Autobayng News Team
Formula 1’s official tyre supplier Pirelli hoped to create a more exciting race last weekend by making its hard tyre one step harder than the version used last year.
But the plan wasn’t a success. The few drivers who dared to incorporate the hard tyre into their strategies mostly wished they hadn’t. The rest clung to the softest available rubber and managed their tyres all the way home – never a recipe for good racing.
Pirelli has taken the same approach this weekend, so will it work better this time? Whatever happens the Mexican Grand Prix will surely prove significant in the ever-tightening title fight.
Another step in the compounds
George Russell was scathing in his description of last weekend’s grand prix, calling it a “race to turn one”. He had a point (though it was surely no less true in Singapore, where he won, and found less to complain about).
Teams will again have a much harder ‘hard’ tyre this weekend, though in Mexico the entire range is one step softer than that seen in Austin. And unlike the two previous races where Pirelli has engineered a ‘step’ in its compounds, this will be a conventional weekend with three practice sessions, giving teams all the time they need to evaluate the compounds.
Will that prove sufficient to produce livelier racing? The chances don’t look great: Mexico City’s extremely high altitude makes cooling difficult and as a result this is often a race of tyre management.
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Piastri feeling the pressure
Oscar Piastri’s championship lead looked a lot more secure when he won the first race after the summer break in August. But since then Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have closed in at a rate which will alarm the driver who’s headed the standings for 26 weeks.
Norris was 34 points adrift, now the gap is 14; Verstappen was 104 behind and is now just 40 away. Is Piastri replaying Lewis Hamilton’s 2007 title defeat in slow motion?
There’s still time for him to turn things around but he needs to stem the tide, and do it quickly. The first order of business will be to get his car fully sussed at a track McLaren hadn’t won at since its return to the schedule in 2015. Their last victory in Mexico came courtesy of Ayrton Senna in 1989 on an almost entirely different circuit configuration.
He has one small but potentially useful point in his favour: unlike his two closest championship rivals, Piastri will be on-track for all three practice sessions this weekend.
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Rookies return
Verstappen and Norris will be two of many regulars missing from the track during the first practice session. With the end of the season approaching quickly, several teams will run inexperienced drivers in practice this weekend to ensure they hit their increased quota of runs for 2025.
The two drivers substituting for the championship contenders – Arvid Lindblad at Red Bull and local hero Pato O’Ward at McLaren – will therefore be under enormously high scrutiny. This is no time for heroics: if either of them damages their chassis it could have implications for the title fight.
If that seems fanciful, this very scenario played out at this race last year. Oliver Bearman, running as a practice driver for Ferrari in Charles Leclerc’s car, was involved in a collision with Alexander Albon.
Last year’s winner Carlos Sainz Jnr will also sit out the session. George Russell, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon will too while Lewis Hamilton and Liam Lawson are expected to as well.
Colapinto falls in line
Alpine may have seemed petty in issuing team orders to their drivers over the fight for 17th place, but don’t imagine they weren’t serious. The team has made it clear to Franco Colapinto that he must not disobey an order again.
“The team situation on Sunday has been discussed internally and it is clear that instructions by the team must always be followed no matter what,” he said in a statement issued by the team ahead of the race. If he needed any reminder what’s at stake then Paul Aron, his rival for a 2026 seat, will be in Pierre Gasly’s car during the first practice session. The comparison between the two drivers will be fascinating.
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Haas’s late push
Few teams are still bringing significant updates to their cars at this stage in the season but Haas bucked the trend for their home race last weekend. It paid off, too.
Oliver Bearman delivered points in the upgraded VF-25 in Austin. This was an especially impressive feat given the fact he did not run the new parts in the first practice session, only fitting them for sprint race qualifying.
Will that mark the end of teams’ development work on their 2025 cars? Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies told Verstappen after the race in Singapore they have more to come, and while they didn’t introduce anything new in Austin, this non-sprint weekend may prove an ideal opportunity to give Verstappen a further boost in his bid for a fifth title.
Are you going to the Mexican Grand Prix?
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Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Mexican Grand Prix? Have your say below.
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