F1 – Road to…Mexico

Formula 1 is arranging its return to the Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit of Mexico City, 23 years after the last edition marked by Ayrton Senna’s tremendous accident and Williams driver Mansell’s victory ahead of his team-mate Riccardo Patrese.

We will be back in this historic circuit, whose most dangerous and spectacular segment, the Peraltada (bend 14) leading into the straight road of the finish line and to the first right bend, set of a lot of challenges and accidents, has been modified. An “half-circle” where once you had to speed up in order to make the difference. With the new layout, in zone 3, the baseball stadium will be crossed by the variants 12-13-14 that lead into the original circuit.

It will also be an excellent test-bed for the power-units because the 4304 meters (to race 71 times) are situated 2300 meters above sea level, a never-tested altitude that could cause some competitiveness and reliability complications. We will have also to pay attention to the weather. After an heavy rain in Texas, dry free practices and qualifying with a wet race are expected, with temperatures around 22-23° C. Almost the opposite of seven days ago. For Mexico, Pirelly confirms Austin’s Soft and Medium tyre compounds.

On track the attention will be focused on the challenge between Rosberg and Vettel for the second place. Mercedes and Ferrari standard-bearers will certainly arrive with a conflicting mood. Seb, ahead by 4 points is just back from the podium after an amazing recover with a Nico burnt by Hamilton’s victory. At Toro Rosso, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz jr will continue to follow Lotus now in sixth place. Without all its stability complications, STR could easily fight with Force India. Perez will do the honors also thanks to his good last results. At Haas, next to Grosjean, Gutierrez could be announced.

From a technical/political point of view, the discussions about Red Bull engine will go on. Honda would have come itself forward finding Ron Dennis’ veto. Instead, Renault is waiting public apology and some head to blow up at RBR. Considering that we are at the end of October it is a complicated situation.