The 2026 Formula 1 season continues at pace this weekend with Round 5 on the calendar, the Canadian Grand Prix.
With the Sprint format making its third appearance of the campaign, Free Practice 1 and Sprint Qualifying will take place on Friday, May 22, followed by the Sprint and Qualifying on Saturday, May 23, and the Grand Prix itself on Sunday, May 24.
Vital Statistics
- First Grand Prix – 1967 (Mosport)
- Track Length – 4.361km
- Lap record – 1m 13.078s, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 2019
- Most pole positions – Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton (6)
- Most wins – Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton (7)
- Trivia – Canada played host to the longest race in F1 history in 2011, with the clock stopping at four hours, four minutes and 39 seconds
- Pole run to Turn 1 braking point – 187 metres
- Overtakes completed in 2025 – 75
- Safety Car probability – 83%*
- Virtual Safety Car probability – 33%*
- Pit stop time loss – 18.25 seconds (including 2.5s stop)
*From the previous six races in Canada
The driver’s verdict
Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Canada is a really nice track to drive and you get a sense of atmosphere going around it. Overhanging trees give it the feel of a park and it feels like a street circuit – in essence, it is.
There are a lot of slow-speed corners, the walls are very close in a lot of places, but it’s a great racetrack. You need a good front-end to get your car turned into the chicanes, which are pretty much everywhere.
Then there’s the hairpin, which launches you into an overtaking area at the final chicane. If not there, maybe you’ll have a little sniff of something into Turn 1. Turns 1 and 2 are pretty tricky because you’re approaching Turn 1 very, very fast, arcing to the right as you’re braking, and then hurling speed to the left.
If you have any sort of moment coming to Turn 1, you’re really off-line or cutting the corner down towards Turn 2. And tyre warm-up sometimes isn’t ideal here, particularly on chillier days in Montreal.
Tyre and strategy insight
On a weekend that will mark the first Sprint to be held in Montreal, Pirelli will supply the three softest compounds in their range, that being the C3 as the hard tyre, the C4 as the medium and the C5 as the soft.
“The track surface, which was resurfaced in 2024, is smooth and low in abrasiveness,” reads Pirelli’s weekend preview. “It is used for motor racing only during the Formula 1 weekend and, as a result, the circuit evolves very quickly, not only over the three days but also within each individual session.
“Last year, graining affected the tyres right through to race day. With the new tyres, the phenomenon should be more limited and, thanks to the improving track conditions, could already disappear after Friday.
“The circuit, named after Gilles Villeneuve, is 4.361 kilometres long and features 14 corners interspersed with several straights. Its defining characteristic is its so‑called stop‑and‑go nature, which makes strong braking stability and maximum traction performance crucial.
“Despite being essentially a street circuit, overtaking is possible, especially at the end of the straight leading into the final chicane, just before the famous Wall of Champions, which in 1999 claimed [Damon] Hill, [Michael] Schumacher and [Jacques] Villeneuve, all of whom hit the barriers.
“As always in Montreal, the weather could play a significant role for the teams. Not only because of the chance of rain, but also due to temperatures that could be cooler than usual given the change of date. Teams may therefore have to carefully evaluate the best ways of bringing the tyres up to the correct operating temperature, particularly in Qualifying.
“The soft is clearly the compound with the best warm‑up of the three and will offer optimal grip over a single lap. It could therefore be the favourite for Saturday’s Sprint, but the following day teams may opt for a more conservative approach, tackling the Grand Prix on the two harder compounds.
“As seen in Miami, teams tend to favour cautious choices in the race, where a one‑stop strategy could again be preferred this year.”
Current form
A third consecutive victory for Kimi Antonelli last time out in Miami – a result that also made history for being the first time that a driver has converted their maiden three pole positions into wins – saw the Italian stretch out his lead at the top of the Drivers’ standings to 20 points over team mate George Russell.
After a tricky weekend for Russell at the Florida track, Antonelli arguably holds the momentum arriving into Montreal. However, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a venue that Russell has performed well at in the past, the Mercedes racer having won from pole position at last year’s event. Could the track offer the Briton a chance to close the gap to Antonelli?
That is not to say that the Silver Arrows will necessarily have everything their own way in Canada, where they will bring an upgrade to the W17. McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari all made significant progress in Miami after updates of their own, with Lando Norris winning the Sprint before again sharing the podium with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri on Sunday in a 2-3 result.
Max Verstappen, meanwhile, experienced an encouraging performance in the Red Bull following a tough start to the season for the Milton Keynes-based outfit, leading Team Principal Laurent Mekies to hail it as an “important step forward”.
And while Sunday’s race proved more difficult for Ferrari – with Lewis Hamilton in sixth while a post-race penalty for Charles Leclerc dropped the Monegasque down to eighth – the Scuderia had good pace earlier on in the Grand Prix and will be hoping to build on that further.
The midfield battle, meanwhile, took some interesting turns in Miami, with Haas and Racing Bulls – who had both performed strongly across the opening races – having a tougher weekend, while Williams looked to have made progress with a double points finish and Franco Colapinto added to Alpine’s continued good form with a P7 result. But will the addition of updates for some teams see the order shift again in Montreal?
Iconic moment
Robert Kubica was involved in a terrifying crash at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, experiencing an impact so big that it forced him to miss the next round of the season in the United States, where future four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel made a point-scoring F1 debut.
But the Pole’s next visit to Montreal was much more enjoyable as he grabbed a spot on the front row of the grid and took advantage of drama around him – including an unusual collision between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane – to emerge victorious.
It would go down as Kubica’s one and only Grand Prix win, with his and BMW Sauber’s challenge for 2008 title glory fading as the year went on and rival teams out-developed them, but it remains a memorable moment for himself and his home country.
Watch how it all unfolded in the video player below…