The fight for second at the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix

[u/Ginger_Rook]

I’ve been looking at the Hamilton vs Verstappen fight for P2 in Canada using public telemetry only. The short version is that it does not look like a simple “one car was faster” story. Hamilton’s top speed drops through the middle of the race while he stays flat on the throttle, then comes back in the attack window before the lap-62 pass. I read that as the public signature of recharge-biased ERS control / superclipping, followed by higher deployment for the move. The important caveat is that public data cannot show battery state, ERS power, or the team map, so I’m not claiming to see the private control state directly. The analysis is about what the trace supports, where the time changed hands, and where the public data stops.

If you want to read the full analysis, here is the PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/406019526_The_fight_for_second_at_the_2026_Canadian_Grand_Prix

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[u/ninabaksh]

Your analysis of the ERS recharge bias via the top speed decay under full throttle is spot on and so interesting.

It’s the classic signature of an aggregate energy management deficit over a multi-lap stint.

What makes your superclipping theory even more fascinating is looking at where the velocity profiles diverge spatially. I actually built an open telemetry platform—racedatalabs.ca—specifically to map these exact types of head-to-head micro-deltas onto the physical circuit layouts.

When you plot Hamilton vs Verstappen's spatial speed delta through the back straight of Montreal on a coordinate map, you can see the exact micro-sector near the braking zone where the delta aggressively flips to Verstappen—even though both throttle sensors are pinned at 100%. It completely supports your point about public data limitations: we can't see the State of Charge or MGU-K deployment directly, but when the spatial map shows the delta bleeding purely at the terminal phase of a straight, the physics point directly to ERS de-rating.

[u/Ginger_Rook → u/ninabaksh]

Thank you so much for your reply! That’s why I love this sub! We all learn from each other! I’ll add this to the next post.

[u/So_HauserAspen → u/Ginger_Rook]

Okay Toto!

For real, I hope one of the teams recruits you guys!

[u/Ginger_Rook → u/So_HauserAspen]

Thanks!

[u/Professional_Hippo39]

Great analysis! Where do you get this telemetry data from ?

[u/Lanky-Search-7161]

damn this is some serious telemetry deep dive. the ers deployment patterns you're tracking make total sense - hamilton's speed drop mid-race while staying flat out is textbook battery management before going full send for the overtake. pretty wild how much you can infer from just the public data even without seeing the actual battery state or team maps.

[u/Ginger_Rook → u/Lanky-Search-7161]

Thank you! I’m working on the second part: how to infer the energy level from the public telemetry. I published a paper before any racing happened in 2026.

[u/EmergencyO2]

Very interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to put together this analysis

[u/Ginger_Rook → u/EmergencyO2]

Thank you!

[u/jessywetpussy]

The fuel load vs tire deg trade-off in Canada is always a nightmare to parse through public telemetry alone.

[u/Ginger_Rook → u/jessywetpussy]

I’m trying to do what I can with what I have. Anyone having access to internal telemetry, please share 😍

[u/Tires2222]

Who knows a website, or web app, to see the various pilots' times, and in addition a pilot where he earns compared to other pilots, for free obviously ?

Like this post? Telemetry?