Start, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2017

Showers expected during Mexican Grand Prix weekend

2018 Mexican Grand Prix weather

Posted on

| Written by

While the effects of Hurricane Willa and Tropical Storm Vicente are being felt in other parts of Mexico, the country’s capital is expected to see mixed conditions for the upcoming three days of Formula 1 action.

Current forecasts indicate showers are possible on all three days. But will they coincide with any of the competitive sessions?

Friday running at the Circuit of the Americas was disrupted by heavy rain, but warm and sunny conditions are expected tomorrow at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Air temperatures are expected to hit a pleasant 23C, though in the evening it will cloud over and there’s a strong chance of rain.

Wet conditions will be a concern throughout Saturday. There is a risk of light showers in the morning and thunderstorms are possible around midday. Qualifying begins at 1pm local time.

Three days out, the forecast for race day is more variable, with showers possible at different times of the day. The general expectation is that any rainfall is likely to be moderate at worst.

Note that Mexico’s daylight savings observance ends on Sunday morning and the clocks go back one hour at 2am, as is also the case in the UK, meaning the time differences between those two countries is unaffected.

Situated in Magdalena Mixhuca park in the middle of a vast, sprawling metropolis, the track surface at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is generally quite low on grip. It tends to improve little during the course of a race weekend – last year’s pole position time was only 1.4 seconds faster than the best lap seen in first practice.

The low rate of lap time improvement is also due to teams being unable to use their engines as aggressively because of the thin air at this high altitude track. At 2,200 metres above sea level, this track is three times higher than Interlagos, the next-highest venue on the calendar.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

For more updates on the track conditions during each session keep an eye on RaceFans Live and the RaceFans Twitter account.

2018 Mexican Grand Prix

Browse all 2018 Mexican Grand Prix articles

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

13 comments on “Showers expected during Mexican Grand Prix weekend”

  1. On and off rain showers during qualifying and the race, please, if available to order. Seems ages since we’ve had a race with drivers mixing up dry and wet tyres, not knowing which to risk. Personally I like full rain, but nowadays that seems to mean stopping the race entirely or driving around behind the SC for lap after lap, so no.

    1. For now I’d settle for having them disrupt much of the practice sessions and maybe throw in a spanner for qualifying @david-br. That would give us a somewhat mixed grid and the same thing we had in Austin where teams were uncertain about the tyres holding up

      1. It almost seems too obvious restrict to 1 free practice session?

      2. @bascb I get the logic but I really would like to see more rain in the race, just feels like we’re owed one this year.

        1. I’d be fine with rain, just it seems that most of the time there is some rain predicted it tends to miss just about all serious running, so I’d be happy if it did just hit practice enough to affect the race @david-br!

  2. Hopefully, it wouldn’t hit qualifying at least as was the case last time out at COTA.

  3. F1 2018: showers promised, showers don’t arrive, lather, rinse and repeat

    1. The rain gods don’t like F1.

  4. I know! McLaren and Williams haven’t quit yet.

  5. That’s not news. I don’t need you to tell me McLaren and Williams are running this weekend.

    1. *badum-tish*

  6. Showers Expected
    ME: Guarantee Hamilton qualifies ahead of Vettel then

  7. Yay!

Comments are closed.