PRIXVIEW – Mexico City Grand Prix 2021

Round eighteen takes F1 to Mexico City for the newly renamed Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Renamed after Ricardo Rodrigues who was killed in practice in 1962 when his Lotus suffered a suspension failure through the old final corner.

Mexico City is one of the fastest circuits of the season, thanks to its high altitude with the circuit 2,238m above sea levels the thin air mean more straight line speed and teams normally run higher downforce setups. In some ways this circuit is similar to Monza in terms of the layout, which should create opportunities for overtaking.

The long straight often sees cars reach 205mph before the braking point with the slipstream is powerful as you have the long straights between turn seventeen and one, aided by DRS turn one is good for overtaking, but the chicane can cause accidents as well as the second chicane.

Inspired by Monza the built within a park in the centre part of a major city, in this case, the Mexican capital of Mexico City. The race provided unique challenges for racing. Traditionally held for most of its history in late October its often one of the highlights of the season tying in with the day of the dead.

Since the races revel in 2015 both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have two wins each, the only other winner being Nico Rosberg. In this tight championship season, you need to believe that they will be evenly matched or Red Bull slightly ahead of Mercedes this weekend.

It’s an old school circuit with one of the stand out sections of the circuit being going through the Foro Baseball stadium, while not the best place for overtaking the atmosphere and if drivers pass through the section. But that is made up for by the long run from Turn Seventeen and One, with reaching speeds in excess of 370 km/h (230 mph) down the main straight.

Sergio Perez goes into this weekend with the best chance of taking the first win in Mexico, Honda also has taken the most wins of any engine manufacturer. The highest circuit on the calendar means performance is levelled despite the theory being that the reductions in performance don’t impact the teams in the same way.

The first championship race saw Jim Clark equal Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of most victories in a single season. 1964 saw the battle for both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships. Jim Clark took the victory, the following season say the Scott take on Englishmen John Surtees and Graham Hill for the drivers’ championship.

Their respective Ferrari, BRM and Lotus were in contention for the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari signalled Lorenzo Bandini to let teammate Surtees through, which he did, and Surtees finished second behind Gurney to win the championship by one point; Ferrari won the Constructors’ Championship.

Honda’s first-ever win in F1 came with Richie Gunther in 1965, before Clark became the most successful driver in Mexico. 1968 saw Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart and defending world champion Denny Hulme all having a chance of winning the title.

It proved to be a dramatic race, Hill was passed by Stewart who then retook the lead, Hulme running third until he had to pit with a broken throttle cable.

Stewart then fell back with when his engine started to misfire, his car’s handling was going off and the car also had a fuel-feed problem. But Hill had no problems, and took victory and his second driver’s championship.

Crowd control in 1968 and 1970 contributed to the cancellation of the event. 1970, a record crowd of approximately 200,000 arrived to see Pedro Rodríguez, forcing officials to delay the race start by an hour as they struggled to control the crowd. This forced the race to be abandoned after 1971.

The second revival took place in the 1980s with the new layout being used in 1986 with Gerhard Berger taking his first win despite being ill, the Austrian outlasted his opposition as tyre problems struck most of the field. The following year’s race saw Derek Warwick crash heavily coming out of the Peraltada. Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet finished first on the road, but because his Williams teammate Nigel Mansell was 30 seconds ahead when the first race ended.

The following year’s race was a low point in the Ayrton Senna/Alain Prost Rivalry. Prost qualified thirteen but managed to drive to second, while Senna led he suffered a slow puncher and then a suspension failure leading to his retirement. Prost went onto win the race.

Senna suffered a crash during practice the following season, before finishing third behind Mansell and Riccardo Patrese. However, the Brazilian was critical of the bumpy nature and demanded improvements for the next years race. Even with improvements, Mansell crashed in practice, while Senna crashed after hitting a bump in qualifying, the circuit had become too dangerous and F1 did not return until 2015.

Most of the races in the hybrid era have been won by Mercedes, Nico Rosberg was the first to win when the race returned. Rosberg beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole, before fending off the three-time champion at the first corner, he pair then pulled away from the rest of the field and finished one-two.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel had a difficult race cumulating in his retirement after hitting the wall and bringing out the safety car, Ferrari’s first double retirement since Melbourne 2006.

Hamilton won the following years race after avoiding a collision with Rosberg at the first corner. But Vettel and Max Verstappen both lost third after penalties, Vettel for dangerous driving trying to fend off Daniel Ricciardo under braking in the closing stages. Verstappen for cutting a race corner and unfairly maintaining his narrow lead over Vettel on lap 68.

Verstappen went on to take his first win in Mexico in 2017, while Hamilton wrapped up his fourth world title after finishing ahead of Vettel. The two championship rivals dropped to the back following a collision on the opening lap, both needing an early pit stop dropping them to the back.

The race then became about who could make the most progress into the points, Vettel needing to be on the podium to keep the championship alive. While the Ferrari driver made the most progress it wasn’t enough as two points for Hamilton to win his fourth title.

Verstappen won for the second time the following year ahead of the two Ferrari’s, with fourth place being enough for Hamilton to seal his fifth world title. Pole-sitter Ricciardo retired with ten laps to go.

Last time out in 2019, the dutchman and Hamilton collided on the opening lap, Verstappen race would unravel further following a collision and puncher with Valtteri Bottas dropping him to last. Hamilton retained the lead for most of the race after the pit stops to take victory and the championship.

Facts and figures

*Mexican Grand Prix

Fast facts

• At 2,240 meters above sea level, the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is by far the highest track on the current F1 calendar. Next highest is Interlagosat 765 metres. At the other end of the scale, Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi and the Sochi Autodrom are both less than 1 metre above sea level.
• The cars spend 16s per lap on the brakes. The hardest deceleration is into Turn One, where the cars slow from 354km/h (220mph) to 106km/h (66mph) in just 70 metres, with a peak longitudinal force of 4.2g. The high altitude makes brake cooling one of the trickiest engineering conundrums of the season.
• Like Barcelona, Rio De Janeiro, Brands Hatch, Fuji, Montreal and Sochi, the circuit was part of an Olympic and Paralympic Games in 1968.
• Lotus, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes are the most successful teams here, having won three times each. Ferrari and Red Bull, who are currently on two wins apiece, could join that list in 2020.
• The best result for a Mexican driver in their home Grand Prix is fourth place, scored by Pedro Rodriguez in 1968.
• The Japanese manufacturer has always fared well in Mexico, with Honda-powered cars having taken a record four victories and four pole positions in the country.

Event timetable

What happened in 2019?

Max Verstappen secured his maiden pole in Mexico, going a quarter of a second faster than Charles Leclerc. The session was brought to a premature end after Bottas crashed out as he went through the Peltrada. The crash also impacted the laps of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, who were behind Valtteri Bottas on track and finished the session third and fourth after backing off.

Hamilton took victory in a very interesting strategic race between himself and Vettel. The driver pulled off a lengthy stint to finish over a second and a half over the Ferrari but failed to score the fourteen points he needed to beat teammate Bottas.

Hamilton recovered from an early setback, as Verstappen challenged him to retake the lead. He then suffered an oversteer moment at Turn Two and Three saw him go onto the grass and lose position to Verstappen, McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

Sainz got passed the Mercedes on lap four and remained in fourth for the remainder of his stint, he ran long but ultimately had to settle for thirteenth after switching to a two-stop strategy. Verstappen collision saw Hamilton take the victory ahead of Vettel.

late contact between Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg saw the stewards award him a ten-second penalty. The Toro Rosso pushed the German into the wall and saw him break his rear wing.

McLaren’s race became an utter disaster, the British team looked on course for another best of the rest finish, but Sainz hopes faded with a two-stop strategy which left him thirteenth. Lando Norris was forced to retire after a tyre failed to attach properly.

Hamilton was looking certain to seal his title in Austin, should he finish eighth or higher he would be the only six times champion in the history of the sport.

Race Result – 1) L. Hamilton, Mercedes, 01:36:46.904, 2) S. Vettel, Ferrari, +01.766, 3) V. Bottas, Mercedes, +3.553

What to watch for?

Max Verstappen has won two races in Mexico City, and the feeling is that this circuit will favour Red Bull again. But he is tied with Lewis Hamilton on race wins in Mexico, I think this weekend is one where Red Bull could have the edge over Mercedes this weekend.

It’s a high speed and fast corners being above sea level the air is thinner, which gives engines less power and almost acts like a performance leveller. But the feeling is this will be more a Red Bull circuit, although you cannot count out Mercedes the feeling I have is that momentum is moving towards Verstappen in the championship battle is shifting.

Set up can be challenging although the next two races are the highest of the season in terms of altitude meaning low downforce and there is less oxygen for the engines to breath. This can be difficult to get right and needs good performance from the aero package, it should in theory give every team the same disadvantage but it doesn’t always work like that as some can struggle to get the right package.

There is still this battle between McLaren and Ferrari in the battle for third, I think this is a circuit where they can be evenly matched with McLaren having a slight edge. In some ways this circuit reminds me of Monza looking at it on paper with long straights and hard braking zones. We know McLaren were quick and went on to victory.

Peraltada is more banked and we have a longer run down to the first corners meaning they go even faster on the straight. Turn one is the place to watch accidents can happen as they bunch up into the chicane and safety cars can be common on the opening laps all around the circuit. Overtaking is highly likely and we could see lots of close racing in the midfield group.

As with every race this season you have this feeling you don’t know for certain what is going to happen and that’s the feeling I have with all the battles. The race will be the last of the high-speed circuits likely before we go to twister circuits, Interlagos and Abu Dhabi, we know Jeddah should be high speed and Losail more twisty but we don’t know until we get there.

2019 vs 2018 Race Data

Tyres