The Canadian Grand Prix concluded this weekend, but the race was certainly not the most thrilling event that we have ever witnessed from the venue. It received a lot of criticisms for being a “boring race”. But this confuses me: So, Canada was boring and Monaco was thrilling?
Let me first start off this article by clearing up some potential biases. I am a Canadian and Racing Clothesline is a Canadian-based website. I try to approach every event and topic with a neutral eye, but still feel it necessary to mention this outright before everyone complains about it.
The idea for this article stems from my criticisms of the Monaco Grand Prix this year. After the race, I called the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix boring. Although I defended the importance of keeping the race on the calendar, I went so far as to say that it should not be broadcast on the free-to-air TV channels unless all of the races are because it provides a large audience of potential first-time viewers that may be put off by the boring event that is often portrayed as the best F1 event of the season.
The point that I made was not understood by some readers and some others believed the opposite of my opinion, calling for the race to be removed from the calendar. Then there were the other group of people who strongly disagreed with what I had to say and even went so far as to say that the race was one of the most thrilling Monaco Grand Prix events in the past decade.
So you can understand my shock when fans and even commentators said that the Canadian Grand Prix was a boring race after having just said that the Monaco Grand Prix two weeks ago was “thrilling”. I will agree that the Canadian Grand Prix this year was not as good as it usually is, but to call it boring is something that I feel is entirely unwarranted.
Although the battle for the race victory was pretty much decided by qualifying on Saturday, there was still some other great action to watch on the track. There was the battle between Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc that was on the TV for a bit. Then there were the Renault drivers stuck behind Esteban Ocon. There was the tense pit stops between the front-runners, as they struggled to maintain the track position after their stops. And then there was Lewis Hamilton attempting to chase down Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps.
Certainly, there was not as much thrilling action as we have witnessed in the past, but I can say with 100% confidence that it was a better race to watch than Monaco. Monaco only really had the mechanical drama for Daniel Ricciardo, which wasn’t really drama since it was clear early on in the race that Sebastian Vettel had no chance of overtaking the Red Bull.
So, what is with the hypocrisy? Why are the people who jumped to defend Monaco now attacking, what I think was a decent, Canadian Grand Prix?
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
