Canadian GP Review: Are Aston Martin ready to bring it to Red Bull?

As the dust settles on last weeks Canadian Grand Prix, some questions have been hanging round the paddock over certain subjects.

Can Aston Martin Catch Red Bull?

Is Ferrari disadvantaging Carlos Sainz?

Is Nyck De Vries worthy of his Alpha Tauari seat?

Red Bulls Dominance

Red Bull have been on the up since Max Verstappens 2021 World Championship win.

With Max yet again winning the Grand Prix for Red Bulls 100th win and Fernando Alonso consistently being on the podium, it begs the question of will Aston Martin be able to catch the Bulls?

Aston Martin was the shock of pre-season testing with Fernando Alonso making the move from Alpine to Aston.

Many saw this move as another of Fernando’s bad career moves (especially as Alpine where higher in the standings last year) but the whole paddock was shocked as Aston provided such a fast and well put together car.

Fernando has been on the podium 6 times this season over the 8 races so far. Even when he's not on the podium he's still been up in the top 10 (his lowest finish being 7th).

With around 20 years of F1 experience, Alonso is the perfect driver to really take the team to victory.

We've seen him this season think about his and his team mates stratgey while driving and pulling out some stellar moves to overtake and defend.

However, will this be enough to defeat Red Bull? Although Fernando has the talent and ability to win championships (as he's done twice before) I don't think Aston Martins car is quick enough to catch the raging Bull.

It's standard in F1 to have a team dominate the pack as we've seen with the likes of Mercedes during the turbo hybrid area. Although, some say Red Bull are already more dominate than that.

"It's likely that they will win every race moving forward this year unless (Aston Martin) and us put a lot more performance on the cars or their car doesn't finish." - Lewis Hamilton

Christian Horner has already confirmed that the team are working on their 2024 season car. Red Bull just seem to have gotten the perfect formula of car with the genius Adrian Newey.

The rest of the pack have to catch up before Red Bull takes over for multiple years to come.

Most are getting sick of hearing the Dutch national anthem on the podium every sunday similar to the British anthem when lewis was winning non-stop.

But, I think its too soon to disregard a Spanish National Anthem on the podium this season.

Ferrari picking Favourites

Charles Leclerc had the Championship in the palm of his hand last season. Many believed Ferrari's 16 year drought in Championship wins were finally over, but we spoke too soon...

A common issue Ferrari holds is that they like to pick a number one driver.  They did this with Michael Schumacher and seems that history is repeating itself with Charles Leclerc.

Its been clear for a long time that Charles is supposed to be Ferrari's  "Golden Boy" but this can damage his relationship with his teammate.

Over the course of the Grand Prix, Charles was being coached on where/how to be faster than Carlos Sainz (Something Carlos would never be coached on), as well as on Lap 44 Leclerc was told "Sainz will Not attack you".

Alot of teams do have the occasional "number one" driver, but what doesn't make sense is that Carlos is ahead of Charles in the championship, why not push him to get more wins instead of being stuck behind Charles?

This bias will only lead to a damaging teamate relationship. There may come a time in future races that they'll  need each other, but both may not help one another leading to more lost points for the team.

One posititve for Ferrari this Grand Prix was strategy (Yes, Ferrari got stratgey right, I think everyones surprised).

On Saturday, Charles Leclerc was not happy with the teams strategy after being told to "set his time" on the intermediate tyres, leading Charles to slide round the track like it was an ice rink as the rain got heavier.

It was obvious that the right call was to be put on the slick tyres. An angry charles made this clear over team radio...

However, Ferrari managed to redeem themselves slightly on Sunday. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were two of just five drivers to stay out during the first safety car, joining Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas.

This gave them track position that they converted into P4 and P5. Going against the grain finally worked out for the Italian team!

Another positive for the team was that the drivers were listened too when it came to when they wanted to pit. Even Martin Brundle commented that the drivers seem to "Overrule" the teams strategy decisions.

In my opinion, I believe that is due to the numerous times last year when each driver would predict the right call, the team would do the opposite, then end up losing points.

Being listened to in a team is a good improvement for Ferrari, but i fear that this could back fire if the team can't have their own drivers follow orders (especially if it's to benefit another driver).

The worrying case of Nyck De Vries

Nyck De Vries has been a name surrounding the paddock long before his Rookie season this year.

Winning the F2, Formula E and Formula Renualt Eurocup Titles. His talent was made clear in those categories and he had something that most rookies don't have when entering F1, experience.

Despite his undeniable talent, Nyck has not had a positive start to his Formula One career.

His highest finish this season has been 14th and his races have been shrowded in mistakes. The Canadian GP being one of them.

Finishing 18th in Canada, his seat has become a topic of debate. After pushing Kevin Magnussen wide off the track, then locking up and taking both him and Kevin into the run off area, many think this is the last straw for him to keep his seat.

Compared to his teammate Yuki Tsunoda (who's 17th in the standings compared to Nyck's 19th place). It creates the debate of whether he's just having a bad start to his F1 season or if he isn't ready for Alpha Tauri.

“I always say, it’s really difficult for rookies to come into Formula 1 nowadays...Because especially at the beginning of the season, they don’t know all the racetracks. Nyck didn’t know Melbourne, nor Saudi Arabia, nor Miami, and in Baku" (Where Nyck had a DNF) - Franz Tost

Its clear team boss Franz Tost backs the driver and believes it's a matter of time before De Vries climbs the grid for points.

It's good to have your drivers back and encourage them publicly (As Nyck has been getting alot of negative comments), But Tost will be stepping down at the end of this season and being replaced by Ferrari Racing Director Laurent Mekies.

The question is, will Mekies have the same patience and confidence to back Nyck?

De Vries will certainly need to step up to the plate to keep his place in future seasons. The wait to F1 was long enough for him, and it'd be a shame for it to end so soon.