Canadian GP: McLaren preview

The going has not been great for the Mclaren this season with only 37 points in the constructor’s championship. Mclaren boasts a wonderful record at the Montreal with 13 wins to it’s name. Moreover, the last three races (2010,2011 and 2012) have been won by Mclaren. So, there are chances for the unexpected to happen this weekend.

Team Principal, Martin Whitmarsh is well aware of the team’s prolific record at the venue and hopes for the unexpected this weekend.

“McLaren has always gone well in Canada – we’ve won 13 Canadian Grands Prix – and while we’re not heading to Montreal next week with a realistic shot at victory, we well know that this is a race where an unexpected result is always possible.” Whitmarsh said.

The Gilles Villeneuve circuit is a combination of Long fast straights and slow corners. A lot of tyre wear and degradation can occur. Since the cars move on less downforce to maximize their straight line speed, the burden falls on the tyres during cornering. A good tyre management strategy can help the drivers earn a better position and Jenson Button is pretty good at this.

Jenson Button has happy memories of winning the 2011 Canadian GP, which he won from the last place. That should do a lot of good to his morale going into Montreal.

Sergio Perez’s aggressive approach has not gone well with the fellow drivers and is subject to criticism. His failed attempt to overtake Raikkonen at Monaco, resulted in the latter’s tyre puncture. This was not the first of such incident. It happened in China, Bahrain and Spain as well. However, the Mexican believes his aggressive nature has done him good rather than bad. His best performance for Mclaren is 6th position in the Bahrain GP. Apart from that, his performance has been lackluster so far in this season. Driving for Sauber, he grabbed a podium position last year at Montreal. That can boost him up for a better performance this weekend.

Going into the race, Mercedes, who have so far grabbed four pole consecutive pole positions and a podium position have an upper hand. Ferrari also has a good record at Montreal with 13 wins to their name. Red Bulls are leading the constructor’s championship by a fair margin of 39 points ahead of Ferrari. However, they are yet to hit their stride this season.

Mclaren are very far behind the race leaders , but given their track record at Montreal, they can expect for a change in fortunes which can fetch their first podium position of the season.