The F1x

• The Out Lap

  • All About the Mexican Grand Prix

  • Perez Special Helmet

  • Williams Heritage Livery

  • Alonso Illness to Celebrate 400th Career Grand Prix

• News From the Week

  • Will Colapinto Get a Drive For Next Year?

  • Oscar Piastri to Red Bull?

  • Zak Brown on the Red Bull Bib

  • Who Gets the 2025 Red Bull Seat?

  • Leclerc Goes Airborne

  • VCARB Boss on Daniel Ricciardo

The Out Lap

All About the Mexican Grand Prix

71 laps / 4.304km / 17 turns / lap record 1:17.774 (Bottas 2021)

The Mexican GP is held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where it took place between 1986 and 1992, and then again from 2015 to the present day.

The first-ever F1 Championship Mexican GP was held in 1963 at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit.

The track sits at 2,285 meters above sea level, making it the highest elevation of any track on the F1 schedule. This presents a unique challenge for F1 teams to optimize their cars for high altitude. For example, this directly impacts car cooling, engine performance, and reduces the amount of downforce on the car.

The second highest track is in Brazil, with an elevation of 765 meters.

Neither Sergio Perez nor any other Mexican driver has ever won the Mexican Grand Prix.

Did you know that the stadium section, which features navigation of three slow corners, used to be the stands for a baseball field?

Max Verstappen and Red Bull both hold the record for the most wins as a driver and constructor here, with five wins each.

Three of the past four winners started the race in P3.

The DRS zone on the main straight has been shortened by 75 meters this year!

Ollie Bearman and Kimi Antonelli will be in for FP1 this weekend for Ferrari and Mercedes.

Ferrari is only 8 points behind Red Bull in the Drivers' Championship, and Christian Horner stated on Thursday that they need Pérez to contribute more to the championship. The pressure is certainly mounting, and we have to hope that, for his home race, he will be able to shine in what might be his final home race.

Hopefully his special helmet this weekend paying tribute to his Mexican roots will help!

Williams have a special livery this weekend and will run the same one in Brazil:

Fernando Alonso missed the first media day due to an illness but is still planning on being ready for practice Friday. This is also his 400th Grand Prix weekend!

News From the Week

Williams team boss James Vowles has been shopping Franco Colapinto to Sauber and VCARB.

Helmut Marko had told F1-Insider that Oscar Piastri’s management, which is Mark Webber, is seeking out “intensive” dialogue with the Red Bull team. Now these comments seemingly come out of nowhere, and with the amount of finger pointing that has gone on over the past few races between McLaren and Red Bull this might just be another way Helmut Marko is using to disrupt McLaren and their driver pairing.

Surely Oscar will be asked about this during his press conferences this weekend and might shed some light on the situation from his side.

Zak Brown has not fully moved on the Red Bull illegal bib debate and would still like a final legal document to set this to rest. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also let his frustrations with the lack of punishment be known calling the whole situation “outrageous”.

Even with Sergio Pérez under contract until 2025, it is becoming more apparent that the Red Bull leadership is not completely set on going through with this.

With the return of Liam Lawson to VCARB looking like a test to see how he matches up against Tsunoda and Pérez, any more strong race finishes from Lawson, combined with Pérez's continued poor form to end this season, could spell disaster for the Mexican driver.

Helmut Marko said earlier this week that there are plans for Abu Dhabi for Tsunoda to get his long-awaited test in the Red Bull car, but they also need to consider Lawson. Christian Horner had high praise for Lawson during his first weekend back in COTA, saying he drove exceptionally well and it’s always good to get your elbows out against a legend like Fernando Alonso.

Honda has also been pushing for Tsunoda to get his opportunity with the main Red Bull team for some time now. Yuki has outlasted multiple teammates at VCARB, but for various reasons, Red Bull has never seemed to consider him for promotion. If they end up choosing Lawson over Pérez next year, it would be the ultimate kick in the gut for Yuki.

Charles Leclerc can’t seem to get enough speed in his life!

VCARB team boss Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports that, in hindsight, they would have handled the Daniel Ricciardo situation differently. Given that Danny was informed of the driver change just a couple of days before the race weekend, we can’t help but feel for him having to deal with the media and questions all weekend.

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