Canadian GP rated highly despite no fight at the front

2017 Canadian Grand Prix Rate the Race result

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The fight for victory ended quickly in Canada, but behind the two Mercedes there was an exciting battle for the final podium position.

Did that make for an entertaining race? Most F1 Fanatics seemed to think so, and rated this race 7.5 out of ten. Here’s what you had to say about the race.

Hamilton had an easy day, but rest of the field kept it exciting!
@Mtlracer

Loved the race for an unpredictable start and all that happened especially the last couple of laps when the raging Vettel cut through the field.
JohnBt

I seemed to watch different race to most other voters. The race was pretty much done and dusted after the a few laps with Mercedes romping away at the lead and the rest driving in a nice queue.

I did enjoy the midfield battles, but they weren’t particularly exciting: I’m sounding like a broker record, but once again it felt like the DRS was either overpowered and the overtake would’ve happened anyway, or then the “DRS train” happened like with the Force Indias behind Ricciardo.
@Kaiie

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel shared the front row but the prospects of them fighting for the victory were dashed when Vettel and Max Verstappen touched at turn one.

Vettel later absolved Verstappen of blame and the driver he complained about on the radio was not Verstappen, but Valtteri Bottas. Nonetheless there were many complains about Verstappen’s driving and the effect it had on the race:

One of these days the stewards are going to have to stop giving Verstappen such leeway. He’s involved in incidents every race weekend.
Fireblade

I felt it was a racing incident as Verstappen was almost a full car ahead and he took the racing line very close to the track limit. What was he supposed to do, get on the grass? I get it that people want Vettel versus Hamilton fights, and this ruined it for us, but Vettel can only blame his bad start for this.
@GechiChan

This wasn’t the only piece of driving some people wanted to see the stewards take a strong line on. Others appreciated the ‘hands off’ approach to penalties we have seen so far in 2017:

The stewards were awful in my view. I’m not commenting on the Vettel incident, I’m talking about Magnussen weaving all over the place, Grosjean being Grosjean doing his second major mistake this season, Vandoorne also weaving dangerously and Kvyat getting a double penalty (it was the stewards mistake to issue the wrong penalty).
Pennyroyal tea (@Peartree)

Magnussen didn’t get penalised for weaving as the rules states it is OK to change direction once, and back to original racing line again. Which was what Magnussen did.

And furthermore I think the new owners supports more racing, like wheel to wheel racing. Fights for positions, close combats, etc., rather than one-and-a-half hours of cars circulating in a long procession.

Even though it is annoying if your hero were behind Magnussen, he complied with the rules. The cars sufficiently faster than Magnussen easily went by, whereas the midfield teams did not have the power surplus.

Do you really want a fight where the front runner just pulls over at let the other ones by?
@Jens

Finally, the marshals received some well-earned praise for keeping the disruptions to a minimum:

Great start and good battle for third to seventh but sadly Raikkonen got a brake-by-wire problem. Good recovery drive from Vettel, but considering this is one of the track that easy to pass if you have power advantage, it’s expected for a Ferrari to breeze half of the field anyway. Still, a good overtake moves on the Force Indias.

However, I think this is the first time I really disappointed with Perez because not only he most likely denied Force India greater point finish, he already followed Ricciardo for effectively the entire race without even getting close to his gearbox or even attempting to make a move. Yet, he still denying Ocon while they still have time before they need to defend against the Ferraris.

Shout out to the track marshals who clear the track fast enough. I was pretty surprised to see the Safety Car called in so quickly considering there were two cars to clear and they needed to push Verstappen’s car back into the turn one escape road.
@Sonicslv

Rate the Race: The Twitter verdict

The race had a broadly positive reception on Twitter:

But there were complaints about some of the broadcasts:

2017 Rate the Race Results

RaceAverage score
2017 Australian Grand Prix6.408
2017 Chinese Grand Prix7.534
2017 Bahrain Grand Prix7.957
2017 Russian Grand Prix4.900
2017 Spanish Grand Prix7.869
2017 Monaco Grand Prix4.936
2017 Canadian Grand Prix7.545

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2017 Canadian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Canadian GP rated highly despite no fight at the front”

  1. Interesting
    I just noted a correlation between Hamilton winning or Vettel losing with high rated races
    I think voting is mostly fan-based satisfaction with results
    Would be interesting to do some statistics on it

    1. @magnusy I don’t think it would be interesting. Yes, this is an English site so it’s normal that there are quite a few Hamilton-fans. But you must admit that this race in Canada was much more entertaining than the race in Monaco or Sochi when Vettel won. Or don’t you think that is the main reason that these two races got low ratings? If you only do statistics on Hamilton or Vettel winning, than you miss the more important factors.

      Oh, and this year highest rating so far goes to Bahrain. Guess who won that race…

      1. @matthijs: Take the average of 2017 races won by Hamilton and the result is: 7.65
        Take the average for 2017 races not won by Hamilton and the result is: 6.05
        Looking at a single race is biased. To draw conclusions you need to look at several races and seasons. I wish I had all the data especially to compare 2011, 2013 to 2014, 2015 and I am pretty sure we will see a trend

        1. @magnusy, the thing is, at the same time a number of the races which Vettel won were at venues where the average rating of the races have tended to be lower to begin with. You therefore need to ask whether the races were being rated lowly because of the winner, or whether the circuit already had a tendency to produce below average races to begin with.

          Sochi, for example, has tended to rank pretty lowly irrespective of who wins the race – for example, Hamilton’s victory in 2014 was given an even worse ranking than the 2017 race (an average of 4.06, as opposed to 4.9 for the 2017 race), and it means that it is ranked as one of the worst races ever by the users of this site.

          With that in mind, I think that it would be better to set the context of the races against their average historical rating and relative popularity.

          Australia (Winner – Vettel):
          2017 Rating – 6.41
          Historical Avg. – 7.21 (8th out of 28)

          China (Winner – Hamilton):
          2017 Rating: 7.53
          Historical Avg. – 7.13 (9th out of 28)

          Bahrain (Winner – Vettel):
          2017 Rating: 7.96
          Historical Avg. – 6.99 (11th out of 28)

          Russia (Winner – Bottas):
          2017 Rating: 4.90
          Avg. Rating – 5.33 (27th out of 28)

          Spain (Winner – Hamilton):
          2017 Rating: 7.85
          Avg. Rating – 6.51 (18th out of 28)

          Monaco (Winner – Vettel):
          2017 Rating: 4.94
          Avg. Rating: 6.45 (20th out of 28)

          Canada (Winner – Hamilton)
          2017 Rating: 7.55
          Avg. Rating: 7.68 (2nd out of 28)

          Out of those races, it is notable that Vettel won at a number of circuits which tended to be less popular with the fans to begin with, suggesting that the average score is likely to be lower to begin with. Hamilton’s wins, by contrast, include one of the most popular circuits on the calendar, which was likely to drag his average rating up.

          Out of the three races Vettel has won, two were rated below average and one above average: as for Hamilton, it currently stands at two races above average and one slightly below average.

          As for the one race won by neither Hamilton nor Vettel, that was the second least popular circuit on the calendar and one that has been routinely criticised for having next to no strategic interest, a boring layout and some of the most extreme field spread on the calendar.

          I’ve seen few argue that the rating for the Russian GP was that harsh – indeed, some have argued that even that rating of 4.9 was slightly generous, with a number of people giving slightly better ratings because we had a new winner in the shape of Bottas.

          We’re dealing with a small number of races, but I would say that there are not that many that are massive out of line with the historical averages. The Australian GP is low, but I feel that is more because there was a general sense of disappointment that there wasn’t as much on track action as fans had expected from the pre-season hype. Additionally, the organisers of that race have noted that there is a strong home driver bias, and I think that Ricciardo’s terrible weekend also helped drag that race score down.

          By contrast, Bahrain is abnormally high – not just in terms of the historical average, but it is the most popular race this season – no doubt owing to the greater strategic uncertainty we saw.

          Spain was also unusually high, but that race did see an unusually high number of passes and incidents on track for that circuit, not to mention many singing Wehrlein’s praises for his surprisingly strong performance for Sauber (a performance that saw him being crowned the driver of the race by the fans here).

          As for Monaco, if anything I would say that the fans of Verstappen were far more vocal and bitter about that race, and a number of them admitted to submitting intentionally low votes as their way of venting their anger at what they saw as an unfair result for their driver. I would say that probably actually had a more marked impact on the result than Hamilton’s race, especially since, if the Motorsport fan survey is to be believed, the age demographic of the users on this site is biased towards those who are more likely to support Verstappen.

          To cut a long story short, when you compare the scores given this year against the historical scores for those races, I’d say that there isn’t particularly clear evidence supporting the claim that people are giving abnormally high ratings just because Hamilton won.

          1. yes but statistics can be manipulated to show whatever result you want, weather you realise it or not.

            For example, I think that the podium interview with Patrick Stewart was brilliant and far surpassed every other podium host that I have seen yet.

            On average, Patrick Stewart podiums get a race rating of 7.5 which is far higher than most other podium presenters.

            See what i mean?

    2. Arad (@just-an-fan)
      19th June 2017, 12:57

      Exactly! It doesn’t take half a brain to figure that out! IF Hammy wins, then there is nothing wrong with F1, but if others win then everything is wrong with it. I think we might miss Bernie after a couple of years. Just mark my words.

    3. haven’t noticed that, and doubt it is true.
      Montreal just was an exciting race, irrespective of who won.

      1. I think the way the rate the race works is fairly consistent. Sometimes when a driver cakewalks the race he doesn’t get the dotw because someone did more with less…had a more challenging and therefore exciting go if it. To me it makes sense that LH won it but SV came a close second in the dotw poll. LH was a bit of a no-brainer because of the extent of his pole lap and the fact that it tied Senna, but that he cakewalked the race while SV got set back through no fault of his own and clawed his way back to fourth meant he (SV) got a healthy percentage of votes too. Had LH only just squeeked in the pole position and not on a Senna tying weekend, and then run away with the race, SV might have gotten the nod. It really just depends on the overall circumstances each weekend.

        1. Sorry I suppose that comment belonged more with the dotw poll winner conversation but I guess the direction it was going above regarding an LH win vs a SV win made me think of the Dotw poll for Montreal.

      2. @f1-liners: Take the average of 2017 races won by Hamilton and the result is: 7.65
        Take the average for 2017 races not won by Hamilton and the result is: 6.05

        1. great work, @magnusy, did not expect that.
          Of course correlation does not necessarily mean causation (in either direction) but I’ll see how my own Rate-the-Race ratings correlate with Hamilton wins.

          1. PS checked the RtR of 2016 (3x data points) and in 2016 races won by Hamilton rated 0.2pts lower than the rest.
            F1Fanatic readers must have become UK biased this year only ;)
            @magnusy

    4. Noticed the same for last GP : it had a pretty low rating although it had a change in the lead. While this GP was as boring as Monaco, and there the top 2 never changed for most of the race. But somehow the difference in rating is 2.5 points! I can only explain this as a big bias by a large group of voters who rate the race only based on Hamilton’s form during the weekend.

  2. So this race was rated higher than China? Doesn’t make any sense at all.

  3. People moaning about the “DRS train”.
    Mmm, interesting. Drs trains eliminate the “DRS effect”; but wait, this is the same without it. A train of cars unable to get closer than few tens, with the car in front beneficiating itself of a slipstream.
    Thus, a train of cars is basically the same both with drs and without it.

    1. I believe that DRS has only helped overtaking. Yes it may be too easy sometimes, but in most cases DRS has made races exciting. Without DRS, a cars wouldn’t get so close to each other as seen in Canada.

  4. Arad (@just-an-fan)
    19th June 2017, 12:54

    Haha yes yes, yes yes yes, yes yes….. It was rated highly because Hammy won the race =)) What else did you expect?? and Monaco rated lowly because Hammy was P7. =))

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      19th June 2017, 14:00

      So are you saying you found Canada no more enjoyable than Monaco? I’m sure that in general, races are probably rated higher when Hamilton does well but Monaco was rated badly because it sucked and Canada was rated highly because it was good. Bahrain has been voted as the best race so far this year and Vettel won that one.

      1. I don’t think arguing with common sense and facts will work with children ;)
        @petebaldwin.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          19th June 2017, 14:55

          Well at least I can say I tried…. :D

    2. @just-an-fan

      Release all that hate. It isn’t healthy to keep it all inside…

      1. Arad (@just-an-fan)
        19th June 2017, 16:06

        Are you prescribing what you did during the RedBull/Vettel time. It was an freudian slip, wasn’t it? ;)

        If to you, making sense is translated as hate, then I think you need some serious help, otherwise you have too see the tree in your own eye.

    3. @just-an-fan: Don’t worry about the replies from biased people who think that their opinions are common sense and facts. All I can say that yes its facts. To be more specific “alternative facts”.

  5. Man..change your name to just-a-dumb-fan. Also, please stop vomiting as your are doing on slightest hint of Hamilton’s name.

    1. Arad (@just-an-fan)
      19th June 2017, 18:01

      and you better change your name to vile. Haha like you were vomiting on the slightest hint of Vettel’s name in his RedBull years, and now Ferrari? haha kettle and pot comes to mind!

      1. Pea size brain. Can’t think anything original.

  6. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    19th June 2017, 14:54

    The last five races: 7-4-7-4-7. This is going to be a mixed season.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      19th June 2017, 15:09

      To be honest, it’s what I expected when it first became apparent that DRS would be weaker this year.

      The good tracks that were previously ruined by DRS will now provide better races because you can’t just push a button to easily move in front of other cars. Canada, Brazila and Spa (for example) will all provide 7+ rated races this year. On the flip side, the rubbish tracks like Russia or Abu Dhabi will all look worse by comparison.

  7. Yes, the Canadian GP was entertaining. Quite a few battles, a bit of strategy, a bit of drama.
    * exciting start
    * big crash on lap 1
    * Verstappen in a solid P2 with a P5 car at the start of the race
    * different tyre strategies (even in the same team)
    * Vettel comeback
    * intra-team battle (Ocon vs. Perez)
    * make-it-or-break-it pass from Vettel on Ocon
    * nothing new for Alonso, but he did walk right up to the fans
    * a Sir doing a shoey
    7.5/10 is decent from a racing perspective. Maybe less than deserved from a show/ entertainment perspective.

  8. I am still confused by the Stewards decision to give Kvyat a double penalty. A drive through penalty increases a drivers lap time by far more than ten seconds, but even if it was less, that particular penalty wasn’t actually about Kvyat’s driving, it was about Toro Rosso’s car failing to start on the grid and then not starting the race from the pit lane. The people who broke the rules were Toro Rosso, not Kvyat. The team principal would have understood they were the ones responsible for this not Kvyat. So why didn’t the Stewards decide what the difference in time was between a drive through penalty and a 10 second penalty and apply that difference at the end of the race? Say the drive through penalty was 8 seconds longer than a 10 seconds penalty, then the Stewards would deduct 8 seconds from Kvyat’s final race time so he was deemed to have completed the race 8 seconds earlier than he actually did.

    1. @drycrust I thought the penalty should have been a 10 second stop and go penalty (i.e. drive through pit lane, stop 10 seconds in pit box, and continue without any work on the car)? In that sense, a driver through and a 10 second time penalty are about the same, maybe even slightly better for Kvyat as he did not have to stop and accelerate during his drive through.

      1. @mike-dee Yes, that is a good point. Still, one wonders why, if a punishment was given and it was carried out, why it had to be given and carried out again. Maybe the sentence given was a bit lighter or harsher than it should have been, but why couldn’t the Stewards just apologise and issue a correction time at the end of the race?

  9. It’s a good track.

    Take a hint new track builders.

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