IT’S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix

After a dramatic and at times controversial end to the triple header in Spain, the teams and drivers have all had a weekend without racing before making the trip across the Atlantic Ocean. Heading to a track that has often provided drama, there are plenty of unanswered questions arriving in Montreal.

How will Verstappen respond?

Max Verstappen was delivering an excellent performance for the majority of the Spanish Grand Prix, as he and Red Bull went on the offensive and kept McLaren on their toes with an aggressive three-stop strategy.

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Then it all started to go wrong, with a late Safety Car undoing all of the good work, as Red Bull only had new hard tyres that they could fit to Verstappen’s car, and he soon started slipping through the field. A controversial collision with George Russell followed, and earned the defending champion a time penalty that demoted him to 10th at the flag.

Verstappen took to social media the day after the race to say that the incident “was not right and shouldn’t have happened”. Regardless of your views on that clash, though, the reality is the three penalty points Verstappen picked up have left him just one point away from an automatic race suspension.

The Dutchman will be walking that tightrope in both Canada and Austria before two penalty points expire, so this is a weekend where he will really need to avoid punishment. Will that lead to a change in approach, or is the best way to deal with it not to second guess himself?

Will Stroll be racing?

Another question that came out of the Barcelona weekend revolves around Lance Stroll, who unfortunately had to withdraw from the race on Saturday night on medical grounds.

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Stroll was advised not to race by his medical team having been suffering from pain in his right hand and wrist, with a statement from Aston Martin stating the belief that the discomfort is related to a procedure he underwent following a cycling accident in pre-season training back in 2023.

Aston Martin were unable to replace Stroll in Spain because he had qualified the car, and at such an early stage was not able to offer a prognosis for whether he would be fit to return at his home race.

Stroll did race through the pain in Bahrain in 2023 despite still recovering from his injuries, and was described as feeling pain again over the past six weeks, so he’s previously shown his level of determination to drive, but if Montreal comes too soon then Aston Martin will have to look to their reserve options – led by Felipe Drugovich – or bring in an experienced replacement at short notice.

The ongoing McLaren driver fight

While there was plenty going on behind them, the two McLaren drivers were largely untroubled despite Red Bull’s attempts in Spain, and it was Oscar Piastri who came out on top with his fifth victory of the season.

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It was an important win for the Australian, who had seen Lando Norris cut his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to just three points following a win from pole in Monaco just one week earlier.

The gap is out to 10 points again, but the pair remain closely matched and are always both in the frame when it comes to pole positions and victories, even if who has the upper hand fluctuates.

McLaren have repeatedly said they are aware that at some stage the battle is going to lead to a clash on track, but so far the two drivers have kept it clean. Whether that can stay the case as we move towards the midpoint of the season remains to be seen.

A chance for Mercedes to threaten again

One of the more intriguing aspects of this season has been the emergence of different teams to threaten McLaren at different venues. In Miami, Kimi Antonelli took Sprint pole for Mercedes, then Max Verstappen won in Imola for Red Bull, followed by Ferrari leading the challenge through Charles Leclerc in Monaco.

The last race in Spain saw Red Bull again put pressure on at the front, but Canada has been a happier hunting ground for Mercedes in recent years, courtesy of lower temperatures and the track layout.

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Of course there are no guarantees what the weather is going to do this weekend, and we have seen very warm races in Montreal, too, but for now it’s looking like being on the cooler side and that should still play to Mercedes’ strengths. A year ago, George Russell was on pole position in Canada – setting an identical lap time to Max Verstappen but starting from pole because he set it first – as the top seven cars in Qualifying were covered by just 0.28s.

Mercedes are hoping for another strong weekend, and the chance to hit straight back at Ferrari having slipped to third behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship last time out.

A fun track for racing

Last year’s Qualifying session was epic enough, but the race itself was also a thriller as rain provided challenging conditions for all of the teams and drivers. There were multiple names in the frame for victory and the top four all crossed the line within five seconds of each other, with Verstappen winning out.

Even if rain doesn’t play a role in the race, though, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a great one for the drivers to fight with each other on. The layout sees a lot of long straights into chicanes or hairpins, with Turn 1, the Turn 10 hairpin and the final chicane of Turn 12 and 13 – where the 'Wall of Champions' waits on the outside – providing overtaking opportunities.

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The presence of concrete barriers on the outside of many of those chicanes also means mistakes are punished and drivers have to be in full control at all times – any small error can lose a car a lot of momentum and leave them vulnerable to an attack from behind.

Throw in a huge crowd in a city that really embraces the race weekend, and it’s usually a special atmosphere for the Canadian Grand Prix.

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