Canadian Grand Prix Race Report
- mhylen
- 2 days ago
- 11 min read
Round 10 of the 2025 Formula One season is in the books, and it delivered. With the championship-leading team struggling, intense racing ensued as the rival teams started to take advantage. Overtaking was not as difficult as it had been on previous tracks, so we were able to see wheel-to-wheel racing throughout.
Nothing major changed within either Championship as a result of this past weekend; however, we did see a few minor shakeups. Haas and Aston Martin rose up in both championships, Mercedes regained 2nd in the Constructors' standings, and the midfield within the Constructors' standings has five teams legitimately fighting for 6th now.
Before we review how each team did this past weekend, a couple of things to mention:
Formula One has two main championship competitions. The first is the Drivers' Championship, which is a competition based on the drivers' individual performance. On a non-Sprint style weekend, the drivers who finish in the top 10 in each race will score points (the higher you place, the more points you get). These points are added up, and whichever driver finishes with the most points at the end of the season will win the Drivers' Championship.
The next is the Constructors' Championship, a competition between the teams. The number of points the drivers within a team get each race is combined, creating the total points for the team (e.g., Lando Norris has scored 176 points and Oscar Piastri has scored 198 points, giving the McLaren team 374 points in the Constructors' Championship). The team whose drivers accumulate the most points combined for their team will win the Constructors' Championship.
Also, 21 drivers will be listed within the Drivers' Championship Standings, as Franco Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan at Alpine.
Now, here is a look at the standings for both Championships:
Drivers' Championship Standings:
Oscar Piastri 198 points
Lando Norris 176 points
Max Verstappen 155 points
George Russell 136 points
Charles Leclerc 104 points
Lewis Hamilton 79 points
Andrea Kimi Antonelli 63 points
Alexander Albon 42 points
Esteban Ocon 22 points
Isak Hadjar 21 points
Nico Hulkenberg 20 points
Lance Stroll 14 points
Carlos Sainz 13 points
Pierre Gasly 11 points
Yuki Tsunoda 10 points
Fernando Alonso 8 points
Oliver Bearman 6 points
Liam Lawson 4 points
Gabriel Bortoleto 0 points
Franco Colapinto 0 points
Jack Doohan 0 points
Constructors' Championship Standings:
McLaren 374 points
Mercedes 199 points
Ferrari 183 points
Red Bull 162 points
Williams 55 points
Haas 28 points
VCARB 28 points
Aston Martin 22 points
Kick Sauber 20 points
Alpine 11 points
Standings were found at F1.com.
Alpine
Alpine, in totality, looked like the slowest car on the grid in Canada. Pierre Gasly qualified 20th (started from the pit lane) and finished 15th, while Franco Colapinto qualified 12th (started 10th) and finished 13th.
Considering the three DNFs that occurred, this is a massive disappointment for Alpine. Though Colapinto had his best weekend as an Alpine driver, Gasly struggled all weekend long, and both drivers were unable to make any significant ground on the cars ahead. The DRS train of cars was too much for Alpine to overcome, which kept them in the relative position all race long.
Other than that, there is not much to say about Alpine that has not already been said. The team is in shambles, and unless they can find some consistency on and off the track, I fear they will be where they are for most, if not the rest, of this season.
Aston Martin
Per usual, it was a tale of two stories for Aston Martin in Canada. Fernando Alonso qualified 6th and finished 7th, while Lance Stroll qualified 18th (started 17th) and finished 17th.
First and foremost, stellar drive from Alonso. He was consistent all weekend long in a car that had no business being where he put it. Securing a top ten result in both qualifying and the race is an impressive feat for Fernando, who started the season off extremely rough. Alonso is finally back to performing in the way we expected him to this season, which is always a positive for the sport.
On the other hand, Lance, Lance, Lance... oh boy. I really tried to believe that there was a smidge of hope after the way Stroll started this year, but after that performance, it is completely gone now. Yes, I understand that he is driving injured, but if he were injured that badly, he would not have driven this weekend. It stinks that he performed this way in front of his home crowd, but it is just a matter of him not being up for the task that the sport requires. He is not even remotely close to his teammate in Alonso in qualifying or the race, and is costing his team when a huge opportunity is there to separate themselves from the rest of the midfield. Overall, a disappointing weekend for Lance, to say the least, but I'm afraid I am not surprised.
Ferrari
Though they were not as poor as I predicted, Ferrari were in no-man's-land in Canada. Lewis Hamilton qualified 5th and finished 6th, while Charles Leclerc qualified 8th and finished 5th.
All in all, not the worst weekend Ferrari could've had, but far from the best. Before the safety car, Lelcerc and Hamilton were both 15+ seconds ahead of the car behind, but also 15+ seconds behind the car ahead. They basically drove their own race for the majority of the Grand Prix.
I think the biggest concern for Ferrari is, believe it or not, not the pace of their car, but the camaraderie between the drivers and the team engineers/strategists. I am not saying the car's pace isn't a problem, because it definitely is, but the way in which we hear, race after race, Leclerc and Hamilton get into disputes with their race engineer is a major red flag. It seems that neither Ferrari driver feels as though their opinion is being valued or even considered during the race.
The most recent example was when Leclerc requested the team go with plan C, which was an assumed one-stop strategy. Ferrari not only completely ignored him, but they went ahead and pitted him earlier than he wanted, and put him onto tires he didn't want. At the end of the day, Leclerc is driving the car, and if he says the tires he is currently on are fine, then the team needs to trust him and adjust. Otherwise, it creates a power dynamic, which the team has currently, where a driver cannot focus on racing because they are worried about getting screwed over by their own team.
In hindsight, I do not think it would have mattered whether or not Ferrari listened to Charles since they were so far in no-man's-land, but that is not the point. Neither Leclerc nor Hamilton are on the same page as the team, which is a recipe for disaster that will inevitably blow up in their face. They are still very much in the hunt for 2nd in the Constructors' Championship, so this issue needs to be solved now, before it is too late.
Haas
In what marked their 200th race as an F1 team, Haas were able to come away with some solid points in Canada. Esteban Ocon qualified 15th (started 14th) and finished 9th, while Ollie Bearman qualified 14th (started 13th) and finished 11th.
Almost a double points finish for Haas this weekend, which is not something I thought I would say. Both Bearman and Ocon unlocked some nice pace out of the car in the race and were only benefited by the strategy Haas put forth for them. Ocon spending 57 laps on hard tires was extremely risky, but it was what ultimately got him into a points-scoring position.
Haas have taken stragety risks all year long, and will need to take more if they want a chance of scoring points. Since their qualifying pace is so unpredictable, nailing their stragety has been their saving grace all season, especially for Ocon. With that said, watching Haas rise up the grid this weekend just makes me wonder where this team would be if Bearman and Ocon found a way to get the qualifying pace out of the car.
Kick Sauber
Kick Sauber look like... a legitimately competitive car??? Again???
Believe it or not, but Kick Sauber may have found something, and their results have risen because of it. Gabriel Bortoleto qualified 16th (15th) and finished 14th, while Nico Hulkenberg qualified 13th (started 11th) and finished 8th.
Did I ever expect Kick Sauber to look this competitive? No, absolutely not, but I am here for it. Kick Sauber has looked great the past couple of weekends. With Bortoleto only missing Q2 by seven thousandths of a second, he still looked pretty good overall. The DRS train forced his hand, causing him to maintain his position for most of the race, but he kept things clean and was right there fighting for a position just outside the points.
As for Hulkenberg, you give him the car, he will produce, and that is exactly what happened this weekend. Hulkenberg made up major ground on the first lap, flying all the way to 9th. He then was able to maintain that position and even move up a place, ultimately securing another spectacular points finish.
If you told me Sauber would be within eight points of 6th place in the Constructors' Championship after only ten races, I would not have believed it. Kick Sauber have outperformed all expectations this season, regardless of what happens the rest of the way. Time will tell if they can hone in on what is working and maintain that level of success across the rest of the season, but for the first time, they may be moving in the right direction at a consistent and promising rate.
McLaren
Well, it finally happened...
McLaren were their own worst enemy once again this weekend, as they produced one of their poorest weekends of the season. Lando Norris qualified 7th and did not finish the race after crashing into his teammate, while Oscar Piastri qualified 3rd and finished 4th.
This was bound to happen at some point in the season. With both Norris and Piastri fighting for a championship, it was inevitable that they would fight and crash into each other on track at some point. Thankfully for McLaren, it did not ruin both their drivers' races.
What it did do, though, is put Norris 22 points behind Piastri in the Drivers' Championship. If Lando continues to make mistakes (like what caused him to crash into Piastri this past weekend) and that deficit gets bigger, we might see McLaren start to prioritize Piastri sooner rather than later. Sure, 22 points at this point in the season is not that much, but Piastri does not make the kind of mistakes that Norris does. Despite his inability to keep Kimi Antonelli behind him during lap 1, Oscar was within striking distance of Antonelli the entire race, and probably would have overtaken him if it wasn't for the crash. Of course, we do not know that for sure, but all signs were pointing to there, at least, being a position fight between Antonelli and Piastri.
Norris' kryptonite has always been the mental aspect of the sport, and it showed this past weekend. He got too greedy and too aggressive when he shouldn't have, and it cost him to make a costly mistake that was entirely his fault. What was so disappointing was that Norris drove a brillliant race up until the crash.
Overall, it was not nearly the weekend McLaren was hoping for, and though it does not really hurt them standings-wise, vulnerability was shown, which they will have to shut down next race weekend in Austria.
Mercedes
Breathe, Mercedes fans! The wait is over.
Mercedes had, by far and away, their best weekend of 2025 in Canada. Kimi Antonelli qualified 4th and finished 3rd, while George Russell qualified and finished in 1st.
With McLaren vulnerable, Mercedes took full advantage as the fastest car on track all weekend long. Russell put together an insane qualifying lap (1 minute, 10.899 seconds), putting him in pole position for the race and never looking back. This also marked Antonelli as the third youngest driver (18 years, 9 months, 21 days) to ever finish a race on the podium.
After what had been a pretty brutal stretch for Mercedes as a whole, the team finally put it all together. If this past weekend showed anything, it was that Mercedes need to lock down this driver lineup long term, and soon. Both Russell and Antonelli are legitimate talents who should be on this team for years to come. Their chemistry is evident, they know their roles, and both have untapped, championship-winning potential. Russell's consistency and Antonelli's maturity (at only 18 years of age) are among the top in the sport, and will only get better with time.
Mercedes should be extremely proud of what they accomplished this weekend. All the risks they have taken thus far have paid off, and should continue to pay off the rest of the season. It is still early in the year, so a lot more work needs to be done, but if Mercedes can find that consistency again, 2nd is theirs to lose in the Constructors' Championship.
VCARB
VARB looked sloppy this weekend, resulting in a weekend to forget. Isak Hadjar qualified 9th (started 12th after receiving a 3-place grid drop for impeding Carlos Sainz's qualifying lap) and finished 16th, while Liam Lawson qualified 19th (started from the pit lane) and did not finish the race due to a mechanical failure.
VARB just didn't have it this weekend. The race pace was non-existent, resulting in both drivers' inability to make up ground. Hadjar lost significant time due to tire wear that we never received from, while Lawson was way off Hadjar's pace to begin with.
VARB will have some work to do to asses what happened this past weekend, but it is no reason to panic. They have bounced back before this season, and they can do it again; it is just a matter of getting the car right for Lawson and Hadjar.
Red Bull
Red Bull had a solid weekend overall in Canada. Yuki Tsunoda qualified 11th (started 18th after receiving a penalty for overtaking under red flag conditions in practice), while Max Verstappen qualified and finished in 2nd.
Red Bull will take a 2nd place finish every day of the week, but they still have not figured out their main issue. Tsunoda still cannot find enough pace in the car that will make him a consistent point-scoring teammate to Max Verstappen. With the team now 37 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship and Verstappen 43 points behind Oscar Piastri in the Drivers' Championship, Red Bull are fading fast. Max cannot save them anymore, so they have to figure out how to get Yuki into the fold.
Of course, it is still early, and you can never count out Max Verstappen at any point. However, even with them driving well around Canada, the inability to catch George Russell showed they are still behind Mercedes pace-wise, which does not bode well for when McLaren bounces back. It begs the question: if Max can't win the Drivers' Championship, then what is Red Bull even trying to accomplish?
Williams
Though it was not nearly the race I expected Williams to have, the team was able to... somewhat... salvage the weekend from being a complete disappointment. Alex Albon qualified 10th (started 9th) and did not finish the race (car damage and engine failure), while Carlos Sainz qualified 17th (started 16th) and finished 10th.
After looking extremely quick in practice, Williams failed to translate that to the point in the weekend that mattered. Albon was then forced off the track on lap 1 (which caused underfloor damage), which dropped him down the order significantly. Sainz, who was completely screwed over in qualifying, had to fight the entire race, somehow ending up with a point to show for it.
Pace-wise, Williams was still relatively competitive, which is a good sign. Though they did leave points on the table in Canada, Austria will be the perfect track to rebound and get back to where they know they can be.
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Until next time!
-Matt Hylen
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