A large forest fire in the region has raised trouble and a threat for next weekend’s F1 Canadian GP due to air quality drop.
With F1 already cancelling Chinese GP due to COVID-19 and Emilia Romagna GP due to flooding, a third grand prix is now under threat too. Even though it is still 10 days away, the Canadian GP could be in trouble due to the large forest fire in the region.
The Societe de Protection des Forets Contre le Feu has confirmed that there were a total of 152 active forest fires where 113 were deemed out of control. The whole of Quebec region has been covered in thick smog which has blown to USA’s North Carolina and New York.
The MLB games have been postponed/cancelled, same for flights and Broadway shows, which raises a question mark over the F1 Canadian GP scheduled for June 16-18. If the flights are affected, it may cause trouble for travelers to come and set-up.
Bryan Ramsey, an expert and meteorologist from the US National Weather Service, explained that the fire could continue for weeks. “Since the fires are raging, they’re really large, they’re probably going to continue for week,” he said.
F1 sees no trouble at the moment especially in Montreal region where the circuit is based and so the grand prix is on as per schedule.
Per F1 – next weekend's Canadian GP not at risk amid the ongoing wildfires. Air quality in Montreal is currently good, situation is different to other parts of Canada/northern US #F1 #CanadianGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) June 8, 2023
🇨🇦 Hundreds of #wildfires are raging across #Canada.
The devastating fires have displaced more than 20,000 people and scorched about 3.8 million hectares of land in the country 👇 pic.twitter.com/NKwMISiOo7
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) June 8, 2023
Smoke from Canadian fires — seen here by NASA's MODIS and EPIC instruments — is crossing North America, tinting skies orange and affecting air quality. Fires in the region have burned hundreds more square miles than is average for this time of year.https://t.co/eXuGqe7Dp1 pic.twitter.com/6f4VrY3rbR
— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) June 7, 2023
#Canada – 3.3 million hectares burned. 2214 wildfires nationwide. Currently 413 fires of which > 200 are out of control. 18 fires affecting First Nations. 26,000 people are evacuated from their homes. This is not a fire “season” – this is a warmer climate fire storm. pic.twitter.com/Fi1hpLM1bM
— Peter Dynes (@PGDynes) June 5, 2023
First it was Alberta. Then Nova Scotia. And now it’s Quebec. Yet another province in Canada dealing with raging wildfires. This visible satellite loop from today shows a bunch of new fires, most caused by lightning. pic.twitter.com/B7yvai5S48
— Collin Gross (@CollinGrossWx) June 2, 2023
Canada is on track for its worst-ever year of wildfire destruction as warm and dry conditions are forecast to persist through to the end of the summer after an unprecedented start to the fire season, officials said https://t.co/QU7KK6fv9U pic.twitter.com/aqQDioY6EY
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 6, 2023
Pirelli tyre selection –
The three Pirelli compound choices for the upcoming grands Prix in Canada, Austria, and Great Britain will be the same as last year. The softest possible combination will be used in Montreal and Spielberg: C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow medium and C5 as P Zero Red soft. By contrast, the C1 will be the hard tyre at Silverstone, C2 the medium, and C3 the soft.
Montreal, the home of the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix du Canada from June 16-18, has a medium to fast layout While the Gilles Villeneuve circuit can be considered as a semi-permanent circuit, it has unforgiving walls and barriers right next to the racing line, leaving little margin for error but also presenting at least two good overtaking opportunities. It’s a track where stability under braking and good traction are vital to be competitive. The Canadian Grand Prix is a perennial favourite; not just because it’s often unpredictable – with the safety car being a regular feature – but also because of Montreal’s unique atmosphere throughout the grand prix week,
Two weeks after Canada, the Austrian Grand Prix takes place on the rapid Spielberg circuit, which has the lowest number of corners of any venue on the calendar: just 10 in total. The Red Bull Ring hosts the second Sprint Race of the season on Saturday, preceded by the Sprint Shootout to determine its grid positions. From July 7-9, Formula 1 returns to where the championship first began: Silverstone, which has a largely unaltered layout since the very first British Grand Prix in 1950.
Pirelli’s new specification of tyre will make its debut on a track that is well-known for putting high lateral energy loads through the rubber, as a result of the many fast corners. This new specification, tried out by the teams during Friday free practice in Spain, is more resistant to fatigue thanks to the introduction of an already-homologated material originally planned for 2024, but is otherwise exactly the same as the specification that will be used up to the Austrian Grand Prix.
Here’s the selection in list form –
Bahrain: C1, C2, C3
Saudi Arabia: C2, C3, C4
Australia: C2, C3, C4
Azerbaijan: C3, C4, C5
Miami – C2, C3, C4
Emilia Romagna – C3, C4, C5
Monaco – C3, C4, C5
Spain – C1, C2, C3
Canada – C3, C4, C5
Austria – C3, C4, C5
Britain – C1, C2, C3
[Note: The Pirelli topic is as per press release with no edits made]
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