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.
Although he signed a contract extension with his team earlier in the year, that has done little to boost his on-track production. Over the months, Perez’s lack of points compared to Verstappen have seen Red Bull lose the lead of the constructors’ championship – something that seemed unfathomable in the early phase of the season as the team dominated.
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
Out of the four race winning teams in 2024, none have fluctuated so much in form or been as difficult to predict race-to-race as Mercedes.
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?
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Rules of racing under question again
The controversial end to Sunday’s race in Austin saw the stewards effectively decide whether Max Verstappen or Lando Norris would receive the final podium position after their latest on-track clash.
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.
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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.
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O’Ward’s Friday cameo
The end of the season means it is time for teams to cram in their compulsory Friday practice junior driver sessions while they still can.
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
Although he won’t take part in the first session, this weekend will mark Alonso’s 400th participation in a Formula 1 grand prix event.
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.
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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.
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2024 Mexican Grand Prix
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