On the back of three strong consecutive weekends in Europe, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls had high expectations heading to Montreal and the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix. However, both drivers, Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar failed to deliver with the former retiring in the dying stages of the race with coolant issues while the latter crossed the line in 16th position, well out of the points. One could say that they weren’t the only ones to be disappointed as this season continues to show some real discrepancies within several teams.
“Everything started to become a bit more difficult today with Isack starting in P12 and Liam from the pit lane, as we took the opportunity to introduce a new PU on his car after a difficult result in Qualifying,” commented Laurent Mekies, Team Principal. “The hard fact is that we didn’t have enough pace today to fight in the top ten. Isack suffered high graining on his tyres during the first stint on the mediums and sadly we had to retire Liam’s car due to an issue in the cooling system.
“It’s a tight battle in the midfield and even only one-tenth can make the difference, and today it was enough to drop back instead of attacking forward.”
Lawson retired late in the race with a cooling issue while Hadjar, who started 12th finished down in 16th position.
“It was always going to be a difficult race starting from the pit lane, but we took the decision to install a new PU after a tough Quali yesterday,” said Lawson. “A cooling issue towards the end of today’s race meant we unfortunately had to retire, which is a shame given the pace of the car this weekend was good. We’ll keep working on the speed and I’ll keep working on myself to reset ahead of Austria.”
Other teams will also be scratching their heads. The coming together of McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be giving Team Principal Zak Brown a headache with Norris crashing out of the race with no points and Piastri finishing off the podium in fourth.
The gap between Red Bull Racing’s two cars is not getting any closer while the media stopped beating this drum long ago. Max Verstappen finished in second with Yuki Tsunoda outside the points in 12th.
Fernando Alonso seventh place sees him continue to earn points for Aston Martin, his second race this season in doing so. Teammate Lance Stroll, in his home race could only manage 18th at the rear of the field.
Kick Sauber’s ever-consistent Nico Hulkenberg finished in eighth with rookie teammate Gabriel Bortoleto in 14th.
Oliver Bearman (11th) wasn’t too far away from Haas teammate Esteban Ocon (ninth) while Kimi Antonelli was the top rookie finishing third on the podium with Mercedes teammate George Russell on the top step and another Grand Prix victory.
In reality there is only ever one happy driver at a Grand Prix and 19 others who are left wondering what could have and should have happened.
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