The second cease on Formulation 1’s lengthy journey to the Americas takes place within the Mexican capital, Mexico Metropolis, earlier than the circus strikes onto Sao Paulo to finish the run of three consecutive races.
On the circuit named in honour of the brothers, Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez, the obtainable tyres are the C3 as Exhausting, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Comfortable, a step softer than prior to now, as was already the case final yr, the choice taken to be able to open up extra strategic choices for the race.
The primary day of monitor motion, Friday 25 October, shall be barely totally different to standard. The second free observe session shall be totally given over to validating the softer compounds in Pirelli’s 2025 vary (C4, C5 and C6) in what is named an in-competition take a look at. The session is prolonged by half-hour to 90 and all drivers and groups should comply with a selected programme established by the Pirelli engineers. Other than the dry tyre allocation particularly for the Grand Prix (two units of Exhausting, three of Medium and 7 of Comfortable, one lower than standard), every driver may have two further units of tyres: one shall be equivalent to the one obtainable for the weekend, to behave as a baseline, whereas the opposite shall be a 2025 prototype choice, each when it comes to compound and of development – really the latter already homologated again in September.
These two units won’t have any sidewall color bands. The plan is for the programme to incorporate a efficiency run and a future for every set, with each workforce operating the identical variety of laps with the same amount of gasoline on board, depending on the kind of run. The one exception shall be within the case of an everyday race driver being changed for FP1 by a younger driver. These race drivers will perform the Pirelli take a look at for 60 minutes of FP2 solely and may have a further set of Medium compound tyres to catch up as a lot as potential on buying knowledge for the remainder of the weekend. All of the take a look at knowledge will then be analysed by Pirelli engineers to superb tune the traits of the compounds previous to the group take a look at in Abu Dhabi, which begins on the Tuesday after the ultimate spherical of the 2024 championship. It implies that groups should put together their automobiles for qualifying and the race within the area of two hours: FP1 on Friday and FP3 on Saturday.
The Hermanos Rodriguez monitor is 4.304 km lengthy, with 17 corners and a floor that’s low when it comes to its severity on tyres. This yr the promoter has resurfaced the part between turns 12 and 15 within the third sector. The very clean asphalt and the actual fact the monitor is hardly used implies that grip ranges are fairly low in the beginning of the weekend and monitor evolution may be very marked, rubbering within the extra the automobiles run.
Mexico Metropolis is positioned at over 2000 metres above sea degree and the rarified air has an affect on automotive efficiency, decreasing the aerodynamic downforce generated by the automobiles. One of many penalties of that is that high speeds reached are very excessive, regardless of a configuration that truly appears typical of tracks that require most downforce – the velocity document was set right here in 2016 when Valtteri Bottas within the Williams-Mercedes was clocked at 372.5 km/h – even when the extent of graining is normally fairly excessive. Moreover, on the longest straights, the primary one and the one between turns 3 and 4, the floor temperature of the tyres tends to drop fairly rapidly and the drivers need to be very cautious when braking, particularly at flip 1, to keep away from locking the wheels and subsequently damaging the tyres.
When it comes to technique, that is normally a one-stop race. Final yr, the vast majority of drivers tried to handle the Medium to elongate the primary stint as a lot as potential. A Security Automobile and a later crimson flag, after Kevin Magnussen went off the monitor within the Haas, meant that just about your complete area used three units of tyres in a race that was just about divided in two.
Formulation 1 has all the time been highly regarded in Mexico, even when there have solely ever been 23 championship races held right here, all of them at this circuit within the capital metropolis, inaugurated in 1962. The races passed off in three durations: from 1963 to 1970, from 1986 to 1992 and from 2015 onwards. A change of title in 2021 noticed the Mexican Grand Prix renamed after town.
There have been 15 totally different winners over the 23 editions of this race. Max Verstappen is essentially the most profitable driver with 5 wins, together with his Pink Bull workforce on the identical quantity heading the groups’ classification. Jim Clark has began from pole essentially the most typically (4 occasions) whereas Lewis Hamilton has essentially the most podium finishes with six. Of the constructors, Lotus on 6 has essentially the most poles and Ferrari leads the way in which for podium finishes with 12.