Hello Mexico!
Formula 1 is back in Mexico City for the first time in 2 years. This week's race is going to be important for the drivers’ championship battle as both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have won twice at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. With 5 races to go, Max leads the championship by 12 points, but this battle is far from over.
While Max and Lewis are who you would expect to dominate this weekend, one thing we shouldn’t do is count Charles Leclerc out; he started the 2019 Mexico City GP on pole position and finished in fourth. Another person to keep an eye out for is Valtteri Bottas. He set the lap record at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 2018 and Mercedes will be hoping he can help increase their lead in the constructors’ championship- especially as this weekend Perez and Red Bull will likely have waves of support.
Sergio Perez will be hoping to follow up on his phenomenal United States GP performance this week in his home race. He has been proving himself to Red Bull over the last few weeks, landing himself on the podium in the last two races. Can he continue his superb run of form to end the Mexico City Grand Prix on one of those steps again? He’ll be wanting to finish on the highest step. That would mean he has to out-perform his teammate, but with the championship battle this close, I doubt Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, would allow Perez to take valuable points away from Verstappen even if he is performing better.
In the team standings, Mercedes lead Red Bull by 23 points. In the battle for third, Ferrari have closed the gap to McLaren to just 3.5 points after an outstanding performance in the US. Alpine and AlphaTauri are still fighting for fifth place. Right at the bottom is Haas, who are still pointless for this season.
Last Time at the Mexico City Grand Prix…
Leclerc was a standout all weekend, finishing in the top three for every practice session. Max Verstappen qualified fastest on the Saturday but was slapped with a three place grid penalty after failing to abide by yellow flag conditions following Bottas’ big shunt in Q3. As a result, Leclerc was promoted to pole position, his 7th P1 start of the season.
Most drivers were on a one stop strategy, opting to use hard tyres for their longer stints. Leclerc was one of seven drivers who committed to a two stop. He came out of his first stop in fourth place but would eventually move up to third when Hamilton pitted for his only stop of the race. Leclerc in his Ferrari was looking competitive until he came in for his second pit stop. An issue with one of his rear tyres delayed his stop by about 4 seconds, costing him a chance at a podium position. Leclerc finished fourth behind Bottas (3rd), Vettel (2nd), and Hamilton (1st).
Alex Albon finished in 5th, 21.339 seconds off the leader. Verstappen was forced to accept 6th as a result of going wide and losing positions at Turn 1 on the first lap. Perez, Ricciardo, Gasly, and Hulkenberg completed the top ten. Kvyat, Stroll, Sainz, Giovinazzi, Magnussen, Russell, Grosjean and Kubica are the drivers who completed the race, outside of the points (in that order). Raikkonen and Norris collected a DNF. Kvyat would receive a ten second time penalty post-race, for causing a collision with Nico Hulkenberg. Leclerc received the extra point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
The championship battle could’ve been decided at the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix- if Bottas had finished lower than he had, Hamilton would’ve won his 6th championship title there. It would be the first time in three years that the Brit didn't take the title in Mexico. Instead, Hamilton left only needing 4 points to be unreachable. He would achieve this at the very next race.
The Finer Details…
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a 4.304km track, located to the East of Mexico City. The first Formula 1 Grand Prix to be held at this circuit was in 1986. From 1962 to 1970, the Mexican Grand Prix was held at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit. The 1962 race was a non-championship event and was won by Lotus after Jim Clark took over the car of his teammate following his own car being black-flagged for a push start. The festivities of the first Mexican Formula 1 race were blemished by the death of Mexican driver Ricardo Rodríguez- who along with his brother,
this year’s track is named after. Jim Clark won the first championship race in Mexico the following year.
The Mexican Grand Prix was officially cancelled in 1971, with poor crowd control in 1970 being the biggest contributing factor to the decision. The 1970 Grand Prix had a total attendance of over 200,000 people, most of which were there to see Pedro Rodríguez, Mexican racing driver and the older brother of the aforementioned Ricardo Rodríguez. Due to the lack of crowd control, officials were forced to delay the race start by an hour. During the race, spectators threw bottles onto the circuit and at one point a dog made its way onto the track and was unfortunately hit by Jackie Stewart. They had originally planned to hold the Grand Prix in 1971, with the promise of better crowd control, but the death of Pedro Rodríguez in July of that year was the final straw. The Mexican Grand Prix wouldn’t be held again until it moved to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The Mexican Grand Prix was held between 1986 and 1992 before being cancelled again. It returned to the F1 calendar in 2015 and was held every year until the COVID-19 pandemic saw that it was cancelled once again.
As previously mentioned, the track is 4.304km in length, making it the third shortest track on the 2021 calendar. With the track being so short, the drivers will have to complete 71 laps of the clockwise track to reach the total race distance of 305.354km. The circuit has 17 corners, 9 to the right and 8 to the left. There are two DRS zones, the first being between corners 11 and 12, the second is along the 1.2km start/finish straight.
Mexico City has a contract until the end of 2022 and features on next year's calendar, set to be held on the 28th to the 30th of October. There has been no news of a contract extension yet.
Quick Facts
Prior to 2019, the Mexico City Grand Prix was known as the Mexican Grand Prix. The 2020 Grand Prix would’ve been the first under the new name if it hadn't been cancelled.
Valtteri Bottas holds the lap record at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (1:18.741, set in 2018).
McLaren, Williams and Mercedes are the current constructors who have won the most at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, all with three wins each.
The current circuit layout is not the same as the original track used from 1986 to 1992. Hermann Tilke, German racing driver and circuit architect, was in charge of renovations in 2014 to upgrade the track.
What To Expect This Weekend
The drive down to turn one is about a kilometre long. If Max and Lewis start the race at the front of the grid, we can expect a tight battle once they reach the first corner. It wouldn’t be unfair of me to suggest that we may even see some contact between these two at Turn 1 and 2. You only have to look back at the last Grand Prix held at this circuit to see what could happen between them. Verstappen and Hamilton were racing side by side, light contact between the two forced them both onto the grass at Turn 2. Verstappen wasn’t even fighting for the championship that year- I would expect a much more intense battle this year.
We should also expect lots of overtaking on the start/finish straight, similar to Monza. It would be wise for drivers to also use the length of this straight to get a tow, this would be particularly beneficial during qualifying.
When To Watch:
Formula 1:
(FRIDAY) The racing weekend starts off with FP1 at 11:30 - 12:30 local time (17:30 - 18:30 BST).
(FRIDAY) FP2 follows at 15:00 - 16:00 local time (21:00 - 22:00 BST).
(SATURDAY) The final practice session starts at 11:00 - 12:00 local time (17:00 - 18:00 BST).
(SATURDAY) Qualifying will be one to keep an eye on, so be ready at 14:00 - 15:00 local time (20:00 - 21:00 BST).
(SUNDAY) The championship fight continues at 13:00 local time (19:00 BST).
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