Canadian Grand Prix: Drivers and Teams report from Montreal

The Canadian Grand Prix was another interesting race despite some lack of on-track action. That is until Lando Norris drove into his teammate, Oscar Piastri, which meant he was out of the race that was concluded under the Safety Car.

Check out what the teams and drivers said after the race in Canada last Sunday.

Charles Leclerc: "P5 was the best we could do today. We could maybe have tried to do something different with the strategy, but at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have changed much for the outcome of the race. Most of all, our starting position was what put us at a disadvantage.

"It’s quite a specific track, so I don’t think that too much of what we saw in terms of performance will carry on to the coming races. We will regroup and come back stronger."

Lewis Hamilton: "P6 is a good result considering the cards we were dealt today. The car felt good in the opening laps and I was optimistic about what we could do, but unfortunately we picked up significant damage early on which cost us a lot of downforce. From that point, it was tough to manage the balance and pace, and some brake issues in the middle stint made things even harder. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re fully focused on the steps we need to take to compete at the front. That’s our priority heading into Austria."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal Scuderia Ferrari HP: "I believe the main issue this weekend is that we made too many mistakes and had too many issues right from FP1, when we lost one car, then came a mistake in qualifying and in the race Lewis lost a good amount of points of downforce early on after unfortunately hitting a small animal that ran onto the track which damaged the front part of the floor. If I could replay the weekend I would choose not to have missed FP2 with one car as it meant we were unable to long stint the tyres and that was our main issue today. And that’s how you end up P5 and P6. We have to take some positives from the weekend, starting with our pace in quali. Yesterday Charles had the fastest first sector before having to abort the lap and our race pace is not far off the quickest, but when you don’t put everything together you find yourself in traffic. I am sure we will get a break soon, we just need a clean weekend. If we put everything together we can do it."

Isack Hadjar: "It was a difficult Sunday here in Montréal. I had high graining on the medium tyres at the start of the race and unfortunately, I think we pitted a little bit too late, which made us lose a few places. After that, I just got stuck in a DRS train for the rest of the race, and towards the end, we didn't really have much pace and therefore got past from other cars. Since the start of the weekend we've been struggling a bit with the car, so we'll review everything together with the team and we'll get back pushing always more in Austria in two weeks time."

Liam Lawson: "It was always going to be a difficult race starting from the pit lane, but we took the decision to install a new PU after a tough Quali yesterday. A cooling issue towards the end of today's race meant we unfortunately had to retire, which is a shame given the pace of the car this weekend was good. We'll keep working on the speed and I'll keep working on myself to reset ahead of Austria."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "We arrived in Montréal with good expectations after three very strong weekends in Europe. However, we knew how tough this circuit is and how intense the battle in the midfield would be. Yesterday's Qualifying was another strong performance for Isack who qualified P9 before he got penalized. The mistake was on our side as we failed to give him the right information about Carlos coming behind. Everything started to become a bit more difficult today with Isack starting in P12 and Liam from the pit lane, as we took the opportunity to introduce a new PU on his car after a difficult result in Qualifying. The hard fact is that we didn't have enough pace today to fight in the top ten. Isack suffered high graining on his tyres during the first stint on the mediums and sadly we had to retire Liam's car due to an issue in the cooling system. It's a tight battle in the midfield and even only one-tenth can make the difference, and today it was enough to drop back instead of attacking forward. Looking back at the last few months, every single improvement we've made as a team has been made after tough weekends like this one in Canada. We certainly take some positives from this weekend and the fight is on, so we'll keep pushing all together in Faenza and Milton Keynes to come back stronger. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it straight away at our next home race in Austria in a couple of weeks."

Pierre Gasly: "We have lots to review after today's race. It was always going to be difficult starting from the Pit Lane after tactical changes to the car under parc ferme conditions. We tried something a little different on strategy and, in the end, it was a frustrating afternoon being stuck behind cars and struggling on the straights to make any overtakes. We need to aim to start higher up on the grid as for sure we can be much more competitive with better track position. I think our pace was decent when we had clean air but, unfortunately, we were just stuck too long in traffic. We will regroup and aim to have a better weekend in Austria next time out."

Franco Colapinto: "A tough afternoon for us and certainly not what we expected or wanted. We put ourselves in a good position starting from tenth on the grid and I had a good start to the race to overtake some cars on the first lap. Of course, from there, points are the target and we were a bit unfortunate on strategy and reaching traffic, which impacted our race. I do think the car had good pace today and we need to understand what we can do better next time. It's a very tough track, one we expected to be challenging for us, so we can certainly take positives from some parts of the weekend. I am happy with the progress I made through the weekend despite the end result and for sure I want to continue that into Austria."

Fernando Alonso: "It was a good race for us today. I felt happy with the car and as expected managing the tyres was difficult. We went into the race and knew eighth position would be more our realistic pace and I couldn't keep the faster cars behind. It seems our race pace is not as competitive as Qualifying and it's something which we need to look into going forward. Let's see if anything comes from the investigations later and we'll look ahead to Austria and our home race in Silverstone."

Lance Stroll: "It's been a long rough day and I'm not so pleased with this weekend overall. It was always going to be difficult starting the race from P17, but I also didn't feel like the car had the pace today to make up any positions. We go again in Austria in two weeks time. We will work hard to find areas of improvement in all areas until then."

Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "A good step forward for us here in Montreal as we mark our 100th race as a team. Fernando finished P7, his highest of the season, scoring some well-deserved points for the team. We stuck to our Plan A strategy and executed it well.

"It was good to have Lance back in the car this weekend. Today was challenging for him after an unlucky Qualifying. We need to learn from this weekend to help improve the feel of the car for him.

"We are determined to keep pushing in all areas as we head to Austria in two weeks' time."

Ollie Bearman: "Honestly, we had more pace in the car today than it looked, but with the strategy we got stuck in traffic with other people starting on the hard tire. In a DRS train it's really hard to overtake, so we had a lot more pace and once I got into free air, we had that, but I spent the race stuck. There could've been a bit more today, but I'm happy the team scored points in their 200th race."

Esteban Ocon: "I'm pleased with all the work the team has done this weekend; we maximized our potential because it wasn't clear-cut that our strategy was going to be better before the race, but it paid off to take the risk today. We managed to deliver a solid race, achieve good laps in clear air which was important, so we overcut quite a lot of cars, and then we brought the car home. It's a good reward for the team to get something out of our 200th race, and to seize the opportunity as they don't come every day."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Overall, it was a good result for the team today to score P9 with Esteban coming from P14. We decided to split strategy between Ollie and Esteban, and what Ollie faced today – starting on mediums and getting stuck behind hard starters – was one scenario that could happen, so that was the case and it didn't work for him. Esteban's strategy, which was actually slower on paper, was great. I think both drivers drove very well today; Ollie was frustrated behind traffic but he clearly had the speed, and Esteban's tire management was perfect and he didn't make any mistakes. We showed that we have strong race pace, but next race we need to put it all together from FP1 and qualify well."

Carlos Sainz: "Good to at least score one point today, but I'm pretty frustrated as I spent the race managing an issue, so I couldn't even compete properly. We did a good job to bring the car home and save a point but, as a team, we need to avoid these situations. We didn't show our maximum potential this weekend for one reason or the other and with such a tight field, it obviously affects the final outcome. We'll regroup and go back at it again in Europe in a couple of weeks."

Alex Albon: "It's been a frustrating one today. We retired with the PU issue, but the race was already over for us. I struggled on the first lap, and then we tried to make a one stop work, but with the graining today it was really hard to manage the tyres. Sometimes you can drive around it but not today. Race strategy is also something we are usually strong at, but we struggled today and that's not to blame the team, but it just wasn't quite there, so we'll have a look at it and come back stronger next time."

James Vowles, Team Principal: "A really strong race from Carlos. He showed great race pace under difficult circumstances, managing a number of aspects of the car, and he did a brilliant job to come home and bring another valuable point to the team. After Alex got pushed back at the start, his race was a lot more difficult. Ultimately it was a DNF, which we need to understand, but he had potential to fight back through the field again and pick up points. What it demonstrates is we need perfect weekends executed against this very tight midfield in order to score points and we haven't been executing as well as we could do. However, still an important point today for our Championship battle."

Nico Hulkenberg: “I’m really happy with today’s result - another strong race and more points on the board, which is always satisfying. I was able to stay out of trouble and take advantage of some battling ahead between Franco [Colapinto] and Alex [Albon] into Turn 8, which allowed me to gain a couple of positions exiting Turn 9. From there, it was about tyre management and maintaining consistent pace, making sure we executed the race cleanly.

“We’ve now shown competitive pace at two very different circuits which also means the recent update has been a clear step forward. Especially under race condition our car was more consistent, better balanced, and overall much more predictable to drive. That kind of stability really allows you to push when it counts.”

Gabriel Bortoleto: "It was a tough weekend overall for me, but I am pleased to see the team score again. We were very close to Q2 in qualifying, but not making the cut yesterday compromised our Sunday: starting from P15 with faster cars like the Williams, Red Bull, and RB behind made it difficult. I had to push a lot on the tyres to keep ahead, and that in turn affected how the race progressed for me. We tried a strategy with a long first stint on the hard tyre, hoping for a Safety Car that came far too late, and once you're 20 seconds back after a pit stop, there's only so much you can recover, even on fresh tyres. I feel there was more potential - we could’ve gained another couple of positions on pace alone - but we need to understand what more we can do to start scoring points.

“Nico is doing a great job again, probably extracting all this car has to give, but knowing how close we are on a Saturday shows that our performance is close. We’re usually within half a tenth of each other in qualifying but, in this midfield, that can make a huge difference, as we’ve seen in the last couple of weekends. I think I’m extracting the pace, but I also need to learn how to maximise outcomes over the course of the race, and this will come with experience, weekend after weekend. I’m not going to complain—it's about reviewing everything, learning, and coming back stronger. We’ve made progress since Barcelona, even if this track didn’t suit us as much, and I’m confident we’re going in the right direction."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: "It’s a fantastic atmosphere within the team tonight after a really strong performance here in Canada. Both drivers got off the line well, and Nico in particular showed great awareness and racecraft on lap one - holding back just enough to avoid the early chaos and seizing the opportunity to gain two places. From there, he delivered a composed and intelligent drive. Starting on the medium compound, our switch to the hard tyre proved to be spot on. It ultimately paid off as Nico brought it home in P8 under the Safety Car, delivering back-to-back points for the team, which is a big achievement and a milestone we hadn’t reached since Canada 2023.

“Gabriel had a tougher run, from further back but still put in a solid stint on the hards - battling through graining, traffic, and some intense racing to finish a respectable P14.

“The team has delivered another strong performance today. Strategically, our calls were right on the mark, the pit crew executed clean and efficient stops, and most importantly, we’ve once again shown that we have a race car capable of fighting in the midfield. Credit also goes to the wider team back in Hinwil - their hard work is starting to translate into results on track. Together with Mattia, it’s been great to build momentum, and we’re all looking forward to carrying that energy into the European races."