We are at round number five of this 2026 Formula One season. We are in Canada, at one of the most iconic tracks in all of Formula One. The Montreal circuit, for the Canadian GP, built on the artificial island outside the city using the excavated materials from the construction of the Montreal subway, is one of those technical but damn insidious circuits, with very close walls and very fast corners. A combination that often leads to accidents, like in 1999, where three world champions of the time (Schumacher, Hill, and Villeneuve) crashed into the wall of the final corner, turning the "Wall of Champions" into a legend.

But how did this race weekend go? As usual, let's understand it with the Top and Flop. For this post, I will use one top and one flop for the entire weekend, grouping both Saturday's sprint and Sunday's race, since both showed exactly the same things.

Canadian GP: Top.

Mercedes. I put Mercedes among the Tops because they literally monopolized the entire weekend: a double pole position for Russell, the Sprint Race won by the Englishman, and Sunday's race signed by teammate Antonelli, who reached his fourth consecutive victory. However, there are a couple of fundamental notes to make.

By now it is obvious: between Antonelli and Russell, it is open warfare for the world championship.

If Russell made the mistake of not taking the Italian seriously in the first two races, he has now decisively changed his tune. This was clearly seen already in the Sprint, where he literally slammed the door in Antonelli's face in Turn 2, thwarting an overtake that would have cost him the lead of the race. The feud continued for half of Sunday's race, with the two teammates determined to duke it out on track. It would have been fantastic to enjoy this duel until the checkered flag, but unfortunately this year Russell seems haunted by bad luck: his Power Unit decided to abandon him right at the best part, while he was leading and in the heat of the battle. The result? Twenty-five points gifted to his teammate and a world championship gap that shoots from 11 to a whopping 36 points.

Antonelli, for his part, showed a certain immaturity in the Sprint—which at nineteen years old and in his second year in Formula 1 is also understandable, for heaven's sake. When Russell closed the door on him in Turn 2, the Italian driver literally lost his temper and concentration, wasting precious mental energy complaining over the radio about an allegedly irregular defense. An attitude that made both his track engineer and the team principal lose their patience. This psychological slip not only precluded him from winning the Sprint, but it even cost him second position in favor of Norris, who was great at taking advantage of the internal drama at Mercedes. Then on Sunday he makes up for it, controls the race, wins, and takes home his fourth consecutive victory, increasing his lead in the standings and beginning to establish himself as the man to beat.

Ferrari. I am putting them among the Tops anyway because the Scuderia managed to save the weekend thanks to a solid Sunday performance. Hamilton finishes second after an grueling 68-lap battle with Verstappen, defending with teeth and nails a second place that is very good both for morale and for the standings.

For Leclerc, on the other hand, it was a weekend decisively to forget. Bad on Friday: he qualifies sixth and finishes fifth in the Sprint; then he qualifies eighth and grabs fourth position on Sunday. However, one must be honest: that fourth place is a half-miracle due mainly to the fact that, ahead of him, the two McLarens sabotaged themselves and Russell was forced to retire. The only real overtake on track Charles pulled off was on Hadjar, thereby taking the final fourth place. Without the various retirements and twists of others, he would have crossed the finish line in seventh position. It must be said, though, that even on the most twisted and complicated weekends, the Monegasque always manages to patch things up and save the day when the opportunity presents itself.

Red Bull. Although the car is not competitive, the true fortune of the energy drink team is having two very strong drivers in the squad. Both literally do backflips with the material at their disposal. In Sprint qualifying, things do not look very good: they qualify on the fourth row and, in the short race, Verstappen goes no further than seventh position, while Hadjar finishes at the back of the grid (two laps down) due to contact in the very opening stages of the race.

Sunday's race, fortunately, goes much better. Verstappen manages to finish on the podium after a beautiful fight with Hamilton that lasted the whole race, while Hadjar claws an excellent final fifth place. The young driver's placement, however, came with a heavy penalty on his back: the Frenchman actually risked causing a nasty accident at 340 km/h with Leclerc, closing his line right on the straight in a decidedly irregular manner. Net of the shivers and the sanction, it remains a solid race from both.

Alpine. The other teams, excluding the top four, now find themselves stably fighting for the last two remaining places in the points zone. On this weekend, Alpine fully capitalized on every single opportunity, resulting for all intents and purposes as the best team of the midfield pack. The haul speaks clearly: an excellent ninth place in the Sprint with Colapinto, followed by a seventh and a tenth place on Sunday, respectively with the Argentine and with Gasly. Could this finally be the turnaround race for the French squad?

Small side note: it is really nice to see Colapinto back to pushing hard, just like he did at Williams in 2024, the year of his meteoric debut. The hope is that Alpine can consistently guarantee him a car capable of fighting for ninth and tenth place, putting him, why not, in a position to punctually take advantage of the errors or retirements of the top of the class.

Canadian GP: Flop.

Gaps. This race was truly unbelievable from this point of view. If 2025 was the year of surprises — with all the cars very close and unforgettable sporting miracles (I think of Sainz's double podium, Hadjar's in Holland, or Bearman's fourth place in Mexico, capable of keeping even Verstappen behind). Furthermore, in the past season, lapped cars were barely seen in many races, precisely because the cars had a very similar pace to each other.

This year we are at the exact opposite. In 2026, the situation has completely inverted. Suffice it to think that on a short circuit like Canada, where a race lap lasts just 76 seconds, the seventh-place finisher (Sainz in the Williams) had already taken a whopping 60-second gap after just over twenty laps. Practically, from seventh onward, they were lapping 3 seconds per lap slower than the leaders.

The verdict of the track is pitiless: only four drivers finished on the lead lap. Already starting from the fifth-place finisher, the lappings kick in, not to mention the last two, Bottas and Stroll, who caught a staggering 4-lap deficit. This new regulation truly sucks. We went from a 2025 where anyone could dream of the podium, to a present where even fifth in the standings gets lapped by the leader.

McLaren. The weekend had even started under the best auspices, with both drivers very rapid and ready to throw down the challenge to Mercedes. In Sprint qualifying, McLaren had managed to lock down the second row showing an excellent pace, later materialized in the race with a second and a fourth place. The qualifying for Sunday's race also confirmed the same verdict, re-proposing the two drivers on the second row: all the premises were there for a spectacular four-way fight for the victory.

Sunday, instead, turned into a nightmare. For the entire weekend, nothing else was talked about but the weather, with forecasts predicting cold and pouring rain for the whole day. In fact, shortly before the start, it started to drizzle and the first drops were already falling on the starting grid. At that point, the team attempted a gamble, deciding to start both Norris and Piastri on intermediate tires — why they didn't differentiate the strategies even a little bit remains an unsolvable mystery. The team hoped that the intensity of the rain would increase from one moment to the next, but unfortunately, the deluge never arrived and from then on, McLaren's race went completely down the tubes.

After being forced to pit to mount the medium tires, the objective was simply to limit the damage, given that victory was by then a mirage. Norris was recovering well, but suddenly the car abandoned him, forcing him to retire. Piastri, in the middle of his comeback, made a serious mistake under braking: he hit Albon dead center, breaking his front wing.

The result? Another forced pit stop to replace the nosecone and a 10-second penalty on his back for the collision. The Australian thus finished in eleventh place, catching a whopping two laps of delay. A total failure, especially when you think that we are talking about the team that literally dominated the 2025 world championship.

And the other teams? Well, there is not much to say about Williams and Racing Bulls. Both staged an entirely anonymous race in the midfield, never showing flashes, either positive or negative. The only two real sour notes are Albon, literally T-boned by Piastri and forced to retire, and Lindblad, who didn't even manage to take the start. Unfortunate episodes, sure, but they don't leave enough of a mark to deserve a Top or a Flop. Haas also lived a weekend in the shadows, but by now this seems to be the norm. Perhaps the beautiful performances at the beginning of the season were just a splendid exception, and now we are seeing the real level of the American squad.

If for these teams we speak of anonymity, for the bottom three of the class the situation is much worse. I said nothing about Audi, Cadillac, and Aston Martin simply because talking about it would be like kicking a man when he's down. As far as Audi is concerned, I openly gloat over the fact that they are so slow, being for all intents and purposes the main ones responsible for this regulatory shambles. On the Cadillac side, on the other hand, there is no surprise: we knew from the beginning that it would go exactly like this.

The saddest situation, however, is without a doubt that of Aston Martin. It is bleak to see a champion like Alonso forced to retire due to yet another technical problem, while Stroll now spends more time inside the garage than on track. All this taking into account that the owner invested billions of euros with the sole objective of creating a team stably in the first two rows for this season. A total debacle.

Small reflections.

This was, in summary, the Canadian Grand Prix. A race that saw Antonelli run away in the world championship, a Mercedes that was very fast but anything but perfect, and a McLaren capable of hurting itself.

The next stop will take us straight toward the most boring and geometric weekend of the entire calendar: Monaco! A short, narrow circuit where overtaking is by now a sci-fi mirage. Furthermore, given the absence of long straights, these power units won't even have to struggle too much to recover energy like what happened in Australia. Let's get ready, therefore, for a soporific Sunday procession, which, in fact, will be decided already on Saturday with qualifying.

The appointment on track is in fifteen days, from June 5th to 7th. We'll see each other right here afterward for the next report!

M.