Wanting to comment on the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, and we have not yet got to the starting lights, there is already drama. The prospects of Sunday and a race in Montreal are now altered after two grid penalties, on lowly Racing Bulls rookie IsackHadjar and Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda, in what has descended into a frantic affair leading to Round 9 of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship.

Hadjar was also stripped of three grid places after the stewards ruled him as having been at fault by impeding Carlos Sainz in Q1. The accident happened on Sainz last push lap where he was hindered under braking in Turn 6/7 as he caught Hadjar when both were out on a cooldown lap. As much as Hadjar tried to get off the racing line, the stewards felt there was little to no chance that he could have cleared the time of the Williams driver – and this led to Sainz leaving the qualifying early, as well as the pronounced violation of qualifying process.

After the inquiry, Hadjar took the punishment but added some perspective acknowledging that he was upset by the lack of communication between him and his pit wall. Hadjar said: It was just a thing we were all used to doing but he was in a push lap nonetheless. I know it is a misunderstanding, but really there was nothing I could do about it. Poor fellow! I am sorry for him.

Hadjar has a good note about honesty, but FIA is strict when it comes to keeping the rule of qualifying discipline. Even though his crew informed him that Sainz had called off his lap, Hadjar was still in a stand that was costing the Spaniard adversely. Despite the fact that intent was not a significant factor, the penalty was found to be correct according to the general F1 breaching qualification rules. Because of this, the French-Algerian rookie will not start in 9th position now, but 12th one: it is still within the expected points range, but it has much more to fix.

But Hadjar is not the only driver, who suffers a setback. A more severe penalty has been given to the Red Bull Racing man Yuki Tsunoda who will have the grid penalty of 10 positions because of ignoring the red flag during an earlier practice run. The Japanese driver had showed some promise having placed his vehicle in 11th position in the qualifying round but an error under red flag during round 2 practice has earned him a place at the back of the grid.

The details of the punishment against Tsunoda are the result of an incident in which the driver did not meet the slowing criterion required at the red flag status. An infringement of this kind has been reined up on by the FIA in 2025 and gives importance to safety rules observed in stalled sessions. Breaches under red flags especially when practicing are considered serious as this can cause great danger to marshal, other track personnel and other drivers.

The plunge of Tsunoda into 21 st place is a painful twist of fortunes to a driver who has demonstrated true grit this season. The 2025 race has been a major campaign of himself, where he has his back to the wall in results, and he has to justify to justify his presence in race line-up about Red Bull cars. This punishment however brings a big spanner to what otherwise would have been a good weekend in terms of gaining momentum.

It is a frustrating development in the case of Red Bull. Sergey Sirotkin Pit Lane Red Bull / Getty Images As Max Verstappen battles at the front of the grid once again, the dismissal of Tsunoda has left the team with the single car in good contention. And the competition is closer than ever, so even some smaller penalties such as these can have significant implications on Sunday.

As both Hadjar and Tsunoda are now in the position of recovery, Sunday Canadian Grand Prix has acquired a new colouring. The reorganized starting field will potentially provide a good chance of teams and components runners such as Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas or even even Logan Sargeant to make use of unexpected position.

More to the point, those penalties put a big light on the Formula 1 merciless side. It could as small as just a misunderstanding with your engineer, or just a lapse of attention in red flags, but the fallout can be quite severe. To Hadjar and Tsunoda, the job has become straight and uphill: to scratch their way back within the points and show that not every problem through the weekend can defy them in this situation.

When the paddock swaps out after a race year, it will be observed as to how these two react, not so much on how fast but on how disciplined, how cool, how adult. Montreal already was the place of uncertain surprises, and now it has become even more interesting.

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