Can Hamilton reclaim the lead in Canada?

Montreal, 5 June 2014: After two races in Europe, Formula One visits North America this week for the Canadian Grand Prix, round seven of the 2014 FIA F1 World Championship.

Following Monaco, Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is another temporary track with unforgiving walls millimetres off the racing line – but that’s where the similarities end. From the slowest race of the year, F1 moves to one of its fastest and teams will unleash medium-low downforce packages for the first time in 2014 in an attempt to stay competitive on the long straights of the

Île Notre-Dame.

In essence, the long, thin circuit is a series of high-speed straights linked by slow corners. The start-stop nature of the lap, in which cars may hit more than 300km/h on four separate occasions before braking down to first or second gear, has long been recognised as exceptionally harsh on brakes and engines but this year there are the added demands of the MGU-K, which will have to deal with these heavy braking loads, and the MGU-H which will be kept busy with unrelenting demand from the turbocharger.

Cars will be set-up for high top speeds but the demands of the three chicanes and the hairpin prevent use of ultra-low downforce packages. There is much fine-tuning to be done as teams seek to find the right balance between low downforce and good stability in those all-important braking zones. With the added requirements of riding the kerbs well and getting good traction from low-speed, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has plenty to keep engineers occupied.

Lewis Hamilton comes to Montreal as the form driver of 2014 with four victories and four pole positions from the six early season races. The Briton, however, arrives narrowly trailing German team-mate Nico Rosberg in the Drivers’ Championship. The Mercedes pair are waging a fascinating battle for dominance at the top of the table, and this provides an added dimension to what is always a thrilling weekend in Canada.

eom/FIA release