Since Max Verstappen was forced to retire at the last Australian Grand Prix due to a leak in the fuel system of his RB18, Red Bull has taken each and every one of the victories in the 5 GPs that have taken place to date, with 4 of them in the name of #33 and Monaco, one of the most special, for Sergio Pérez.
The abandonment of Charles Leclerc, who was the undisputed leader of the championship until the unstoppable resurgence of those commanded by Christian Horner, both in Spain and in Azerbaijan have tipped the balance in favor of the Milton Keynes-based team, and everything indicates that Red Bull’s upward trend will continue if the Scuderia does not pull an ace up its sleeve to avoid it.
against foot
after witnessing the explosion of your power unit in Baku, Leclerc feared the worst, some thoughts that have ended up being confirmed in Canada: after mounting one more control unit than those allowed by the FIA, with the consequent sanction of 10 positions that would entail in the Gilles-Villeneuve, Ferrari threw everything overboard by taking a further step in this direction at the start of the day on Saturday.
By equipping an almost entirely new booster after this first step towards penalties, Leclerc will go to the bottom of the grid along with a Yuki Tsunoda who was the first to bet on a brand new engine due to the lack of reliable components in his private pantry.
This invites us to think that the 34 points that separate Verstappen’s #16 in the fight for the drivers’ championship will increase at the end of Sunday’s day if everything goes with a certain normality, since in Red Bull they are the main favorites to aspire to everything in the return of Formula 1 to Canada after 2 years of absence in the calendar.
leader by obligation
Faced with this situation, Carlos Sainz it will be up to him to do yes or yes with the helm of Ferrari. The man from Madrid will seek to renew his best result in Canadian lands, the 8th place he achieved with Renault back in 2018, something that will not be excessively complicated for the # 55 if the weekend’s script does not go too far.
The two podiums with which he started the 2022 season gave way to two retirements that significantly complicated his situation in the championship, with two more climbs to the box since then that, however, they have not served to clear the doubts about the superiority that his teammate has shown over him, both in qualifying and in the race.
For its part, Fernando Alonso He will try to get the most out of his Alpine A522, especially after breaking into the Top 5 in all free practice sessions, even leading the third, played entirely under water and in really complicated conditions.
In the particular struggle that the Spaniard maintains in the middle of the grid, Alonso will go in search of one more Sunday scoringsomething he has done consecutively since the 9th place he achieved in Spain after starting from the last position, reaping two seventh places in Monaco and Azerbaijan.