Just one week after the United States Grand Prix, Formula 1 heads south of the border into Mexico for the second round of a triple header of races.
Unlike last weekend in Austin, a traditional race weekend format awaits drivers in Mexico City. The thousands of passionate Mexican fans who will be heading to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be hoping for another weekend of close competition at the front of the field, as was seen at Circuit of the Americas.But could this be the last Mexican Grand Prix weekend for the nation’s most successful Formula 1 driver? These are the talking points for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Checo’s curtain call?
It’s been a difficult few seasons for Sergio Perez.
Despite having his best year of his career, statistically, in 2023, coming second in the drivers’ championship to his team mate, and helping his team to two consecutive constructors’ titles, Sergio Perez has consistently underperformed over the last two seasons relative to the potential of his car. While Verstappen has dominated for so much of that time and continued to score podiums even when Red Bull were caught by rivals, Perez has regularly been nowhere in comparison to his world champion team mate.
Team principal Christian Horner has continued to remain patient with his second driver. But while he has publicly backed him, Horner has also not shied away from admitting they need Perez to be contributing a lot more to their constructors’ championship efforts than he is. The pressure on him has only increased following Liam Lawson’s successful return to Red Bull’s second team last weekend.
At the very least, Perez will want to put on a better showing than last year, when he was eliminated from the race at the first corner after clashing with Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes’ mystery car
The team that have won three rounds so far this season looked like they were primed to be a serious force in Austin, with only an unfortunate yellow flag for Lewis Hamilton arguably preventing them from securing pole position for the sprint race in Friday qualifying. But from that point onwards, Mercedes’ weekend fell apart.
George Russell slipped backwards in the sprint race before Lewis Hamilton was astonishingly eliminated from grand prix qualifying in 16th place. Then Russell crashed out in Q3, damaging his car so much that he was forced to start the race from the pit lane. Although Russell recovered to sixth, Hamilton spun out of the race on only the second lap.
This weekend, which Mercedes will show up in Mexico? Will the team start strong and carry momentum through the rest of the weekend, or will their pace vanish when they need it most for the second straight weekend?
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Rules of racing under question again
Ultimately, Norris lost third place after the stewards decided he was guilty of passing Verstappen illegally off the track. They cited the FIA’s driving standards guidelines, noting that Verstappen had been ahead at the apex of the corner as they ran side-by-side into turn 12, but the fact the Red Bull also ran off the track appeared to fall into a grey area within the rules.
It’s inevitable that the rules are going to be under the spotlight this weekend as drivers seek to clarify what is acceptable and what is not after a series of incidents down at turn 12 which resulted in penalties – including one to Oscar Piastri in the sprint race that even the Ferrari drivers agreed did not seem fair.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Battle for sixth spices up
Although the focus continues to be on the fight at the front of the field, the competition in the midfield is getting increasingly exciting also as every points score becomes more and more crucial.
Last weekend in Austin, there was a significant shift in the lower half of the constructors’ championship standings. RB, who have held sixth position in the championship since the third round in Australia, were overtaken by Haas who enjoyed an exceptional showing in their home grand prix, taking points in the sprint race and the grand prix.
Haas have steadily built momentum throughout the season under new team principal Ayao Komatsu, including recently announcing a new technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing. If they maintain their current position, it will be Haas’ best season since 2018, where they secured fifth place.
However, this was a particularly strong weekend for RB last season, with Daniel Ricciardo qualifying on the second row for the race and finishing in seventh. RB will be hoping for another good showing at the circuit this weekend, to help land a counter punch to the blow dealt to them by Haas in Austin.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
O’Ward’s Friday cameo
This weekend, McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward will get a very special opportunity to run the team’s car in his home nation. O’Ward has previously participated in two practice sessions in his career, in Abu Dhabi in both 2022 and 2023.
Three other juniors will also appear tomorrow. Andrea Kimi Antonelli will also return for Mercedes, no doubt hoping to avoid a repeat of his Monza crash.
Robert Shwartzman will step into Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber on Friday, his second outing of the season following his previous appearance at Zandvoort, and Felipe Drugovich will take over Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.
Alonso’s 400th weekend
He is not set to yet make his 400th grand prix start until the penultimate round of the season in Qatar. Nonetheless this will be the first time a driver has appeared on 400 grand prix entry lists – 35.7% of all world championship rounds held by then.
Testing tyres
Friday’s second practice session will be unusually long this weekend as Pirelli have been given the opportunity to test out their intended tyres for 2025. To do this, the session has been extended by 30 minutes to last a total of 90.
Teams will get the opportunity to test a new potential C6 compound designed to help improve strategy options around street circuits following the dreadfully dull Monaco Grand Prix.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Are you going to the Mexican Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Mexico for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Mexican Grand Prix? Have your say below.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Mexican Grand Prix
- McLaren have no regrets over pitting Norris shortly before red flag came out
- Leclerc fined, avoids same penalty as Verstappen after apologising for swearing
- Leclerc not in the clear over swearing as Verstappen claims he went unpunished
- Majority of drivers wanted racing rules to change “straight away” – Russell
- Verstappen was “over the limit” with Norris but others would do same – Leclerc
David
24th October 2024, 8:38
Perez has had a good career, but there are very good drivers who deserve a shot too. There’s too many talented up and coming drivers and you can’t hide. He’s way off Verstappen.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
24th October 2024, 8:43
Expecting Perez to announce his retirement from F1 and move to another series. Kinda confirms his statement that he is going nowhere (ie still involved in motorsport, just not in F1) and his father’s recent assertion that he will be world champion with the right tools at his disposal. You read it here first. That, or I should stop making wild predictions.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th October 2024, 10:27
@thedoctor03 I’m not expecting anything & nothing will happen even after the season as long as he & Red Bull don’t say differently.
notagrumpyfan
24th October 2024, 16:37
A bit of an ‘open door’ statement, or more like: the door remains closed as long as you don’t turn the knob/handle and pull/push the door. :P
Simon
24th October 2024, 16:56
That kind of statement is what @jerejj is famous for… splinters in backsides indeed
David
24th October 2024, 13:09
I’d be very surprised, as that is effectively holding out the white flag for the constructors championship (even the 2nd place spot). But if he has an outstanding result at home, maybe he’ll be tempted to make a big announcement?
You do raise a good point – retirement is the honourable way out. Horner defended him a lot before the summer break but he’s basically responsible for the team losing the constructors title, that’s a lot of money and a lot of kudos. I think it is very likely he will be “let go” mid contract over the winter.
David BR (@david-br)
24th October 2024, 22:24
@thedoctor03 Well, the Marko-fed rumours are that Piastri has been in talks with Red Bull about joining them in 2025.
Let that sink in.
Checo out: sure, more than time. Piastri in: good compliment for Verstappen and potentially a backup plan if Max is enticed by Alpine or Mercedes.
But McLaren, I mean, really. If it happens, huge egg-on-faces time.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
25th October 2024, 12:37
hes fighting his team, more than the other teams. Its obvious he got sunk a couple years ago, and has a huge chip on his shoulder. His success is staying in F1, and maybe even subconsciously, screwing his team over.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 9:00
Helmut couldn’t make it clearer he wants him gone and only the diehard Checo fan would argue he doesn’t deserve the boot 10x over. Checo had some good times in F1. He really shouldn’t stoop to being forced out kicking and screaming. I’m sure RBR will miss the $50m+ in Mexican sponsorship + all the merchandise sales (64% of RBR merchandise sold is Checo branded), but they won’t miss the headache of incessant media pressure or a driver who cannot function as a rear gunner.
Señor Sjon
24th October 2024, 10:10
Regarding Perez:
This was the standing after Spain, last of the Verstappen victories. 9 races on:
219 > 354 Verstappen +145
150 > 297 Norris +147
148 > 275 Leclerc +127
116 > 215 Sainz +99
111 > 150 Perez +39
87 > 247 Piastri +160
81 > 167 Russel +86
70 > 177 Hamilton +107
Post Spain order:
160 Piastri
147 Norris
145 Verstappen
127 Leclerc
107 Hamilton
99 Sainz
86 Russel
39 Perez
307 McLaren
226 Ferrari
193 Mercedes
184 Red Bull
Only 39 points, less than half of the no7. Yes, he crashed in Baku when he was in a good position, but that wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 10:16
Piastri has outscored Norris by 13 points since Spain? That’s a fairly damning statistic.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
24th October 2024, 10:38
A great post and good insight in how bad Perez actually performed and how well Max has maximized his results despite not winning and Red Bull becoming 2nd-4th quickest car fluctuating between races.
Also interesting to see that Piastri outscored Norris over the last 9 races.
Minor correction – Max scored 135 points since Spain not 145 points.
MichaelN
24th October 2024, 12:36
These stats are, even if apparently a tad to generous for Verstappen, still very much the core of his strength. As the saying goes, you win based on your worst weekends, and Verstappen had done a tremendous job minimising his points loss over the summer.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th October 2024, 10:26
Checo’s curtain call? – Not yet.
Mercedes’ mystery car – Indeed & I predict they’ll again be the outright fourth-fastest team.
Rules of racing under question again – Unfortunately, yes. Still unnecessarily ambiguous & inconsistent, although on a side note, Alpine’s temporary livery makes the image seem like there’d be three McLaren’s in succession.
Battle for sixth spices up – Yes, & while that battle could go either way around, I bet on Haas keeping P6 until the end.
O’Ward’s Friday cameo – Definitely a special occasion for him, although I’m baffled that every season most teams wait with their minimum requirements until the last two viable options, i.e., familiar permanent circuits with standard format rather than use the many earlier opportunities to get their requirements fully out of the way, especially Circuit De Catalunya, which is ultimately the most ideal circuit for full-time drivers to lose a single practice session, given excessive familiarity throughout their racing careers starting from lower single-seaters.
Alonso’s 400th weekend – A note-worthy achievement, although the 400th Grand Prix start at the Losail International Circuit will be even more note-worthy & ultimately, this offset was caused by the 2005 US & 2017 Russian GP DNS’s as well as 2001 Belgian GP because the original start became null & void.
Testing tyres – Not the first time Mexico FP2 is 1h30min long because of prototype tyres, so nothing new on this front.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 11:10
+1 on every single point. Feels novel to be in complete agreement.
Asd
24th October 2024, 10:38
Yes, get this guy out of a RedBull already!
MTCC Mexican Touring Car Championship ← That’s the place for Perez.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
24th October 2024, 10:47
There’s very, very little justification for retaining Checo come 2025. He’s confident, but he was also confident before the summer break and the only reason he got away with it was because neither Yuki nor Daniel were impressing RBR. If Lawson strings together a series of good results (ala Colapinto), I reckon they’ll just promote him. It certainly cannot go any worse.
Perez’s doing a Lance Stroll now, he seems competely absent during weekend. You have to remind yourself he’s there competing… and the only reason he’s still picking (few) points is because he drives a Red Bull car. He’s struggling to do the bare minimum.
Craig
24th October 2024, 10:59
The justification would be that he’s not a threat to Verstappen, which is largely what Red Bull (and Verstappen) wants at present especially as they could largely excuse their way out of bringing a junior up. Of course their track record at brining juniors into the ‘main team’ is pretty abysmal if you’re not perceived as the new golden boy so half the time I think drivers are lucky not to be put in the ‘other’ Red Bull seat.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 11:13
Their failure is because they’ve not been enough to be considered the next golden boy. Vettel and Ricciardo weren’t considered their next “golden boy” before they joined TR or RBR in DR’s case. It’s not RBR’s fault that all the drivers who have sat next to Max have been dismal failures.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
24th October 2024, 13:58
Losing the constructors title (or even second place) isn’t fun. There are more qualified people that can fulfill that role. And what if Max suddenly leaves? there needs to be a line of drivers ready to step up, which RBR doesn’t have ever since Max exploded the scene.
I’d even put Bottas there instead of Perez!
Martin (@f1hornet)
24th October 2024, 15:03
I do find it so strange given how easily Red Bull dropped people like Albon, Gasly, and Kvyat from the senior team in the past, not to mention the likes of Jean Eric Vergne and Sebastien Buemi from Toro Rosso back in the day, but have kept on Perez and Tsunoda for so long.
Craig
24th October 2024, 15:52
Whatever logic Red Bull seems to work on seems very different to everyone else’s while the junior driver program frequently looks extremely arbitrary from how quickly certain drivers are accelerated through (or even past) it or dropped.
Coventry Climax
24th October 2024, 11:07
Since the beginning of the GE era, Mercedes are having trouble understanding their cars.
They’ve said to be on top of it on quite a number of occasions since then, last time being a couple races back, after they suddenly found themselves back at the front again.
But it would seem that that performance peak was at least partly due to luck: We’ve since not seen the consistency associated with fully understanding your car.
On the curtain call for Perez: One can hope, but I don’t think it will happen in Mexico. To keep up the analogy: He has certainly been on stage for way too long and had too many encores, which undoubtedly will have an effect on the extent and volume for his final applause, as well as on the true intent of it.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 11:22
One amazing thing is how Ferrari has gone from terrible tire wear to easily the easiest on its tires of any car on the grid.
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
24th October 2024, 11:26
I know how to cure the dull Monaco Grand Prix – don’t hold it on that anachronistic street circuit and call it something else :)
An Sionnach
24th October 2024, 12:39
It’s going to be hard to determine what to do with the rules. It was much simpler back when the driver ahead was entitled to hold the racing line and the one behind had to ensure they made a clean pass. Technology has allowed us to analyse manoeuvres in minute detail since then. I don’t know how drivers are supposed to calculate all of this as it happens when it’s difficult to do it after the fact with many angles, frame by frame and with full telemetry. Is it time to go back to something simpler? At present a driver has little chance of knowing what the outcome will be so they may as well go for it and let the stewards work it out. That must be part of the problem. We’ve got DRS now to make passing simpler. The driver in front has to allow space in many situations where they’re effectively dive bombed from behind. Will this rule change so many seem to want make it impossible to stay ahead?
MichaelN
24th October 2024, 15:04
It works both ways, though. Enforcement of the no crowding rule also limits the attacking driver, and gets rid of the Senna antics that it’s either crash or give up. Once enforced, F1 drivers will adept and once more give each other room.
An Sionnach
24th October 2024, 17:04
Perhaps I’m wrong and the drivers can judge these things? Going back to the way I suggested might stop the Senna antics from behind. I wasn’t thinking of those from in front. I suppose that’s in question here – would Max have been in front at the apex if he made the corner? Is it enough to flag track limits for the defending driver in such a situation? Could they get two strikes? That means they can’t do it forever.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
24th October 2024, 13:30
KISS – Checo’s gotta 2 go!
Frank
24th October 2024, 14:26
According to mostlyf1, Alonso has lasted longer in F1 than all but 7 teams.
Obviously Ferrari, Mclaren and Williams
Lotus & Tyrell
Sauber in all its different disguises
And Renault, pre-enstone and enstone combined
Adam (@rocketpanda)
24th October 2024, 15:29
I do like Perez but I think it’s time. I think he’d have a lot to offer a midfield or backmarker team – if there was space, but he’s so consistently behind Verstappen and by such a margin it’s cost them the constructor’s title and will probably cost them 2nd place too. Nobody expected him to beat Verstappen consistently, but they probably expected him to be closer and up against the Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes lineups Red Bull look like they’re fighting with one hand tied behind their back. I have a feeling it won’t happen – but sadly I think it should.
Edvaldo
24th October 2024, 18:16
I doubt he’ll announce anything. He signed for 2025 because he still wants to race. He didn’t hit any milestone that made him change his mind, like Rosberg or anything.
This exact same talk was said last year in the weekend of the Mexico GP.
The only way he’d be leaving is if Red Bull fired him already and is giving him the chance to choose how to address it to the public.
Nick T.
24th October 2024, 20:35
+1