12 observations from the 2025 Canadian GP

MONTREAL - The 2025 Canadian Grand Prix brought more than a few notable developments: George Russell's first victory of the year, Kimi Antonelli's first career top-three finish, and the first podium of the season that didn't feature a single McLaren driver. Still, there was a lot more beneath the surface.

Here are 12 observations from the ground.

Montreal is tailor-made for Mercedes

Russell said Sunday that Mercedes is under no illusion that tracks like Montreal are the norm rather than an exception. Mercedes loves cold-temperature tracks like Canada, Las Vegas, and Silverstone. Sunday's race turned out to feature brutally hot temperatures, a known Achilles' heel for Mercedes. But Russell and Antonelli kept their tires alive because the track itself also played to the team's benefit.

"There wasn't much tire overheating even though it was hot," Russell said after the race. "It's a very smooth tarmac here in Canada. There are quite low-speed corners, so the tires aren't under much stress."

If Mercedes designed a race track to fit the W16, it would look and feel a lot like Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Antonelli has arrived

Antonelli revealed before the post-race press conference that he has a final high school exam this week, though he may have a hard time studying after scoring the first podium of his career in Montreal. Antonelli surely benefited from Mercedes' rapid pace, but he was a star in his own right.

The 18-year-old phenom snatched a position from the unflappable championship leader, Oscar Piastri, and he defended it admirably. After a disastrous triple-header, Sunday's result proves why Antonelli was regarded as a generational prospect and the most talented rookie on the grid.

McLaren brought a remedy for Lando Norris

Much of the conversation leading up to Sunday focused on McLaren's upgrade package, which featured a new front suspension geometry intended to remedy Norris' complaints of numbness on the front end of his car and bring more feeling to the steering wheel.

At first, it seemed like it wouldn't change much. Norris had an error-riddled Q3 session in qualifying and said afterward that he didn't feel a difference. Then he came alive in Sunday's race.

But that all quickly became moot.

Still, Norris can't help himself

The biggest obstacle in Norris' path to a drivers' championship isn't his teammate, it's himself. His lack of composure is a big reason for his 22-point deficit, and the British driver proved it when his race ended after he collided with his teammate mere laps from the finish.

It's an example of what team principal Andrea Stella said Saturday to explain Norris' qualifying mistakes: He was overdriving the car. Norris' biggest blunders this season have come when he tries to do too much and gets ahead of himself, temporarily losing situational awareness. That manifested in the form of a crash Sunday after he tried to stick his car in a place it had no business going. Norris had never been on the back foot to Piastri before this year, and the further he falls behind, the more he'll be tempted to try another ill-fated move of desperation. It's a vicious cycle, and it's hard to imagine Norris escaping it at this point.

Piastri's championship-caliber trait

If the drivers' championship goes to McLaren, Piastri should be the likely recipient for one big but perhaps unremarkable reason: He knows how to do just enough to live to fight another day.

McLaren's pace looked unusually mortal in Montreal. Even worse, Piastri struggled mightily in practice, so it looked like blood in the water to Norris and Max Verstappen. And then Piastri qualified third and finished fourth. He kept his nose clean while his teammate didn't, and he only dropped six points to Verstappen. It'll be hard for Verstappen and Norris to take chunks out of his championship lead if this is what a weekend of struggles looks like.

Red Bull found a working window but not pace

Red Bull's reputation as a team that starts a weekend poorly before almost miraculously coming alive might be a thing of the past. Montreal's and Barcelona's track layouts have little in common, but Red Bull and Verstappen have started two consecutive race weekends on the right foot. Whether it's due to the series of upgrades from previous races, the front-wing clampdown working in its favour, or a combination of the two, the RB21 has seemingly expanded its working window and found reasonable balance.

The next step, as Verstappen has repeatedly pointed out, is adding much-needed performance. Like in Barcelona, the reigning world champion's car lacked the necessary juice to win in Montreal.

Don't get your hopes up for silly season

The majority of the conversation about the 2026 silly season has focused on three entities: Russell, Verstappen, and Toto Wolff. There has been near-constant speculation about Verstappen leaving Red Bull, and Mercedes has always felt like a perfect fit thanks to Wolff's fondness for the four-time champion. Naturally, that's left Russell the odd man out. Russell said Sunday that he's been clear with other teams about his desire to stay at Mercedes. Though he acknowledged the Verstappen factor on multiple occasions in Montreal, a move sending the Dutch driver to Mercedes becomes more unlikely with each top-notch performance from Russell - and he certainly had one in Canada.

"There haven't been any hard feelings with any of the talks that have been going around, especially around Max," Russell said Sunday. "Because, like I said numerous times, why wouldn't teams be interested in Max? If every driver had no contracts for next year, Max would be No. 1 for every single team."

What's up with Mercedes' power units?

Another weekend, another problem for a Mercedes engine. A Silver Arrow power unit has now had issues in three consecutive races. In Monaco, it was Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin. In Barcelona, it was Antonelli's Mecedes. And on Sunday, Alex Albon's Williams kept the dreaded streak alive.

McLaren, though unaffected, is surely sweating with each engine failure - it uses the same power units that have already failed.

Fred Vasseur's days might be numbered

The hourglass has officially flipped on Vasseur's tenure as Ferrari team principal. Rumors about his impending demise peaked Thursday when reports from Italy suggested he could be on thin ice. While his drivers went to bat for him, Vasseur flipped between making light-hearted remarks about the situation to launching a full-blown attack against the Italian media.

But as we've seen with previous Ferrari team principals (hello, Mattia Binotto), where there's smoke, there's typically fire. It's undeniably strange that Vasseur's contract, which expires at the end of 2025, hasn't been renewed. Even though the French boss was correct when he said that writing about Ferrari is a very lucrative business in Italy, there also appears to be a heightened sense of paranoia that the call is coming from within the house.

The SF-25 is a charming disappointment

The red car is, unquestionably, a decently fast one. Charles Leclerc seemed destined to challenge for the front row, at least in qualifying, before his last Q3 lap faltered. His pace was encouraging at times Sunday, but it can most often be described as unsustainable or unusable.

There's no benefit to having a fast car if you can't use it. Leclerc was being told to lift and coast a few laps into Sunday's race, a trend that popped up for the majority of the grand prix. Ferrari's struggles with plank wear and rear suspension are well-known, and until changes are made, this team will remain elite in pit-stop execution but nothing else.

Sauber take a step

Nico Hulkenberg scored 14 points over the last two races, with only Verstappen and drivers from McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes outscoring him. His fifth-place finish in Barcelona and eighth-place finish in Canada prove that Sauber's upgrade package, which included changes to the floor and engine cover, made the car competitive.

"Barcelona really put us back on the map, corrected where we wanted and needed to be from the beginning of the season," Hulkenberg said after the race. "It's nice and fun to be back in the mix, to fight with the others and fight for positions."

Franco Colapinto buys time

Colapinto has been in the crosshairs after a run of putrid performances following his promotion in Imola. But he managed to escape the wrath of pundits and perhaps Alpine team principal Flavio Briatore for at least one more week after his best drive of the season in Montreal.

Colapinto outqualified Pierre Gasly for the first time this season. His 12th-place start moved to 10th after others received grid penalties. He just missed out on points - an incredible feat for Alpine, no matter the context - by finishing 13th, but Alpine can find hope that Colapinto has turned a corner.