F1 Canadian GP Friday Practice Cut Short, Teams Couldn't Even Test Upgrades

However, we must take everything we see in practice with a pinch of salt, as some teams are just testing out specific scenarios and setups before qualifying begins. At least that's what the second free practice session of the Canadian Grand Prix seems to suggest, as it's hard to believe the teams have caught up to Red Bull enough to displace the RB19 to a lowly sixth place.

And the reason I only mentioned what the second session revealed is that the first one was cut short. With just five minutes of running, the driveshaft in Pierre Gasly's Alpine decided to give up the ghost, triggering a red flag. Usually, that would only be a minor hindrance, as getting the car off the track only takes a few minutes. But this time, as the drivers lined up for the restart, an issue with the CCTV cameras at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve caused the session to be halted on safety grounds.

Luckily the track officials decided to extend the second session by 30 minutes in order to combat the lost time, although that still means teams lost about 25 minutes of valuable track time. And that's a big deal, especially for F1 teams like Aston Martin and Williams, which brought major upgrades for the Canadian GP and were eager to test out their performance.

Well, maybe not so much for Williams, as the Grove-based team doesn't have that big of a stake in making inroads. But Aston Martin is a team that brought significant upgrades to the car that it hoped could help keep Mercedes at bay in the fight for second place in the constructor's championship. And that won't be easy, as Mercedes keeps upgrading and topped out the second practice session with both drivers. Lewis Hamilton went fastest, closely followed by George Russell, who was just 0.027 seconds slower.

One thing to keep in mind here is that compared to the midfield teams, Aston Martin is merely refining its car, getting the final bits of performance out of what they have, on par with what Red Bull is doing. The Silverstone-based team brought upgrades to the side pods, which sport a narrower design with a greater undercut at the front.

Along with a revised engine cover coke-bottle area, these changes affect how the airflow interacts with the floor edge vortex generators, which have also been upgraded as a result. While this does not sound like a massive revision, it's a refined evolution of the team's package that needs serious testing, making the final practice session crucial.

The team does not need to make massive changes, as they're at a development stage where everything is already taken care of. The only thing left to do is micro-manage the airflow in order to get the most performance out of the underfloor. This is why testing time is crucial for Aston Martin, and losing half of a session is a massive hindrance. Even so, Fernando Alonso took fourth place on the practice timesheets, 0.327 seconds behind Hamilton.

The two Ferraris completed the top five, with Carlos Sainz being the faster between the two and taking third. This relegated Max Verstappen to P6, while Sergio Perez only managed an even worse P8. And while this does not suggest Red Bull is in any immediate danger, it does showcase other teams are catching up and that fans might enjoy a great fight, at least for the lower podium places.