NEED TO KNOW: The most important facts, stats and trivia ahead of the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix

Formula 1 makes the trip from Europe to North America this weekend for Round 10 on the calendar, the Canadian Grand Prix. Ahead of the race, Need to Know is your all-in-one guide with statistics, driving pointers, strategy tips and plenty more.

Free Practice 1 and 2 will take place on Friday, June 13, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying on Saturday, June 14, and the Grand Prix itself on Sunday, June 15.

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Vital statistics

• First Grand Prix – 1967 (Mosport)
• Track Length – 4.361km
• Lap record – 1m 13.078s, Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 2019
• Most pole positions – Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton (6)
• Most wins – Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton (7)
• Trivia – Canada played host to the longest race in F1 history in 2011, with the clock stopping at four hours, four minutes and 39 seconds
• Pole run to Turn 1 braking point – 186 metres
• Overtakes completed in 2024 – 83
• Safety Car probability – 83%
• Virtual Safety Car probability – 50%
• Pit stop time loss – 18.4 seconds (including 2.5s stop)

The driver’s verdict

Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Canada is a really nice track to drive and you get a sense of atmosphere going around it. Overhanging trees give it the feel of a park and it feels like a street circuit – in essence, it is.

There are a lot of slow-speed corners, the walls are very close in a lot of places, but it’s a great racetrack. You need a good front-end to get your car turned into the chicanes, which are pretty much everywhere.

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Then there’s the hairpin, which launches you into an overtaking area at the final chicane. If not there, maybe you’ll have a little sniff of something into Turn 1. Turns 1 and 2 are pretty tricky because you’re approaching Turn 1 very, very fast, arcing to the right as you’re braking, and then hurling speed to the left.

If you have any sort of moment coming to Turn 1, you’re really off-line or cutting the corner down towards Turn 2. And tyre warm-up sometimes isn’t ideal here, particularly on chillier days in Montreal.

Last five Canadian GP polesitters

• 2024 – George Russell (Mercedes)
• 2023 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2022 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2019 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
• 2018 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

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Last five Canadian GP winners

• 2024 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2023 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2022 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2019 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• 2018 – Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

Tyre and strategy insight

“For the third time this season, the softest trio of compounds will feature on track,” reads Pirelli’s weekend preview. “That means, after appearing for the first time in Imola and again in Monaco, the C6 will be in use, alongside its closest relatives, the C5 as medium and the C4 as hard.

“The selection is therefore one step softer than last year when the chosen compounds were the C3, C4 and C5. This weekend, when using the new C6, teams and drivers will be able to make the most of the information and data gathered at its two previous appearances.

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“The Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit is a track where the lateral forces exerted on the tyres are medium to low, while the longitudinal ones are a bit more severe, although not particularly high, because of the cars being subjected to strong deceleration followed by sharp acceleration.

“The track surface is very smooth and not very abrasive and is never used for racing apart from the Grand Prix weekend. Graining, especially during free practice on Friday, could put in an appearance, but as the track gradually rubbers-in it shouldn’t be a factor. Lap times come down really quickly, not just from one day to the next, but also during each session.

“On top of that, the unpredictable and changeable weather is a factor to consider, a wildcard that’s been known to disrupt the on-track action here, while fluctuating temperatures are a feature of the Montreal event.”

Current form

The picture at the very top of the championship standings remains unchanged after Round 9 in Spain, with Oscar Piastri consolidating his lead by taking his fifth victory of the season. This has boosted his points tally to a total of 186.

McLaren team mate Lando Norris, meanwhile, only sits 10 points behind in second place. The Briton took P2 in the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix but will surely be looking to go one better this year as an intra-team duel continues to brew at the Woking-based outfit.

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That battle could be set to intensify even further, given that the pair have broken away slightly from Max Verstappen in the standings. The Dutchman lost ground in Barcelona after being handed a 10-second time penalty following a collision with George Russell, dropping him from an original result of P5 down to P10.

While he still sits third in the championship, Verstappen is now 49 points adrift of Piastri, and his punishment in Spain has also resulted in the Red Bull driver being just one penalty point away from an automatic race suspension. However, Verstappen holds a strong record at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, having consecutively won the Grand Prix for the past three years. Can he bounce back at this weekend’s event?

Another team to have enjoyed good form in Montreal previously are Mercedes, with Russell taking third ahead of then-team mate Lewis Hamilton in 2024. The squad will be hoping that the conditions favour them as they look to get ahead in an intriguing fight between themselves, Red Bull and Ferrari.

The latter jumped their rivals to take P2 in the Teams’ Standings following Charles Leclerc’s podium result at the Spanish Grand Prix, though Hamilton cut a downbeat figure after what was a tough triple header sequence for the seven-time World Champion. How will the Scuderia fare this weekend?

Elsewhere, Williams will be keen to reaffirm their status as the leaders of the midfield following a difficult outing in Barcelona, while things remain very much all to play for behind them as Racing Bulls try to fend off their rivals in the scrap for P6.

Iconic moment

Robert Kubica was involved in a terrifying crash at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, experiencing an impact so big that it forced him to miss the next round of the season in the United States, where future four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel made a point-scoring F1 debut.

But the Pole’s next visit to Montreal was much more enjoyable as he grabbed a spot on the front row of the grid and took advantage of drama around him – including an unusual collision between Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen in the pit lane – to emerge victorious.

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It would go down as Kubica’s one and only Grand Prix win, with his and BMW Sauber’s challenge for 2008 title glory fading as the year went on and rival teams out-developed them, but it remains a memorable moment for himself and his home country.

Watch how it all unfolded in the video player below...