There's a lot to prove heading into this weekend's race in Montreal. We've been waiting to see what the real pecking order is, and after the anomaly that was Monaco, Canada may be able to offer some more concrete evidence. We're entering an intense period of F1 racing, with six races across the next eight weeks, so there's a lot of work to be done and plenty of scores to settle.

Event schedule

Lewis Hamilton will be hoping the momentum has turned in his favour after his race win in Monaco, but the situation at Mercedes has proved fascinating so far this year and hopefully will continue to do so. Daniel Ricciardo says he's moved on from the disappointment of a botched pit stop in the principality robbing him of the win, but I hope he can stay fired up to provide some competition in Canada.

The race favours tough engines, which ordinarily would mean Mercedes have the advantage, but they haven't seen quite so much reliability as normal, and could mean that another team has a chance to claw back some of the gap. Renault are hoping recent engine upgrades will improve their performance, whilst Honda will no doubt continue to struggle.

Support racing for this event includes Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Ferrari Challenge, and Formula 1600.

Expected conditions

It's cold in Montreal at the moment, and it looks set to stay that way across the next few days, which may give the tyre engineers something to ponder. There's no significant rain forecast until Monday, but Canada can have changeable weather conditions and that precipitation could move ahead of schedule.

Circuit history

The track has been tweaked slightly ahead of this year's racing action, with some resurfacing work on turns one and nine, and some catch fencing renewal at the same corners as well.

This weekend sees the 37th running of the Canadian Grand Prix on this track, and it's proved to be a good track for drivers taking their debut victories. Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo both achieved their maiden wins in Canada, so have special memories of the place.

The racing can be chaotic at times, and pole position isn't always crucial. In recent years, pole position has been converted to race victory half the time, with the percentage dropping the further back into the record books you go.

Tyre compounds

For the second consecutive weekend, we have the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft compounds in actions but crucially in Canada, some drivers have opted to bring none of the red supersoft tyres. The two Renault drivers as well as the two Haas drivers have zero red compounds in their collection, instead focusing on the ultrasofts. Grosjean and Gutiérrez have gone for ten purple sets each!

Meanwhile, team by team, drivers are opting for the same combination as their teammate, except for at Williams. Massa has an even number of softs and supersofts, whilst Bottas has swapped one yellow for a red, and gone a step softer than his Brazilian colleague.

Selected tyre sets per driver

Lewis Hamilton	3	2	8
Nico Rosberg	3	2	8
Sebastian Vettel	3	3	7
Kimi Räikkönen	3	3	7
Valtteri Bottas	2	4	7
Felipe Massa	3	3	7
Daniel Ricciardo	4	2	7
Max Verstappen	4	2	7
Nico Hülkenberg	4	3	6
Sergio Pérez	4	3	6
Kevin Magnussen	5	0	8
Jolyon Palmer	5	0	8
Daniil Kvyat	2	4	7
Carlos Sainz	2	4	7
Marcus Ericsson	2	5	6
Felipe Nasr	2	5	6
Fernando Alonso	3	4	6
Jenson Button	3	4	6
Pascal Wehrlein	3	4	6
Rio Haryanto	3	4	6
Romain Grosjean	3	0	10
Esteban Gutiérrez	3	0	10

Press conference schedule

Official press conferences are organised by the FIA and happen four times during the weekend. The qualifying and post race press conferences will take place after the television unilateral interviews.

Race stewards

The FIA stewarding process includes a former F1 driver to offer added insight. These stewards are overseeing the weekend's action.