First of all, sorry for the lack of Canadian Grand Prix report earlier this week; Ferrari chose last weekend to show us its new electric vehicle, and between that and Memorial Day, one thing led to another, and here we are.
Canada was yet another sprint weekend, meaning limited practice time for teams eager to collect data on their various upgrade packages. The race, held on an artificial island built for Expo 67, is often one of the highlights of the season, and 2026 did not disappoint with some excellent dual performances among the field.
After four consecutive wins, 19-year-old Italian second-year student Kimi Antonelli now leads his Mercedes teammate George Russell in the championship by 43 points. With 25 points for a win, it means Russell could soon be two full race wins ahead of his young domestic rival; It’s never a comfortable place to be when competing against someone with similar equipment.
Then again, one only needs to look at last year’s championship to realize that it is too early to be declarative; We’re only five races in. Last year, Oscar Piastri led Max Verstappen by more than 100 points at the Dutch Grand Prix – 15 of 24 races that year – yet finished the year with 11 points.
It’s not that Russell doesn’t have the measure of Antonelli; He was in control of the race – just barely – when his battery suffered a catastrophic failure, ending his day on lap 30. The late, great British F1 commentator Murray Walker was fond of saying, “To finish first, you have to finish first,” which sounds obvious but it covers an important point, as the best Murray quotes always do.
Reliability is historically unusual
The delicacy of current cars may strike some as strange, but if anything, it’s the ultra-reliable hybrids raced between 2017 and 2025 that are the real outliers. The last few seasons have been the most reliable in the history of the game, and by some measure. Even in the 2000s, a driver went to each race knowing that there was at least a 40 percent chance that their car would fail before the checkered flag.
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