Lewis Hamilton was six tenths of a second off the pace during Friday practice in Canada, Mercedes has delayed the engine upgrade originally planned for this race, and Pirelli has allocated the softest of its three tyre compounds that the Silver Arrows has often struggled to get the best out of.
On paper, that sounds like bad news for Hamilton's hopes of taking a record-equalling seventh victory in Montreal. But dig deeper and it's clear that, actually, Hamilton and Mercedes are shaping up strongly for this weekend.
First and foremost, the headline lap times of both Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas were misleading. Neither used the hypersofts, thanks to the desire to save all five sets for Saturday and Sunday, and Hamilton's time was actually set on the slowest tyre compound.