Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on their differing fortunes; McLaren’s Jenson Button on surging from eighth to fourth in the final two laps; and Max Chilton on his lap one crash with Marussia team mate Jules Bianchi. The drivers and senior team personnel report back on a wild, thrilling race in Canada…
McLaren
Jenson Button, 4th
“What a fantastic race! Big congratulations to Daniel – I’m a big fan of his, he’s a great guy, and he’s obviously got the skills. Your first grand prix victory is always very special, so very well done to him.
“The opening stint on the option tyre was tough-going for me, so I decided to jump off it quite early and move to the prime. But then I just kept coming up on traffic – there were cars everywhere: if you were racing against a single car, it was easier to get past, but if you were in a bunch, it was tough because lots of drivers were able to use the DRS. Still, I fought my way through at the end. I had a little dice with Fernando [Alonso] and Nico [Hulkenberg] – Fernando almost hit Nico at the hairpin, and had to dive down the inside. Then they both ran wide and I got down the inside of both of them.
“On the final lap you never want to see an accident like Felipe and Checo’s – but, fortunately, they both got out of their cars okay, which was good. We come out of this weekend knowing that there’s a better overall feel to our car – it’s encouraging that we’re making progress. In a straightforward race, I wouldn’t have finished fourth, but we did a good job today and ought to be happy. These points are helpful, and they’ll spur us on to do another good job in Austria.”
Kevin Magnussen, 9th
“Before the race, I told myself that I’d be happy if I could score some points this afternoon. Getting both cars home in the top ten was great for the team, but we know there’s still work to do to catch up with the teams ahead of us in the championship. Everyone is pushing so hard at the moment, so we just have to try and push that little bit harder. At the moment, I think we’re finding our way – there are a lot of good things happening back at MTC – and the whole team is working flat-out, doing a really great job.
“This was a bit of a challenging and frustrating race for me. It’s tough when you have to focus on looking after the tyres – I was racing Vergne for a long time at the end of the race, but I just didn’t have the pace to get past him. Still, I think we can be encouraged – we have some positive steps in the pipeline, but it’s still relatively tough-going for us at the moment. We just need to be patient and things will start to come our way.”
Eric Boullier, McLaren racing director
“Firstly, it’s worth saying that, as both a sporting event and as a piece of pure spectacle, this afternoon’s Canadian Grand Prix was an absolutely fantastic showcase for Formula 1. As always, this circuit created the circumstances for an incredible race, some tense battles and the sport’s newest-ever victor, Daniel Ricciardo. Bravo, Daniel – yours was an exceptional performance today. Secondly, we’re also fortunate to be able to pass on our best wishes to both Felipe and Checo, both of whom escaped uninjured from a frightening accident on the last lap. It’s a testament to the safety work that the sport tirelessly undertakes that both men were able to walk away from such sizeable impacts. We wish them both a full and speedy recovery.
“As Jenson said yesterday, eventful races like these really demonstrate the strength in depth of our trackside and strategy operations: we didn’t have the raw pace to finish fourth, but a combination of good strategy calls, some excellent pits-to-driver communications, and aggressive drives from both drivers pushed both cars into the points. Jenson showed the never-give-up attitude that has served him so well at this circuit in the past: he started the penultimate lap in eighth position, and finished the race in fourth, making a brilliant move at the hairpin on lap 69 to overtake Nico and Fernando. Kevin’s pace has been extremely strong all weekend, but his grid position, and the closeness of the cars around him, meant that much of his race was spent battling with traffic. After his pit stops, he did well to push back strongly in the second half of the grand prix.
“We take 14 points home from this weekend – let’s hope we can continue to rack them up once we return to Europe.”
Lotus
Romain Grosjean, DNF
“Today was not great in terms of pace for me, however there are some positives looking forwards. We can see that a Renault Sport F1 team can win a race so we have a target there, especially when the win came at a circuit that is not thought to be one of the stronger ones for them. Congratulations to Daniel for his win which I watched in the garage. The rear wing of my car broke, so it was safer to retire than risk a potentially dangerous situation. We have a lot of work to do, so it’s time to go home and try to understand our problems and come back stronger in the next races.”
Pastor Maldonado, DNF
“We had a similar problem to yesterday where we lost a lot of power. It’s a shame as the race was going very well, and we had an excellent pace – to be honest I was quite surprised by the car. The strategy was good, as we were looking for one stop whereas all the other cars were planning two stops, so we were looking very strong today and even without stopping we were on a similar pace with the other teams. We just need to look into exactly what happened and work hard to fix the problems we are having. We’ve shown we can be competitive.”
Federico Gastaldi, Lotus deputy team principal
“Today saw a great Formula 1 race and we must say congratulations to Daniel Riccardo for his first win. For us, it was certainly not our finest moment. Pastor was driving very strongly with a good strategy which should have seen him finish strongly in the points. He had an issue related to his power unit from the start of the race and eventually he had to retire because of this. This is frustrating for all involved and we will do everything we can to eradicate issues like this in the future. Romain had a tough race where he pushed all the way, but there was a problem with his rear wing. Again, not ideal and something we need to understand and rectify. We have a busy few weeks before Austria.”
Alan Permane, Lotus trackside operations director
“A tough day for us. Pastor drove well and did everything we asked of him and could have finished strongly relative to his starting position. Romain struggled for pace and suffered from a rear wing problem. We need to analyse what happened with both cars. Pastor’s problem was related to his power unit and we had this issue from the start of the race. We’re working closely with Renault Sport F1 to understand what happened.”
Caterham
Kamui Kobayashi, DNF
“My start was ok and I managed to avoid all the debris from the Marussia crash on lap one. The tyre management under the safety car was pretty good, but then a couple of laps after it came in I felt a problem with the rear coming out of turn two and had to stop the car. When I got out I had a look and I could see it was a rear suspension problem, so that was that.
“We’ve had a pretty hard time in Canada but we’ll continue to fight. Our day will come, I’m pretty certain about that, but it wasn’t to be this weekend in Montreal, so we’ll have a look at everything we’ve learnt this weekend back at the factory and go to the next race in Austria ready to fight again.”
Marcus Ericsson, DNF
“A disappointing end to a difficult weekend, but for me it’s all part of the learning curve. As soon as the formation lap started I could feel that the Power Unit wasn’t pulling hard in any gears and that continued under the safety car. The team tried to fix it but there wasn’t anything we could do and as soon as the safety car came in I was told to retire and that was the end of the race. When I got the car back we found out the problem was with a pipe connected to the turbo, not the Power Unit itself, and we had to retire to prevent any damage to the engine. Obviously that’s not how we wanted to end the race but we’ll regroup and keep pushing.”
Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 track support leader
“After the start we could see the turbo speed on Marcus’ car had greatly increased, indicating a leak in the intake system somewhere. The team will investigate why but we had no choice but to retire to save the Power Unit from damage. Kamui then stopped soon after with a suspension failure, bringing the weekend to a very disappointing conclusion.”
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg, 2nd
“That was a big battle all the way through today! I had a tough start but I was able to defend in the first few corners and fight against Lewis. The race went smoothly for a while then both cars suddenly lost the MGU-K system and a lot of power which was really tough. Then I lost some time in the second pit stop which let Lewis jump me and I was struggling to cool the rear brakes down so it was all happening. Towards the end of the race, I tried to defend against Sergio which was fine but Daniel was too fast on the straights with much more power than I had available and he was able to get past. With so much going on, I had to ask my engineer where I finished at the end as I thought I was probably about fifth or sixth. I was so happy to hear that I was in P2! They are important points for me in the championship, so it was a tough but ultimately good day. Congratulations to Daniel for his first Formula 1 win.”
Lewis Hamilton, DNF
“I did the best that I could out there today and felt like I was having a strong race but unfortunately it just wasn’t our day. Montreal has been a good track for me so to come here and not finish is disappointing but there are plenty more races ahead of us this season so let’s hope for better fortune. There was nothing I could do about our issues really. We were managing the loss of power but as soon as I finally made the jump on Nico in the second pit stop, my brakes failed going into Turn 10. It’s great for the team that Nico was able to hold on and get second place today but it’s tough for me. That’s two DNFs now this season and now I have to try and recover the points gap again. But these are learning experiences: we’ll learn as a team and get stronger. Congratulations to Daniel today. It’s awesome for him to get his first win and I know this will be a really special day for him.”
Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“First of all, I must say I feel very sorry for Lewis. His retirement was not his fault in any way and it is something the team has to take on the chin. Both drivers were doing a great job up to the point when the MGU-K failed. That also led to the brake failure that forced Lewis to retire after the second pit-stop. Nico did a sensational job to get the car home and it was a fantastic piece of damage limitation given how much power he was giving away to the other cars. Now we will stick together as a team, analyse and understand what happened, and come out of this situation even stronger. Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo on his first Grand Prix win. He’s not just a quick guy but also a fresh new face as a Formula 1 winner, and that’s something very positive for our sport.”
Paddy Lowe, Mercedes team executive director (technical)
“We knew this would be a very tough race and so it proved. We were able to run at a good level of performance at the beginning of the race, notwithstanding a minor incident for Nico when he ran straight on at Turn 14 in the second stint. We then experienced a near-simultaneous failure of the MGU-K on both cars just after half distance, which was apparently caused by an issue in the high-voltage Control Electronics which manage the MGU-K. This meant both cars lost hybrid power from this point onwards and, without the additional braking force of the MGU-K, this also put a much higher load on the rear brakes. Lewis then suffered a complete rear brake failure after his second pit stop, which was a consequence of the MGU-K fault. Nico was not affected in the same way and managed incredibly to maintain position from lap 37 to lap 67, making up time in the first and second sectors in order to defend in sector three, when he was considerably down on power. This was achievable against the Force India but not the Red Bull after Ricciardo finally passed Perez. It is disappointing to see our run of race wins and one-two finishes come to an end. Nevertheless, we will regroup for the next race and will be determined to arrive in Austria in an even stronger position.”
Marussia
Jules Bianchi, DNF
“I got a great start, kept everyone who was behind me behind and then obviously Max and I were racing each other through Turns 2 and 3. I braked into Turn 3 and there was an impact, after which I ended up in the wall with a badly damaged car. I am disappointed for the whole team because once again we had a strong weekend and it was a race that held so much promise for us, both in terms of the car we had and also how the race ultimately panned out today. Now we have to move on and give the team a better reward from Austria.”
Max Chilton, DNF
“A disappointing end to a really promising weekend. The incident between myself and Jules obviously ended not only our own races but also the Team’s, so it’s sad for all the guys after making such progress again. I had a good start, pulled away from the cars behind into Turn 1, queued into Turn 2, then we had a coming together into Turn 3. The resulting accident was very unfortunate for us both and after a race to remember in Monaco, perhaps a race to forget here in Canada, but the one thing we’ll keep hold of is how well the car is developing, so my thanks to all the team.”
John Booth, Marussia team principal
“A very tough day for the team but one we will move on from very quickly. The accident at Turns 3 and 4 ruined both drivers’ races and, more significantly, the team result. This can often be a race where opportunity can present itself, so it was key that we had both drivers running and taking part. The story of the wider race today was indeed one of attrition, but in the end the results have not affected our standings in the constructors’ championship and for that we can at least be grateful and happy to leave Montreal still holding P9 in those standings. Next week will be a very busy time for the team back at base, where we’ll regroup and sort through the damage sustained. The race team are also looking at a very busy end to the week this evening. We’re a strong unit so I’m sure we will all pull together and focus on what we need to do for Austria in two weeks’ time.”
Pirelli
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
“Once again, Canada delivered a thrilling grand prix: this time in hot conditions, which led to plenty of interesting tyre strategies. With such an action-packed race, we saw plenty of improvisation from several drivers as they attempted to use tyre strategy to their best advantage. Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo for his first win after a truly memorable race. Congratulations also to Force India, which has often taken a different approach to tyre strategy compared to their rivals in all the time we have been involved in Formula One. In Canada this led to a good result, which could have been even better had it not been for the accident right at the end, demonstrating again how tyre strategy can be used to boost final positions.”
Toro Rosso
Jean-Eric Vergne, 8th
First of all I would like to congratulate Daniel for his victory! This is the first but I’m sure it won’t be the last. He is a fantastic guy, a very fast driver and I feel great respect for him. Well done Daniel! As for me, I’m extremely happy as I feel I gave my best today. It was a good race, maybe the best of my F1 career so far, not in terms of results but I think everything went perfect and we finally scored some points. I was able to gain a position on Alonso after a good start and I could keep Magnussen behind later on, managing well what was a difficult race. The team did a great job all weekend, where we worked really well to put together the best possible car. We are now waiting for more updates to come at the Austrian Grand Prix and I’m confident we will improve the speed and bring home even better results.
Daniil Kvyat, DNF
Its been a disappointing end to a difficult weekend here in Canada. Even though yesterdays Qualifying did not go well for me, I was hopeful to aim high in todays race. At the start of the race I lost a position and then later on I made a mistake in Turn 1 when my tyres were still a bit cold and I lost quite a lot of time there. At the point my race was already compromised, but I kept pushing anyway. I then had to stop on track when I suddenly lost drive. About the incident with Raikkonen, there was only place for one car in the chicane and if I had turned, we would have clashed, which is why I cut the chicane. And finally, congratulations to Daniel on his first win!
Franz Tost, Toro Rosso team principal
I am very happy for Jean-Erics strong 8th place finish today, especially after he was forced to retire on several occasions due to technical problems, when he was actually in a promising position to score points. The team was able to provide him with a car that allowed him to show what he is capable of. After having overtaken Alonso at the start of the race, JEV managed to keep him behind and he also succeeded in defending his position against Magnussen towards the end. On the other side, it looks like Daniil suffered a drive train failure, which forced him to end his race early. Well done to Daniel Ricciardo who won his first Grand Prix today. We are now looking forward to going to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where we will have numerous updates to further improve the general performance of the car.
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 track support leader
A feeling of a job well done with JEV. We used the Power Unit to the maximum and pushed the energy and fuel management as hard as we could. Temperatures were higher than expected, plus fuel consumption was right on the edge so its extremely rewarding to get the points at the end, which are very important for the championship.
Sauber
Adrian Sutil, 13th
It was a long race with many incidents. We were able to keep out of all the trouble from start to finish. Hence, it was a good team performance, which I am very pleased of. I am also satisfied with my own performance. However, all this only led to a 13th position, which we have to accept at this point in time. At least we gave everything today.
Esteban Gutierrez, 14th
It was a very challenging race! Especially in the beginning, I was struggling so much with the tires. It was hard to manage them and to drive consistently. I fought with some cars, but it was extremely difficult to keep them behind. When I pitted, I got a fresh set of soft tires, which I drove until the end. With this second set of soft tires, the car felt much better, I even enjoyed driving. But then we lost power, and I had to retire.
Monisha Kaltenborn, Sauber team principal
No doubt, this was a difficult race. The team worked well delivering good pit stops, and we were able to execute the strategy as planned. The tyre wear was as expected, so there was nothing wrong on this side. However, we have to analyse the data very carefully to understand why the lap times were slower than we could expect based on the long runs on Friday. We will concentrate on working on the set-up of the car, because there is more potential to be exploited.
Giampaolo DallAra, Sauber head of track engineering
Adrian made a good start and gained two positions. We were planning a two stop strategy for him, and we sticked to it. The race went more or less okay. We did not quite achieve the lap times we expected. With Esteban, who had start from pits, we did this trick with the safety car. He started on the soft tyre, but then we switched to the super soft and then immediately back to the soft. He struggled on the first set of soft tyres mainly due to graining, but was then able to extract more from the second set. Shortly before the end there was a problem with the energy storage system, and we decided to bring him in.
Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo, 1st
Im a Grand Prix winner! I think it still seems a bit surreal to be honest, just because it all happened so quickly at the end. I was third for a while and then it all happened in a really exciting fashion. Once I got past Perez I knew I just had to drive clean and get in Rosbergs DRS zone and, from then on, it was just awesome. Finishing under the safety car made it a bit weird, but I wanted to make sure the two drivers who were in the accident were okay before I started celebrating. We achieved a great result today with first and third – so lets enjoy it – but we will still have some work to do also. This will motivate the guys to work even harder and find even more, so Im sure it will keep coming even better for us at the next few races.
Sebastian Vettel, 3rd
Congratulations to Daniel for his first win, which is very, very special, so Im happy for him and happy for the team, especially after such a horrible winter. Its nice to be able to finally break through to get a win this year and capitalise on Mercedes having a problem. I think we could have taken more risk with the strategy today – but its hard to know exactly what was going on around me when Im not sitting on the pit wall. We have developed the car a lot this year, so we are going in the right direction, but we need to develop it even more for the straights, so there is still a lot of work ahead of us. We are here to keep pushing and to keep doing our best.
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
An amazing race today and what an amazing race for Daniel to win his first Grand Prix. Hes been phenomenal since he joined the team and I think today he fully deserved the victory. We benefitted from the misfortune of Mercedes, but nonetheless he still had to be there and his pass on Perez was the deciding moment in the last ten laps. He was then able to make an easy pass on Nico with a couple of laps to go and to win in Montreal, against all expectation, was a phenomenal result. The added bonus of having Sebastian up there on the podium as well tops off a perfect day. After a good start, Seb unfortunately just got locked behind the Force India and no matter what we tried we couldnt manage to pass – it was one of those frustrating races for Seb who in the end was fortunate not to be collected by the Williams and Force India. Thankfully both of those drivers escaped unhurt. Well done to everyone in the team today and at Renault for the first win of the season – its a great result and a great motivation for the forthcoming races.
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 track support leader
Congratulations to Daniel for his first victory in Formula One; we are proud to be part of the team that helped him achieve it and also to score the first win for the Energy F1. It was a stressful race with a lot of things going on in the background. Both power units were used at the maximum to try and stay in contact with the front row. We were stuck behind cars for quite a long time, especially with Seb, which was hard for the PU and we had to run at the limit temperature-wise. Both drivers were clever in managing the energy and the tyres and the result is there: the team did a great job today to put two cars on the podium.
Force India
Nico Hulkenberg, 5th
“It has been a very busy race for me today, so to come away with ten points and a fifth place is a good result. I gained some positions at the end due to the crash between Sergio and Massa but lost one to Jenson [Button] when I was in a battle with Alonso, but we were always going to finish in the points regardless. The safety car at the start didn’t help me as it allowed those on supersoft tyres to stretch their stints. Being on a different strategy from everyone else meant I always had someone pushing close behind me: it was fun, but also very challenging, especially towards the end of the race as I had quite a long stint on the supersoft tyres. Stopping only once I had a bigger challenge managing the tyres compared to the two-stoppers, but I think we got the right reward for it. I think it was the fastest strategy for us today and to be the only two cars to manage a one-stopper is definitely a positive.”
Sergio Perez, 11th
“On the final lap I was defending my position going into Turn 1 when I suddenly got hit from behind. It was a big impact, but I am okay. I’m really sad for the team because we had an amazing race today and the one-stop strategy was working perfectly. It was not easy in the final laps and I was pushing hard to try and get ahead of Nico [Rosberg] for the lead. Daniel [Ricciardo] managed to get ahead of me when I had an electrical issue with my car, but I managed to reset the system for the final couple of laps. The podium was possible today and I’m just very disappointed for the points we have lost.”
Robert Fernley, Force India deputy team principal
“The most important thing today is that Checo is okay after that very heavy impact on the final lap. He had done a fantastic race, challenging for the lead for a large part of the afternoon and holding on to what was shaping up to be a very strong result. Unfortunately, this was not to be, but we will focus on the positives and build on the performance we showed today at the coming races. Nico delivered another very solid performance, making the most of an alternative one-stop strategy. He drove smartly to resist incredible pressure towards the end of the race and was able to bring home another good haul of points. As in previous rounds, our pace looked really strong in the race and we are confident we will be translating it into another good performance in Austria.”
Ferrari
Fernando Alonso, 6th
Looking at the wild final stages of the race, today we picked up some lucky points, but we still cant be happy with where we finished as our aim was to do better than this. In the beginning, my pace wasnt good and I wasnt happy with the balance of my car. Then in the second stint, when the track began to improve, we found a good rhythm and we managed to catch the group in front. But we werent quick enough to join the fight. What Red Bull did in the race shows how quickly things can change in Formula 1 and that should be further motivation for us to get to a point where we can fight for the win. This weekend, we have made some steps forward, especially on the aerodynamic front, but the others have also improved and now, all we can do is carry on working to be as well prepared as possible for the forthcoming races.
Kimi Raikkonen, 10th
We knew this would not be an easy race, because on this track, we were not fast enough down the straights and we had some problems in the slow corners. On top of that, today I never had a clear track ahead of me, for one reason or another I was always stuck behind other cars. In the beginning I had some problems with the brakes and the handling of my car wasnt consistent. Then after a few laps, the tyres behaved better, but still with highs and lows. For a lot of laps, I was stuck behind Kvyats Toro Rosso and this cost me precious time. Even if at the moment, nothing seems to be going right for us, the new development package has given us more potential and now we must just try and find more consistency.
Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari team principal
Even before we got to Montreal, we knew this would not be an easy race for us, because this is not a track that suits the characteristics of our car. The final result is definitely not satisfactory, far from it, but the improvement in performance seen over the weekend shows that to get the most out of our package, we have to push in those areas where our opponents are making the difference. Today we saw that for many teams, this was a battle fought on the reliability front and our main rivals were able to make the most of the opportunities presented to them by Mercedes. My congratulations go to Ricciardo for the first win of his career. As for the future, I cant make predictions, but I would ask the team to take a long hard look at what they are doing and work together, putting in maximum effort so that our drivers can fight for more ambitious results.
Pat Fry, Ferrari chassis director
Tyre degradation had a significant effect on todays race as did, in more general terms, everything linked to parameters affected by temperature, as today it was, as expected, very hot. The start wasnt easy, because we were starting from far back and here, its almost impossible to overtake. The Safety Car coming out on the opening lap reduced the effect of fuel consumption and then in the second stint, on a clean track, the pace improved, but even so, it was difficult to make up places. Fernandos first stop saw him get ahead of Vergne in the Toro Rosso, while Kimi lost time behind Kvyat, but in the end, he managed to get past. In the final stint, the group ahead closed up and our pace was very good with
Fernando, but it was almost impossible to overtake. We brought some improvements to the F14 T and even though this track did not produce the results we expected, we will continue to work on the development of the car and on this front our approach will not change for the coming races.
Williams
Valtteri Bottas, 7th
“Not our day really. The beginning of the race was ok but Red Bull was a little bit stronger than expected, so we were looking to fight for fourth position. We need to look back at the second pitstop in terms of timing and the stop because I didn’t come back out where I should have. I was then in traffic, stuck behind the Force India, which overheated the engine and brakes, and I had to save everything to get to the flag.”
Felipe Massa, 12th
“I was one of the quickest guys on the track, so we lost many points today. I’m happy that I’m here with no problems but I’m so disappointed for what happened with Perez, and also for the pitstop because I think maybe we could even have fought for victory today. But it shows we have a good car and I’m convinced the next race will be better.”
Rob Smedley, Williams head of vehicle performance
“It’s massively disappointing to lose that position with Felipe at the end. It looked like he was going to get past Perez and they’ve had a collision. Valtteri’s race was going well but we were a little bit hot, having to manage engine and brake temperatures, as a lot of other cars were. That dropped him to ninth, which was recovered to seventh with Felipe’s accident. In free air the car was very quick, but we’ve lost a lot of points that we should have picked up today.”
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