Canadian Grand Prix

Round 7 of the Formula 1 calendar takes us to Canada and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Last year’s race was won by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and it is expected that he and Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel will be fighting it out for the win this weekend.

Built in 1977, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is situated on a man made island in the St Lawrence river, Montreal. At 4.3 km, it is one of the smaller tracks on the circuit and consists of purpose built track and public roads with plenty of overtaking spots.

Strategy

Tyre supplier Pirelli have opted to bring the Super-Soft, Ultra-Soft and Hyper-Soft tyre to Canada so strategy is going to be key with higher degradation than Monaco expected. The Hyper-Soft ran a lot longer than expected in Monaco but don’t expect the same in Canada with lap-time difference between the Ultra and Hyper being greater here.

Who to Watch

Unlike Monaco, Canada is a power track and it is expected that Mercedes and Ferrari will be fighting it out at the front.

There will be power unit upgrades for all teams with Renault also bringing an engine upgrade, although it is not known whether Red Bull will benefit from this upgrade also.

In the mid-field, it is expected that the Ferrari and Mercedes powered cars of Williams and Haas will fair well, although the Renault powered McLaren may challenge a high top 10 finish with further aero upgrades. The Honda powered Torro Rosso is expected to struggle on this high powered circuit unless they bring something special this weekend.

Update…

Since writing this article, it has been announced by Red Bull that Daniel Ricciardo will be hit with grid penalties for using too many parts in Monaco. The amount of penalties to be taken is unknown at this point. Ricciardo’s Red Bull had suffered a MGU-K failure on his way to winning the Monaco Grand Prix (his second race win of the season).

Meanwhile at McLaren…. Fernando Alonso said he would be looking forward to changeable weather in a hope that it may give his Renault powered McLaren a better chance of scoring good points this weekend.

Having switched engine supplier at the end of last season, McLaren had hoped to be closer to the Red Bull but find themselves nearly 1.5 seconds slower.

Fantasy Formula 1

PlayOn offer an official Daily Fantasy Formula 1 experience with a chance to win exclusive prizes. It’s free to play and you also have access to F1 TV where you can watch the race live. (Coming Soon)

You can choose any of the F1 games offered in the PlayOn games lobby. Simply select 5 drivers and 1 constructor with your $100m budget then sit back and enjoy the thrill of a fantasy F1 experience.

If your top 3 finishes added together put you top of the F1 leaderboard then you will enjoy a VIP trip to a Grand Prix in 2019.

There are a huge selection of Fantasy Formula 1 cash games to choose from on the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix, with the aforementioned Hamilton valued at US$31.1m.