Don’t judge Mexico on new track’s first race – Alonso

2015 Mexican Grand Prix

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Fernando Alonso cautioned against judging the changes made to the Mexico’s F1 track on the strength of its first race this weekend.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has been extensively renovated ahead of its return to the F1 schedule following a 23-year absence. But Alonso urged against rushing to conclusions about it after just one race.

“The race itself, how it can be, it’s impossible to predict,” said Alonso. “We should not judge on Sunday afternoon on whatever race it was.”

“In Russia we saw a very boring race the first year and very exciting race the second. The circuit was exactly the same.”

“Sometimes in football you see nil-nil, sometimes five-four. It’s difficult to predict, this sport. First we need to enjoy this weekend and put on a good race for all the fans.”

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has pointed out that the tyre compound choice for this weekend is “more conservative” than usual, as tends to be the case when F1 races at a new track for the first time.

However home driver Sergio Perez is optimistic of a close race on Sunday.

Perez expects “great racing” in Mexico
“The track layout itself, the circuit, it’s a great circuit,” he said. ” It can really offer good racing. We have one of the longest straights, which generally always helps to have good racing.”

“So, I would really expect to have great racing between all of us on Sunday, which will be great for the fans.”

“It’s great to hear all of the drivers so happy to be here in my country,” he added during the FIA press conference on Thursday. “That makes me feel very proud of what we have done.”

“I think, walking through the paddock, it looks like we have done a great job for the track and we can compare this track against any other around the world.”

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    15 comments on “Don’t judge Mexico on new track’s first race – Alonso”

    1. I wonder if the whole track is re-surfaced? If so, will it have the oily grease experienced in Sochi-Russia last year?

      1. Yes, the whole track was resurfaced Yoseph. And it probabably will suffer from that just like other new tracks did, however not as much as Sochi, because they used an atypical bitumen mix there

        1. Thanks. Hoping for an exciting race nonetheless. Cheers,

    2. Monza was boring, yet people wont complain about the track. But had it been a new track then people complain that the track ain’t good. Reality is, there can only be few good races, which happens when various variables are set in motion and meet at the right time, just like last race.

      1. Monza also has a long history of exciting racing

        1. What i am trying to say is, its not just the track, the conditions around the track plus the difference between the car performances, preparation also greatly influence a good race. Last race was good because most teams were unprepared due to lack of running, drivers were struggling, the conditions tested them, which resulted in lot of incidents and brought the safety car out, which ensured close racing.

      2. Ofc. people expects tracks created in 2015 with F1 in sole focus to meet certain hard criteria that for obvious reasons cant be met by tracks made in the thirties. Its not comparable.

      3. Monza has chicanes to slow the cars down now; just look up the 1969 or 1971 Italian GP’s and you will see what kind of racing Monza has produced in its long history. Back in those days Monza had no chicanes- not even the Ascari chicane- which was just a simple flat out left hand bend back then. On such a simple, fast circuit, all the cars did back then had slipstreaming battles all throughout the race- in 1971, 5 cars battled for the lead and the winner, Peter Gethin beat Ronnie Peterson by one-one hundredth of a second, or by a whole front section between the front suspension and the front bulkhead- which I believe is the closest F1 finish of all time- and the first 4 finishers had two tenths between them, there were something like 55 lead changes throughout the whole race, not one car led the race for more than 8 laps. Absolutely incredible.

    3. Hm, interesting that it seems Alonso is not expecting an interesting race.

      1. @bascb would you expect an interesting race if you were driving a Mclaren? lol
        (ps. I am a McLaren fan)

        1. I think it might get quite eventfull @barkun, but yeah, not really something to look forward to for them

    4. I like how they have some barriers around the sausage kerb – it’s the most dangerous thing in the picture!

    5. We have one of the longest straights, which generally always helps to have good racing.

      Well it helps to produce a lot of boringly easy DRS highway passing… whether or not that qualifies as good racing i’m not so sure as I tend to find that sort of non-racing incredibly dull & devoid of any interest or excitement!

      1. I wonder if they could have done a full circle in the stadium and come to use all of the Peralta curve?

        1. I doubt it, for the same reasons the track goes through the stadium in the first place

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