping an eye on the Montreal weather. At this stage though, things look to be cool, overcast, and dry with only an outside chance of some light overnight rain on Saturday night through to early Sunday.
Friday, 13 June – FP1 and FP2
Saturday, 14 June – FP3 and QUALIFYING
Sunday, 15 June – RACE
For the third time this season, the softest trio of compounds will feature on track. That means, after appearing for the first time in Imola and again in Monaco, the C6 will be in use, alongside its closest relatives, the C5 as medium and the C4 as hard.
The selection is therefore one step softer than last year when the chosen compounds were the C3, C4 and C5. This weekend, when using the new C6, teams and drivers will be able to make the most of the information and data gathered at its two previous appearances.
The Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit is a track where the lateral forces exerted on the tyres are medium to low, while the longitudinal ones are a bit more severe, although not particularly high, because of the cars being subjected to strong deceleration followed by sharp acceleration.
The track surface is very smooth and not very abrasive and is never used for racing apart from the Grand Prix weekend. Graining, especially during free practice on Friday, could put in an appearance, but as the track gradually rubbers-in it shouldn’t be a factor. Lap times come down really quickly, not just from one day to the next, but also during each session.
On top of that, the unpredictable and changeable weather is a factor to consider, a wildcard that’s been known to disrupt the on-track action here, while fluctuating temperatures are a feature of the Montreal event.
This also gives FOM the right amount of time to actually negotiate a slot in the calendar for Kyalami to fit into.
The fact that there is no track layout changes requirements means this can happen quite soon, obviously depending how much work the barrier and drainage stuff requires.
Valterri and Checo or DRic with Mick Schumacher as the Reserve, and Cadillac could be scoring podiums in their first season!
Oh, and… it’s RAWE CEEK!!!
LOL Valterri is so good in his offseasons(coz we all know he will be back) man.
