While some of the drivers had one of their best showings of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix, it doesn't change the fact that it is becoming more obvious to fans that these regulations are setting the teams apart from each other.

Kimi Antonelli had another impressive race, winning his fourth in a row, with a lap time of 1:28:15, setting the fastest lap of the race. Antonelli finished 10 and 11 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2nd and 3rd. Hamilton and Verstappen both had their best performances of the season, with Hamilton having one other podium at the Chinese Grand Prix and Verstappen achieving his first podium of the season.

The performance gap begins to show, with Charles Leclerc in 4th place, 44 seconds behind Antonelli. While this size gap isn’t totally uncommon, it is rare to see it from first to fourth, and it is even more uncommon for there to be such a big gap between third and fourth, with about 33 seconds between Verstappen and Leclerc.

After fourth place is where the discrepancies really start to show. Starting in 5th with Isack Hadjar, then Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, and Oliver Bearman in 10th all finished the race one lap behind the leaders. This continued with Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Esteban Ocon all being lapped twice by the leaders.

The most shocking result of all is that Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas both finished the race four laps behind the leader. The last time a driver was lapped more than four times was six years ago, when Nicholas Latifi was lapped five times at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Fans are reacting to this quite strongly, using it as more evidence as to why these regulations aren’t helping the sport. There is always a gap between the frontrunners and the rest of the grip, but it is usually more obvious from a constructors standings view, not usually by finishing times in a race.

On top of 12 lapped drivers, there was six retirements during the race, with five of six being mechanics related. The first victim was Arvid Lindblad, who didn’t even get the chance to start the race due to a gearbox issue, which resulted in him having to be pushed off the track by marshals.

Fernando Alonso retired on lap 23 due to a broken seat, which was causing him discomfort and pain. Next, George Russell retired on lap 29 in the midst of his battle for first with Antonelli. Russell went off track during the battle and was forced to stop right after, as the car had a power unit and electrical failure. Lando Norris retired on lap 38 with a gearbox issue, and Sergio Perez followed not long after with a suspension issue. All this is to show the reliability issues the teams are having under these regulations.

Fans have not been enjoying watching racing this season due to the new regulations. It has been less racing and more yoyoing back and forth when fighting for position. I, along with many other fans, hope that there will be some changes soon that will make watching more enjoyable again.