Canadian GP: Talking points

Jean Eric-Vergne – A result enough to save his race seat ?

Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso has been following a rather cruel policy with their drivers. They give their drivers two years to show they are worthy to win races and be the future of the main team. At the end of 2011, Red Bull sacked Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi after they failed to prove themselves, at least that’s what Red Bull believed. Now in 2013, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean Eric-Vergne are in their second season with Toro Rosso and it’s their last opportunity to prove that they are worthy to win races and replace Mark Webber in near future. Among the two current drivers, Ricciardo has been the faster of the two in qualifying while Vergne has proved better during the races. But with a strong seventh place finish in China, and a sixth place grid slot during last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Ricciardo has been rumoured to join Red Bull in 2014 if Webber decides to leave the team.

But at the Canadian Grand Prix, Vergne proved his worth by outqualifying his teammate for seventh place at the start of the race. He moved up one position during the Grand Prix to finish in a career best sixth place. He would be hoping the result is enough for him to stay at Toro Rosso or potentially move to Red Bull in few years time.

Di Resta proves why he is rated so high

There have been speculations against Paul di Resta after he was comprehensively beaten by his teammate Nico Hulkenberg during the second half of 2012. The Scottish driver is rated very highly in the paddock but failed to justify the hype last season. However, in 2013, he seems to have upped his level.

On Saturday, Di Resta was furious with the team after mechanical problems relegated him to 17th place on the grid. This meant that for two consecutive races, Paul di Resta failed to make into Q2 with no fault of his own. However, in the race, he and the team put on a brilliant strategy as Di Resta gained 10 places to finish an encouraging seventh. His strategy was to do a long first stint on medium tyres, and then do a small stint on super softs during end of the race. During his first stint, he did a whopping 57 laps on a set of prime tyres. And during much of this stint, he was able to push to the limit, showing how easy Force India is on its tyres.

McLaren – A race to forget

Canada 2013 was a race to forget for McLaren with both their drivers finishing outside of top 10. The result also ended McLaren’s 64-race points scoring streak.

Both the drivers were disappointed with the race and Button went on to say that he has never been relieved this much to come out of his car after the end of a race. The British driver didn’t have the pace to match the frontrunners. Perez couldn’t do wonders either with MP4-28′s lack of pace after finishing in 11th place, one lap behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren needs to bring major updates to their car if they are to return to top of the field. In comparison, Ferrari had already made their way back to top by this time last year after a poor start to their campaign. While the comparison isn’t fair as McLaren and Ferrari had different problems, but this year McLaren need to bring updates even quicker as there is an urge to switch to the 2014 car.

Kimi Raikkonen: Losing out in the championship

While Kimi Raikkonen did match Schumacher’s 25-race point winning streak in Canada, he was disappointed after finishing ninth and seeing his main rivals on the podium. The Finn encountered brake problems that prevented him from maximising out of his car. A slow stop and need to save fuel didn’t help his case either. This result comes at a track where Lotus would have been hoping for a podium. However, such hopes took a backstep when Raikkonen and Grosjean could only start the race from 10th and 24th spot on the grid.

In a broad sense, Raikkonen has lost lot in terms of the drivers’ championship. He has only managed to score three points in two races and is now 44 and 8 points behind Vettel and Alonso respectively. Raikkonen will need stronger results in the next few races if he’s to win his second title this season.