Everything you need to know about the coming 2023 Mexico F1 GP
For the first time since September 24th, Formula 1 will have a normal, Sprint-free weekend, as the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix arrives on Sunday. There are four races left in the 2023 Formula 1 season and everything has already been decided, with Red Bull dominating both the World Drivers' and Constructors' championships.
Can Red Bull win their 18th GP?
The Austrian team has dominated 17 of the 18 Grands Prix of the season so far and doesn't seem ready to stop dismantling rivals on the track, regardless of track layouts, weather, or any other issue that could present.
Max Verstappen has won 15 races this year, equalling his own F1 record for a single season, and is the clear-cut favorite to dominate the last four races of the season, with his RB19 car being clearly ahead of the competition. McLaren has been the closest to Red Bull in recent outings but is still far from truly threatening Red Bull's car.
Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, has kept its place as the second team behind Red Bull in terms of points. However, Mercedes is overachieving and could see itself threatened by the Scuderia Ferrari in the late stages of the campaign, and perhaps McLaren could join that fight if it continues finishing on the podium consistently (the Woking-based team now has four consecutive races with a podium finish, including double-podium results at Japan and Qatar).
At Austin, McLaren (242 points) overtook Aston Martin for fourth place among teams and is looking to challenge Ferrari (322) for a spot in the Top 3.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton
Among drivers, Verstappen (466 points) sealed the championship back in Qatar, while his teammate Sergio Pérez remains second with 240 points, 39 ahead of the best-of-the-rest, Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso is still fourth for Aston Martin with 183 points but is clearly being threatened by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz (171 points) and McLaren's Lando Norris (159). Charles Leclerc's disqualification from the US Grand Prix meant that he remains seventh in the WDC with 151 points, 20 behind his teammate Sainz.
In the lower half of the Constructors' standings, Williams took a nice jump with both Alex Albon (ninth) and Logan Sargeant (10th) scoring points in the US Grand Prix. In Sargeant's case, he finished an F1 race in the points for the first time, and he did it on home soil. Williams is now eighth in the WCC with a 10-point gap over its closest rival, Alfa Romeo.
2023 Mexico City GP Facts & Figures
The 2023 edition of the Mexico City Grand Prix will be the 23rd 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, a two-time race-winner in Formula 1. Pedro 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 to 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.
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 main contenders. It was also the first win of the Benetton team.
The 1987 race was weird, 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, Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell. 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, giving Ferrari a 1-2.
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 party in 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.
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 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 and 2022 events comfortably ahead of Hamilton, while Red Bull's Sergio Pérez finished third in the last two races, his first two podiums at home.
Among drivers, Max Verstappen is now at the top with four 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, Red Bull's four victories are the most for any team in Mexico..
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.
2023 Mexico City Grand Prix - Tyres
The dry tyres for the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix will be the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C5 as P Zero Red soft. This alternative is softer than the one implemented in the 2022 edition.
Pirelli's Head of Motorsport, Mario Isola, explained the company's view for the upcoming weekend: "The second stop on Formula 1’s American tour takes place in Mexico City on the circuit named after Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez: the brothers who were local motorsport heroes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The track, located on the west side of the city, is just over four kilometres long with 17 corners and it sits at more than 2000 metres of altitude. This has an important effect on car performance, with the rarefied air reducing drag and also downforce. As a result, the aero settings on the cars are similar to those used on high-downforce circuits – only with a much reduced effect on the tyres. The grip from the asphalt is also much less than average, as surface roughness is among the lowest of the entire calendar.
This year we have decided to bring the three softest compounds to Mexico – C3, C4 and C5 – after careful reflection based on last year’s information, as well as the simulations that the teams have as always supplied to us. This should lead to a wider variety of strategy choices throughout the race, opening the door to a two-stop strategy as well. Last year, when the chosen compounds were C2, C3, and C4, nearly all the drivers stopped only once, mainly using soft and medium.
Mexico also gives us the chance to try out a new variant of the C4 with all the teams. During the two hours of free practice on Friday each driver will have two sets of these new prototypes to use as they wish. Once we have analysed all the data, we will then decide whether or not to homologate this version for use in 2024.”+
The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 23.5 PSI (front) and 20.5 PSI (rear).
2023 Mexico City Grand Prix - Weather Forecast
Friday, Oct 27th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Decreasing clouds
Max. temperature: 25°C
Chance of rain: 5%
Saturday, Oct 28th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Decreasing clouds
Max. temperature: 25°C
Chance of rain: 6%
Sunday, Oct 29th - Race
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Max. temperature: 26°C
Chance of rain: 2%
Who will be on the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix podium?
2022 Mexico F1 GP podium: Race winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2nd Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) & 3rd Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
Mexico hasn't always followed the usual pecking order seen throughout the season, but the last three events in the country have been won by the best car of that season, with Mercedes winning in 2019 and Red Bull winning in 2021 and 2022.
Can McLaren, Ferrari, or Mercedes take advantage of the track's nature? Well, let me just say that I'll bet on Lewis Hamilton taking his first win since December 5th, 2021. That would be the best way to end his negative streak of two races without scoring any points.
Yes, it is an unlikely result and clearly a choice made without considering how the teams' pecking order will be in Mexico, but let us bet on a great race with different strategies and Mercedes finally coming out on top.
The prediction for the Top 3 of the 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix is 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. Sergio Pérez.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
