Mexican Grand Prix – The highs/lows from the editorial team

The top picks from the editorial team of the Mexican Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull untouchable.

The reigning double world champion delivered a clean race, without any mistakes, and without being really challenged. Especially after Mercedes’ losing strategy – we will come back to that – which kept Lewis Hamilton at a distance from the Dutch driver. Red Bull’s strategy also proved to be successful, starting the race on soft tires before switching to mediums. Pole position on Saturday and victorious on Sunday, Max Verstappen also set a new record, that of the number of wins in a single season (14), surpassing Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel (13 each).

The “return” of Daniel Ricciardo to Mexico?

After a disastrous United States Grand Prix, where the Australian finished in 16th place, far behind his teammate Lando Norris (6th), Daniel Ricciardo seems to have regained his form at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, even surpassing the young Briton, a rare fact worth noting. After starting 11th on the grid, the McLaren driver finished the race in 7th position, despite a 10-second penalty for colliding with Yuki Tsunoda’s car and forcing the latter to retire. A minor blemish for the Australian, but after his debacle in Austin, we won’t be too harsh on him…

The surprise Valtteri Bottas in qualifying.

Here is someone that we don’t (anymore?) expect after several races, and yet who surprised us on Mexican soil. Valtteri Bottas managed to secure 6th position in qualifying on Saturday, between the two Ferraris, a feat for Alfa Romeo, which usually finishes in the second half of the standings for this part of the season, despite starting the year off well. However, the Finnish driver couldn’t maintain the pace during the race on Sunday, falling victim to several overtakes that dropped him to 10th place – still in the points – notably due to a very impressive move from Esteban Ocon.

The failures of the Grand Prix of Mexico’s editorial team.

Mercedes’ pneumatic strategy

In the editorial, we all agreed that Mercedes shot themselves in the foot with their more than questionable tire strategy. While Lewis Hamilton and George Russell started on soft tires and showed good performance with this setup, their team later switched their cars to hard tires, the worst possible choice. Both British drivers quickly complained about a steep drop in their performance. While the seven-time world champion had managed to stay within 1.5 seconds of the leader Max Verstappen, he gradually saw the gap increase after his pit stop. A very sad conclusion to this weekend that seemed so promising for Mercedes, who were making a strong comeback. Lewis Hamilton was able to finish in second place on the podium, but who knows where he would have been if his team hadn’t sabotaged themselves…

Where did the Ferraris go?

If there is a team that went completely unnoticed in Mexico, it’s definitely Ferrari. Their presence on screen could have been counted on one hand. And for good reason: they simply didn’t participate in the show, stuck in a “No Man’s Land” light-years away from Red Bull and Mercedes. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished fifth and sixth respectively, the worst result for Scuderia this season with both cars making it to the finish line. The Spaniard finished the race 58 seconds behind the winner Max Verstappen, and 10 seconds behind George Russell in fourth place. Ferrari blamed the altitude for this humiliating underperformance, with Mexico City being situated 2000 meters above sea level. We’re only half convinced…

The lack of reliability at Alpine (once again)

While leading a good race, Fernando Alonso had to retire six laps from the end in Mexico, due to a faulty cylinder. This scenario is happening a bit too often for Alpine, with a double retirement in Singapore, where the Spaniard estimated losing at least 60 points this season solely due to reliability issues. We know that reliability will be key in the championship fight and it’s something that we currently lack despite a good level of performance in the recent races, declared Otmar Sznafnauer, Team Principal of the team, after the race. We absolutely need to tackle this problem in the last two rounds of the season if we want to achieve our goals. I am confident that we can solve these issues before the final two races. While Alpine remains fourth in the standings, its rival McLaren is dangerously closing in, just seven points behind.