Everything you need to know about the coming 2022 Mexico F1 GP

The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship season will continue with its 20th Grand Prix of the year, the Mexico City GP. Both the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships have been decided in Red Bull's favor already, but there are still some things to play out in the current season, such as P2 in the WDC and WCC, and possible streaks that could be nearing an end (such as Lewis Hamilton's streak of winning a race in each season of his career).

What to cheer for now the F1 titles are won

There are three races left, and Red Bull has won 15 of the previous 19 events. It seems quite difficult to imagine Ferrari or Mercedes beating the Austrian outfit at Mexico this year, as it is a track that has suited Red Bull cars every year since 2017 and should definitely do the same for the RB18, which is the clear-cut class of the field.

Saturday will be a special day in the event, as the driver who sets Pole Position will be awarded, by the organizers and Fangio Foundation, certified replicas of the helmets worn by Ricardo and Pedro Rodríguez during their Formula 1 days. Last year's pole-sitter, Valtteri Bottas, earned a helmet of five-time F1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio for his performance in qualifying.

While Ferrari has won four races this year, Mercedes is possibly looking at its first win-less campaign since 2011, when Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher drove for the team. Although the team came close to winning at Austin, it seemed clear that Red Bull had lots of pace saved for any emergency and Max Verstappen managed to recover from a horrible pit stop to win the race.

Verstappen will have his first chance to establish a new single-season record of wins, as he's already tied Michael Schumacher's and Sebastian Vettel's tallies of 13 wins in 2004 and 2013, respectively. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is now ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Pérez in the fight for P2 in the drivers' standings by two points, but the Mexican will be looking to come out of his home race ahead of the Monegasque racer.

Behind the Top 3 in the WDC, George Russell is fourth for Mercedes with 218 points, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz (202 points). Meanwhile, multiple World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is sixth with 198 points and closed in on both his teammate and Ferrari's Spanish driver after his solid P2 at the Circuit of the Americas.

Red Bull won the World Constructors' Championship and has scored 656 points. Meanwhile, Ferrari is second with 469, and Mercedes is third with 416 and still with a chance of catching the Maranello-based Scuderia.

Alpine (144 points with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso) is still ahead of McLaren (138 points with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo) in the battle for fourth place in the World Constructors’ Championship. McLaren closed in on the French team after Fernando Alonso was demoted from his seventh place to outside of the points at Austin due to his car being dangerous on track due to a missing mirror.

Alfa Romeo (Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou) remains sixth in the WCC with 52 points. However, Aston Martin is definitely coming for that spot in the WCC due to a three-race scoring streak and now has 51 points with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll). On its side, Alfa Romeo has scored just once in the last 10 Grands Prix.

Haas (38 points - Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher) scored four points at its home race with Kevin Magnussen finishing eighth at Austin and continues in eighth place in the World Constructors’ Championship, two points ahead of AlphaTauri.

AlphaTauri (36 points - Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda), and Williams (8 points with Alexander Albon, Nicholas Latifi and Nyck De Vries) round out the WCC positions.

2022 Mexico City GP Facts & Figures

The 2022 edition of the Mexico City Grand Prix will be the 22nd Formula 1 World Championship race held in the country.

The first edition of the Mexican Grand Prix occurred in 1962, with a non-championship race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, which was then named Magdalena Mixhuca. The event was won by Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor, who shared their Lotus car.

However, the first Mexican Grand Prix saw tragedy, with Ricardo Rodríguez suffering a fatal crash during practice. The circuit was renamed after that 1962 race, and today celebrates the lives of Ricardo and his brother Pedro Rodríguez, who won two Formula 1 races in his career and also suffered a fatal crash during a sports car event in Germany in 1971.

The first era of the official Mexican Grand Prix went from 1963 and 1970, and the event saw the World Drivers’ Championship sealed three times during that span because the race was often near the end of the calendar.

In 1964, John Surtees became the first (and so far only) man to win the motorcycle World Riders’ Championship and Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship, as he sealed his title in Mexico beating Graham Hill and Jim Clark. Clark led the first 63 laps of the race and was on course to win the title before a mechanical failure ended his title quest.

Denny Hulme sealed the 1967 WDC at Mexico after finishing third and protecting his championship lead against his Brabham teammate Jack Brabham, who finished second in the race behind Jim Clark.

Graham Hill did the same in 1968, as he won the race to beat Jackie Stewart’s Matra and Hulme’s McLaren in the final race of the season, in Mexico.

Autodromo Hernandes Rodriguez start grid

Crowd control became a problem in the late 1960s, and the 1970 Mexican Grand Prix, with a crowd of 200,000 was brutal in terms of safety for the crowd and drivers, and the event did not return to the calendar until the mid-1980s. Pedro Rodríguez’s death on July 11th, 1971, played a part in the cancellation of the 1971 Mexican Grand Prix as well.

The event returned to the F1 calendar in 1986, at the same track, and Gerhard Berger took his maiden GP win after tyre issues hindered the big rivals. It was also the first win of the Benetton team.

The 1987 race was a weird one, with Nelson Piquet finishing first on the track but Nigel Mansell winning for Williams because he had a 30-second lead when the race was stopped midway due to a red flag.

Alain Prost won for McLaren in the MP4/4 in 1988, and Ayrton Senna gave the Woking team consecutive wins at Mexico with a triumph in 1989. The 1990 race was arguably the best Mexican Grand Prix in recent decades, as Ayrton Senna lost the win in the late stages due to a puncture and Alain Prost emerged as the leader for Ferrari after starting 13th on the grid.

Moreover, the battle for second was amazing between Senna’s and Prost’s teammates, Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger. Berger overtook Mansell late, with the Englishman returning the favor with one of the greatest overtakes in F1 history, around the outside in the final corner, the Peraltada.

Williams-Renault dominated the 1991 and 1992 events, with Riccardo Patrese and Mansell, respectively. The 1992 event, however, saw pressure from FISA to make the track safer, while there were rumours of financial problems from the organizers of the event. Ultimately, Mexico left the F1 calendar again.

The Mexican Grand Prix returned to Formula 1 in 2015, with a renewed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and it was a big event due to the presence of Mexican driver Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez.

Mexican Esteban Gutiérrez was also in the driver mix, and it all helped in making the Mexican round a big part at the country. Mercedes dominated the 2015 and 2016 events, with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, respectively. Red Bull won consecutive races in 2017 and 2018 with Max Verstappen, who became the first driver to win straight races in the country since Jim Clark in the 1962 and 1963 editions (although the 1962 race was not part of the championship).

In the 2017 and 2018 races, Lewis Hamilton sealed his fourth and fifth World Drivers' Championships, respectively.

Start of the 2021 Mexico F1 GP running 4 cars wide into turn 1

Hamilton and Mercedes returned to victory at Mexico in 2019 after the Englishman had a first-lap encounter with Verstappen in the first corner and both went off the track. The 2020 race was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the 2021 event was a successful one, although the race was known as the Mexico City Grand Prix due to financial support from the Mexico City government.

Verstappen won the 2021 event comfortably ahead of Hamilton, while Red Bull's Sergio Pérez finished third for his first podium at his home event.

Among drivers, Max Verstappen is now at the top with three victories, while Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, and Lewis Hamilton are tied with two wins at Mexico. Clark has three wins, but the first one was not an official Grand Prix. Among teams, Lotus, McLaren, Williams, Mercedes, and Red Bull are tied with three wins apiece for the most in the country.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez track info

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, at Mexico City, Mexico, is a 4.304-km long circuit with 17 corners that will demand great balance to the current Formula 1 cars, due to the number of turns it has and the long main straight

Its elevation of over 2,200 meters plays a big role too, as it affects the cars’ aerodynamics and can often change the pecking order seen at other circuits due to the thin air. The fast final corner, Peraltada, was the main feature of the track in past decades, but since its return to F1 in 2015, part of the Peraltada was modified and the Foro Sol, which was a baseball stadium, is now part of the track and is surely one of the most spectacular images seen in F1 during race day.

The podium also takes place at the Foro Sol, instead of the usual site at the pit building.

There will be three DRS sections in the 2022 event: on the main straight, between turns 3 and 4, and between turns 11 and 12.

The race will be run over a distance of 305.354 km and will have 71 laps.

The lap record at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was established by Valtteri Bottas, driving for Mercedes in 2021, with a 1:17.774 min lap in the 2021 race. Daniel Ricciardo established the outright Fastest Lap in Qualifying for the 2018 race, with a 1:14.759 min lap in the Red Bull RB14.

2022 Mexico City Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice with a statement in a press release: “Mexico is the highest event on the Formula 1 calendar at more than 2200 metres above sea level. The thin air affects engines as well as aerodynamics, generating less downforce at lower speeds especially. With this year’s ground effect floors, it’s going to be interesting to note the impact on downforce compared to last year.

There’s quite a lot of temperature variation during the day in Mexico, even in the space of a few hours, which affects thermal degradation: an important parameter that the teams will need to monitor.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is the ‘contingency plan’ to replace the cancelled 2023 tyre test planned for the Japanese Grand Prix. The FP2 session in Mexico will run for 90 minutes to assess the softer slick compounds for next year, while in Austin the harder prototypes were run.

As was the case last Friday, the entire session will be devoted to the tyre test with Pirelli setting the run plan. If a team uses a young driver for FP1, it is allowed to run its own programme for the first part of FP2 before concentrating on the tyre test for the remainder of the session. The prototype tyres don’t carry coloured markings on the sidewalls."

Pirelli's Motorsport Director, Mario Isola, also talked about the upcoming challenge in Mexico: “Mexico is a completely different challenge to the two races that came before it.

“Over the course of a season, our tyres have to cope with a wide variety of conditions depending on the individual characteristics of each venue. If you look back at the last two races, Suzuka was all about lateral forces and Austin was well-balanced aerodynamically, but Mexico this weekend focuses on traction and braking. The Hermanos Rodriguez circuit does not offer a lot of grip and the energy demands on the tyres are reasonably low, as the cars do not generate much downforce in the thin air at high altitude, especially in slow corners.

This year, the circuit might be more front-limited, as the current generation of car tends to understeer through slow corners – which Mexico has plenty of – and this can lead to some sliding on the front tyres. Due to the nature of the venue the circuit tends to feature a dusty surface with plenty of track evolution. Understanding this and getting the tyre warm-up exactly right is likely to be the key to success.”

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 23.5 PSI (front) and 20.5 PSI (rear).

2022 Mexico City Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Friday, Oct 28th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny and warm
Max. temperature: 27°C
Chance of rain: 5%

Saturday, Oct 29th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly sunny with a shower
Max. temperature: 25°C
Chance of rain: 60%

Sunday, Oct 30th - Race
Conditions: Scattered thunderstorms
Max. temperature: 26°C
Chance of rain: 8%

Who will be on the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix podium?

The 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix could have a wet qualifying that may produce a mixed grid for Sunday's event. However, it hasn't always been the case in 2022, as the pecking order at the front has remained usually similar even with rainy conditions.

2021 Mexico F1 GP podium:1. Max Verstappen, 2. Lewis Hamilton & 3. Sergio Pérez

Red Bull is the heavy favorite for the race, as usual, and it will be interesting to see if the team and Max Verstappen would work towards giving Sergio Pérez a chance to win his home Grand Prix, even though that isn't his duty and the Dutchman has a historic chance in front of him.

Will Verstappen set a new single-season record for most wins? A safe bet would be yes. The Dutchman has everything at his disposal to dominate yet another Grand Prix and small inconvenience, such as a bad pit stop, will probably not be enough to stop him from getting a victory.

The prediction for the Top 3 of the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Sergio Pérez, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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