F1 | GP CANADA, THE POINT BY GIAN CARLO MINARDI “VERSTAPPEN EXTRAORDINARY. SAINZ GAVE HIS UTMOST”

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Once again these young men kept us with bated breath until the last of the scheduled seventy laps. Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz challenged each other lapping constantly under the barrier of 1’16” with the Ferrari driver setting the fastest lap of the race with 1’15”749 crossing the finishing line less than a second behind the winner.

Verstappen drove a great race without making the slightest mistake. Carlos Sainz made his best performance in two years. At this time Ferrari cannot exploit its power-unit to the fullest. Despite the DRS the Spanish driver was unable to attack the Dutchman. From the chassis, aerodynamics and engine points of view Red Bull is perfect right now. What stopped Perez is to be understood.

With fifth place Charles Leclerc limited the damage bringing home a solid race. Certainly the 49 point gap from Verstappen is starting to weigh heavily, especially against a rival in such good shape even if he gained a lot on the Mexican. From here to the end reliability will dominate because three engines are too few and there is still a long way to go.

Lewis Hamilton returned to the podium, the author of an intelligent race supported by valid strategy by Mercedes’ men on the wall. After the Baku GP he was disheartened and this result could help him.

In qualifying Fernando Alonso showed he can still make the difference but in the long run the car’s difficulties came out, closing the race in sixth place (with Ocon) and seventh place. A result that reflects their real position. They probably could have let “Nando” return to the pits a few laps earlier instead of keeping him on the track. Also worthy of note was Zhou Guanyu’s eighth place, finishing behind his team mate Valtteri Bottas and ahead of Lance Stroll.

Gian Carlo Minardi

F1 | GP AZERBAIJAN THE POINT BY GIAN CARLO MINARDI “A ONE WAY RACE. A HARMFUL RESULT FOR FERRARI”

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It was a one way grand prix with Max Verstappen decidedly strong. He took the win ahead of Sergio Perez who completed the double for Red Bull strengthening Red Bull’s leadership in both ladders. Now Verstappen’s lead over Leclerc has risen to 34 points with the Ferrari driver also behind Perez.

Two “zeroes” in two races are harmful and worrying. In order to follow its direct rivals Ferrari paid in reliability. The evolutionary step in the engine was not supported by reliability and in a week it will be grand prix time again on a track like Montreal’s that is very demanding for both the engine and the brakes.

In such a packed calendar and tightly fought championship it becomes doubly difficult to recover since the time is lacking to analyze and remedy the problems. After a difficult start at the present time Red Bull is decidedly more reliable. On the performance front Ferrari and Leclerc have shown all the goodness of the project taking an important qualifying session but in the race the forces in the field changed. Unlike Monte Carlo the people on the wall guessed the strategy quickly. Unfortunately this was nullified by the reliability.

It was the eighth positive result for George Russell who took third place ahead of Lewis Hamilton and fourth place in the driver’s ladder. Too bad to see the seven times world champion suffer like this and who, amongst other things, complained about back pain due to porpoising. With the races run so closely together it also becomes hard to recover physically.

A positive result for Gasly immediately behind the top teams. It was a good race by Sebastian Vettel who recovered quickly from a mistake in the final stages finishing in sixth position ahead of a decent Alonso. In a year that has not been positive up till now Ricciardo’s finish with his McLaren in eighth place ahead of Lando Norris is to be noted.

Gian Carlo Minardi