HONDA F1

Rubens did a great job today. Tanks
Honda f1 fan

Measuring 4.361 km, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve plays host to Formula One for the Annual Canadian Grand Prix, the seventh round of the season. The track is notorious for its punishing braking areas, with six slow-speed corners from which drivers drop their speed from over 250 km/h. Here to guide us on a lap of the track is former Williams racer and current Honda tester Alex Wurz, who raced to a podium here last year.

Alex Wurz, Honda (Test Driver):
“Montreal is a nice Grand Prix. It feels quite similar to Australia in that everyone likes going there and there is a great city nearby that offers good restaurants and a vibrant atmosphere. I made my F1 debut at this race in 1997, so I associate it with the moment when it all came together for me and I like going back to Canada as a result.

“Coming straight after Monaco, the cars feel strange to drive in low-downforce trim. They are always sliding around and you have to get your head around the fact that you rarely find a good balance. Tyre graining is also a big issue.

“You arrive at Turn 1 in sixth gear and it's one of those corners that invites you to brake too late. You want to use the lefthand kerb as much as possible and if you brake too late, the car becomes unstable and the kerb feels much worse than it actually is. This corner leads straight into a first-gear right-hander, which is very slippery early on in the weekend but improves as more rubber goes down.

“Turns 3 and 4 make up another chicane and as the track improves you can jump the chicanes and be very aggressive. You run very close to the right-hand barrier at the exit, before positioning the car on the left in preparation for the flat-out right-hander.

“The next chicane is quite bumpy under braking, but you can still brake very late and use the kerb on the left. You have to be careful not to unsettle the car because you need to be flat through the right-hander, which is followed by a long straight. Then you go under a bridge and you're into another chicane, which has only one turn-in point. It's very easy to miss the entry point here and every year we see drivers getting it wrong and going straight on.

“Next comes the hairpin. It is second or third gear, depending on your gear ratios, and it's very important to have good traction at the exit because the longest straight on the lap follows. You're flat-out for 15 seconds, before stamping on the brakes for the final chicane. You try to brake later and later into here, but you have to be careful because things can go wrong very quickly. A small mistake and you'll be in the 'wall of champions' before you know it.

“The two best overtaking points on the lap are into the hairpin and the last chicane, but it's not so easy due to the marbles off-line, especially late in the race.”

Rubens Barrichello hopes his sixth place in Monte Carlo will prove to be a turning point for himself and Honda.

As his team plunged into the midfield in 2007, Barrichello went a whole year without a points finish for the first time in his record-breaking career.

But the scoring drought ended when he made the most of the tricky conditions to come through from 15th on the grid to finish sixth in Monaco last weekend.

"It was very satisfying to score points in Monaco as the car had performed well over the weekend and we deserved a good result from the race," Barrichello said.

"I hope this will be the start of better things to come.

"This team has a lot of potential and it is important that we all maintain our focus, keep working hard and I am confident that the car will continue to improve over the season."

But team principal Ross Brawn sounded a note of caution for the forthcoming Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, where he believes Honda will be hard-pressed to match its Monaco achievements.

"We were pleased with the pace and performance of the RA108 around Monaco last week and it was encouraging to score further points, particularly with Rubens for the first time this season," Brawn said.

"However Canada is a completely different challenge and the downforce levels required are medium to low, the opposite of Monaco

"Although I am pleased with the progress that the team has made over the last few races, we have been lacking the speed necessary to really maximise long straights, so it will be up to us to get the most from the performance that we have available in the car.

Honda team principal Ross Brawn has played down the team's chances of repeating their Monaco success in Canada this weekend.

The team are high on confidence after Rubens Barrichello scored his first Championship points of the season with his sixth-place finish in Monte Carlo.

However, Brawn believes the team will have a challenging weekend in Montreal due to their lack of top speed.

"We were pleased with the pace and performance of the RA108 around Monaco last week and it was encouraging to score further points, particularly with Rubens for the first time this season," Brawn said.

"However Canada is a completely different challenge and the downforce levels required are medium to low, the opposite of Monaco.

"Although I am pleased with the progress that the team has made over the last few races, we have been lacking the speed necessary to really maximise long straights, so it will be up to us to get the most from the performance that we have available in the car.

"I am expecting a more challenging weekend than in Monaco."