2023 F1 Canadian GP FP2: Results and Key takeways

The first day of the 2023 F1 Canadian GP ended with a Mercedes '1-2' at the top with Lewis Hamilton topping the session. On a day when FP1 went into the gutter with a CCTV issue, we had an extended FP2 session with 30 minutes added to the conventional 1-hour duration.

With thunderstorms scheduled for later in the session, the teams went through their programs as quickly as possible. Fans got to see frantic action on track before the rain eventually came. Behind the Mercedes duo, we had Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari, followed by Fernando Alonso.

The Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were unable to get their laps in and found themselves P6 and P8 in the standings.

So after 90 minutes of running in the 2023 F1 Canadian GP FP2, what did we learn? Let's find out.

2023 F1 Canadian GP FP2: Key learnings

#1 The teams are going blind into the race weekend

Rain is expected to play a role in the race and qualifying is supposed to be run in mixed conditions. Looking at the possibility of rain making an appearance in the 2023 F1 Canadian GP FP2, it's safe to say that the radars are working accurately.

The entire running during the session was about the teams trying to find the optimum solution for dry weather. What will happen if the track is wet? If there is any running in the wet weather, the teams are going in blind for the rest of the weekend.

#2 If it stays dry, Red Bull continues to be the benchmark

If the conditions stay dry, it's hard to deny that Red Bull is still the benchmark. Ferrari was challenging the defending champions for lap times in FP2, but there are still question marks there.

Overall, it's hard to concretely comment how far ahead Red Bull is from every other team on the grid. Even in the rain, though, the car continues to work well.

Just look at the race in Monaco where Max Verstappen was dominant in the wet weather as well. It does appear that the car might hold a clear advantage over the rest of the grid. It will, however, be interesting to see what the gap is between the leader and the rest.

#3 It's hard to comment on where Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin find themselves

Ferrari seems to hold a much superior straight-line speed while Mercedes handles the corners really well. That is exactly why the cars gain lap time in a different manner.

Aston Martin still continues to evaluate the new upgrades and it's hard to see what the true picture is when it comes to this team. The car is strong and very quick but how close is it to Red Bull? Will the team leapfrog Mercedes in the standings?

Will we see any team emerge or will we see another case of single-handed domination from Red Bull? It remains to be seen, although the scorecast could make things very interesting.

#4 Reliability issues faced by the team are intriguing

Pierre Gasly in FP1, Esteban Ocon, and Nico Hulkenberg in FP2 suffered from reliability issues. It was interesting to see the teams encountering them, especially since the last time we saw something similar was in Baku.

Could the issues be a result of the load that the power units go through at the F1 Canadian GP track? Or is this just a coincidence that a myriad of reliability issues sprung up all of a sudden?

All in all, though, Ferrari might just be the one team nervous from all of this, as they already had a power unit failure in the first race of the season in Bahrain.

#5 McLaren will be doing the rain dance at the 2023 F1 Canadian GP

McLaren's presence higher up the order alongside the Alpines and even the Alfa Romeos was a pleasant surprise. It's hard to ignore that the one team eagerly waiting for overcast conditions during qualifying and the race will be McLaren.

The car transforms into something completely different on a wet track and both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be hoping for rain to disrupt the all-important sessions. A wet race and a wet qualifying session is an ideal situation for McLaren as the team hopes to secure a few points at the 2023 F1 Canadian GP.