Canadian GP Preview: Let’s Take A Lap
On a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River sits the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and it’s one of the most demanding circuits not only in North American but the world over. The very tight, high speed street course has a mix of fast corners where brave drivers excel and slow corners that require great patience. Let’s take a look at pole position from Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull RB8 chassis.
The slow corners that require great patience happen right at the start of a lap. Vettel enters turn 1 at and astounding 192MPH but quickly drops all the way down to just 49 mph. Exiting turn 2 is difficult because the driver wants to get back on the power and get a good run to turn 3, but losing the back end of the car is easy to do; the corner is a bit off camber and the light weight of the car and high horsepower make negotiating the exit very tricky. Notice Vettel’s hands on the steering wheel when he exits the corner. He doesn’t fight the car in the least. The rear is stable and settled. He’s off to turn 3 with great speed.
Turns 3 and 4 are difficult for a driver because they sit so low in the car. Vettel can’t see the road in front of his car just over the nose, so he can’t spot the exit. He aims for a piece of the curb on the entry, gets it, then flicks the wheel in the opposite direction just enough to put a few inches between he and the wall. It’s very important to get this one right. Not only does Vettel not want to hit the wall but if he’s slow through 4 the driver behind is going to get brave. The next turn is the first place where an overtake is possible.
Vettel knows the perils of turn 6 and 7 all too well. It has elements of the 3 previous turns. He can’t see the exit as the uphill elevation change is too high. So again he catches a lot of the curb on the way in and aims for where he thinks the track will be. The track layout again doesn’t help the car at all. Here, again, it’s very easy to lose the back of the car and lose time on the lap. Look again his hands on the wheel. He doesn’t fight the car in the least bit. He gets it perfect again and here comes 8 and 9.
This is one of best places to sit and watch the race. The cars enter with such speed, tap the brakes, then in a blink of the eye, they’re gone. The direction change is breath-taking. Easily the second most difficult turn on course. Get the braking point wrong and you’re going over the grass and losing a position. Carry too much speed and you’re smacking the wall. If the car isn’t quick through 8 and 9, you’ll be passed at the hairpin of turn 10.
Vettel brakes with a little over 110 meters to the corner. He’s going 186 mph. In those 110 meters he loses 150mph and is down to just 36! It’s almost alien when you really think about it. The German actually makes a mistake though here. He locks up the front right tire and misses the apex by a few feet. To get back on line absolutely full steering lock is applied. It may look slow but he’s turning so hard and so fast he lifts up the front right tire-notice when it stop rotating while the car is accelerating. The hairpin is dispatched and so is turn 11. He’s on the long straight heading toward the Wall of Champions.
He opens his rear-wing and briefly touches the KERS button for an extra boost. In 7th gear, hitting the rev limiter at 196MPH, he gets to turns 13 and 14. They call it the Wall of Champions because it shows no discretion for drivers we call great. Sooner or later, a driver gets it all wrong, both champion and backmarker. What the video doesn’t do a great job of showing is just how massive the curbs are at the entrance and exit. They’re much taller than curbs you find on the street. When a driver hits one at speed it jolts the car into the air and not the aerodynamics or the grippy slick tires will save a car from the wall at the exit. On race weekend at the circuit, when a driver hits the wall the crowd cheers. I was there in 2011 when Vettel did just that and spectators got up from their seats and gave the wall a standing ovation. It’s sinister. It’s sadistic. It’s the circuit Gilles Villenue.
Start finish line comes up late. Salut Gilles.