Pirelli confident Montreal remains low-grip

In brief

Pirelli confident Montreal remains low-grip

Pirelli expects the new track surface won’t cause a significant change in grip levels. F1 has experienced poor races at some circuits after they were resurfaced, but Montreal offered low grip levels to begin with and Pirelli says is unlikely to have changed.

The entire track has been resurfaced since last year’s event in order to adhere to FIA standards. In their pre-event preview, Pirelli said “on paper, the track’s existing characteristics of low abrasiveness – and therefore reduced grip – should remain the same”.

However, they stressed that they could not be sure until their engineers get their first opportunity to examine the new surface tomorrow.

Indy 500 ordeal ‘aged me five years’ – Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson said he had to do a “reset” after his poor showing in this year’s Indianapolis 500. The 2022 race winner and 2023 runner-up crashed in practice this year, narrowly qualified for the race then retired in a crash at the first corner when Tom Blomqvist spun in front of him,

“We went through an extremely tough month of May,” said Ericsson, who rebounded with a second place finish in Detroit last weekend. “I think we went through everything that month of May. Felt like I aged probably five years during that month.”

“We just had to do a reset. We had to believe in what we’re doing. You can either lie down and feel sorry for yourself or you get up and you work hard and you prepare yourself and you try and dig deep and go and deliver.

“That’s what we decided in the [car number] 28 group, we were going to go to Detroit, do a good weekend, get our season back on track. That was the chat. We had a lot of work put in this week leading up to this race. I’m happy it paid off.”

Lola commit to Formula E ‘Gen4’

As well as joining Formula E from the 2025 season under its ‘Gen3’ regulations, Lola have announced they have committed to the all-electric world championship for its next generation.

The Gen4 Formula E cars are intended to almost double their power output to 600kW and enter into use for the 2027 season.

“We are excited to be confirming our commitment to Gen4,” said Lola’s motorsport director Mark Preston. “Formula E is an ideal platform for powertrain and software development that we can use for…