Formula 1: Canadian Grand Prix Preview
And so we come to the only North American round of the championship. The American Grand Prix at Indy is no more (the track was rubbish, only the banking was worth watching), leaving us with just the Canadian round in Montreal. The US is not short of excellent race tracks (Road America, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca to name a few), but because none of them were designed by Hermann Tilke and are not situated in a dirty rich Middle-Eastern principality, means that they will probably wouldn't be considered at this moment in time. So for better or worse, I think we can wave goodbye to the American Grand Prix for the time being.
On to Montreal and Sunday's race. McLaren will be looking to build upon their success last time out in Monaco with Hamilton finding himself in the lead of the championship by three points. Raikkonen is probably none too pleased about his off-colour performance two weeks ago and should be fired up to do better this weekend. The two teams are both very evenly matched at the moment so things could go either way. Also, keep an eye out for the BMW team as they continue to become ever more competitive, with Kubica leading the way as Heidfeld continues to have tyre problems.
The Gilles Villeneuve track is surrounded by concrete walls that are in close proximity to the track and there have been some big smashes over the years, none more so than Robert Kubica's crash last year. As unsettling as the thought of that incident was last year, Kubica will probably have wiped that from his mind in order to get on with this years race (such mental discipline is something the top line drivers all seem to have). However, do expect someone to lose a wheel or a wing on those unforgiving walls.
