Watched my first ever ‘historic’ F1 race today: the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, in anticipation of quali today.
spoiler
I am disappointed to say that I didn’t feel it lived up to its reputation. Everything seemed reasonably uneventful before the red flag and a very large amount of the race was behind the safety car. I didn’t get the impression there was ever a moment of ‘different teams; different strategies; how is this going to play out?’. Maybe there would have been, if it were not for the red flag.
Undoubtedly the final 20 laps were exciting. Heidfeld (IIRC) running over his own front-wing. Schumacher’s double over-take of Kobiyashi and Massa. The three-way battle of Schumacher, Webber, and Button. Webber’s final lap off. Massa beating Kobiyashi at the death.
It was undoubtedly a good race but without having lived the era, maybe I am missing the context to really, truly appreciate it. Button being from last to first with six pit stops feels more like a fun trivia fact than a titanic achievement, given all the disruption.
I’d be interested in the views of other fans. Has anyone else re-watched it and been underwhelmed? If I watched it will full knowledge of where the sport and the competitors were at the time, would I have enjoyed it more?
You are missing the context as we didn’t know it was going to be a 4 hour race when it started. A lot of the event was dealing with the guess work and having the commentators look for things to fill in the time. It was honestly more of an event to be part of at the time. I think the parts you pointed out make for a good highlight session, but there’s no way of experiencing exactly why it’s such an historic race after the fact.
I’d say the same is true of Brazil 2008, it’s not a very exciting race to watch now, but live it was nail biting with a crazy ending. Still fun to watch the end, but we know Massa lost the championship going in so lacks the impact.
