F1 2008 - Canada Grand Prix Preview

It’s off to the Canadian Grand Prix and the only stop in North America. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a temporary circuit with a combination of street and track racing. As you see by the track pic, it has long fast straights always leading to heavy breaking where great traction and great acceleration are so important.

Aerodynamics
Not much downforce required at this circuit so a low downforce setup is the package of the day. With a top speed of over 320 km/hr drag is a drivers nightmare, but at the same time, some downforce is required to keep the car just stable enough that when under heavy breaking the car doesn’t get away from the drivers. This means a very twitchy car that can be tricky to handle if not smooth and easy with brakes, throttle and steering.

Brakes
One of the two most demanding tracks on breaks. The other of course is the high speeds of Monza. There are serious demands on the brakes in Montreal which include 4 breaking points from over 300 km/hr and 2 from over 250 km/hr. With this in mind, break wear is the biggest concern to the team and monitoring of them is a high priority throughout the race.

Suspension
The combination of chicanes and slow corners require responsiveness and stability and brake locking is an issue in Montreal. Too much break locking at either the front or the rear of the car is serious time lost.

Engine
When looking at the track map, it doesn’t seem that only 60% of the track is at full throttle, but that is exactly what it is. An over heated engine is not an issue, but the demand on the engine in the longest full throttle section of 14 secs is high. The engine has to be strong to respond to 6 full throttle accelerations separated by the chicanes.

Tires
Green is the word for this circuit by virtue of it being temporary so grip levels on Friday morning will be low, but slowly improve throughout the weekend. Because this circuit is not particularly demanding on tires and the surface is fairly smooth, soft and super soft tires will be used.

Rain can always be an issue in Montreal and the high speed nature of the track poses some risk to the driver if putting a tire off track. We remember Robert Kubica last year with his explosive crash. The walls are close on the street section and many a car have wiped against them exiting corners. I do see that happening more than once this year.