In 2024, Ferrari experienced a nightmarish Canadian Grand Prix

After nine Grands Prix, and surprisingly, Ferrari is currently second in the Constructors' World Championship standings. Having struggled on several occasions this year, Team shows a level well below expectations, and is already nearly 200 units behind McLaren, strong leader.

In Canada, land of first victory in Formula 1 for Lewis HamiltonFerrari intends to raise its head and take advantage of a track where twists and turns are often the order of the day. However, these were largely caused by the Italians last year. At the end of the Grand Prix, neither car had crossed the finish line.

Disappointing qualifications on Saturday

Eighth and eleventh in the first part of qualifying in Montreal, Carlos Sainz et Charles Leclerc seemed to be well behind before getting into more serious matters on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit. The Monegasque, for example, positioned himself behind a surprising Logan sargeant, events were already looking very bad at this stage.

Then Q2 was the last memory allowed to the two Scuderia teammates, eliminated at the gates of Q3. With more than two tenths behind Alexander albon, Charles Leclerc had a gap to his disadvantage of almost a full second over George Russell, setting the best time of the session aboard his Mercedes W15. From the peloton, the Ferraris had not yet finished suffering...

Two retirements for Ferrari

In total, five single-seaters were forced to retire during this rainy Canadian Grand Prix at the start of the race. Among them were the two Ferraris, and all due to very different issues. While Charles Leclerc had to stop his SF-24 on lap 43 due to a sudden loss of engine torque on corner exit, Carlos Sainz collided with Alex Albon after a spin following a clear loss of control at the wheel.

Despite this frankly missed event, described at the end of the season as a "black weekend" by Frédéric Vasseur, the director of the Scuderia, Ferrari was still in the game to catch up Red Bull then leading the Constructors' Championship. Only 49 points behind at that stage, the Italians were nevertheless able to regret this scenario when the title came down to a neck-and-neck battle with McLaren at the final Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Today, the situation is completely different, and no major developments seem to allow Ferrari to consider a fair victory. However, such a rout is to be avoided after their first major disappointment in qualifying at Imola. Last month, both Ferraris were already eliminated at the gates of Q3, in front of their home crowd, something that had not happened to them since... the 2024 Canadian GP. The Reds made up for it by delivering a much more convincing race on Sunday (Hamilton 4th, Leclerc 6th).

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