Verstappen Makes F1 History: Takeaways From Mexico City GP
A tense battle remains piping hot for second in both standings, and an unlikely driver arguably stole the show as he showed flashes of his old form.
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Max Verstappen continued his 2022 masterclass as he easily cruised to a record-breaking 14th win of the season at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The two-time world champion battled Lewis Hamilton early on before pulling comfortably ahead as he has done much of this season, leaving the Brit to settle for second. With a 14th win under his belt, Verstappen passes Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, who recorded 13 wins in a single season back in 2004 and 2013, respectively. With just two races left to go on the calendar in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, Verstappen’s dominant streak could extend to 16 victories.
“It's been an incredible year so far,” the Dutchman said after the race. “We are definitely enjoying it and we will try to go for more.”
The single-season win mark is just one of the many records the 25-year-old has broken in his eight-season Formula One career. He arrived to the scene as the youngest F1 driver to start a race at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix and proceeded to be the youngest race winner a year later in Spain, at just 18.
He leads the drivers’ standings by a whopping 416 points, setting the record for the most points recorded in a single season. And now, Red Bull has a hold on second with Sergio Pérez’s third place finish at home. The Mexican driver is at 280, just five points ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after the Prancing Horse had a slow day overall with the Monégasque finishing sixth and Carlos Sainz coming in fifth.
But as Mercedes and Ferrari were left reeling, and Red Bull celebrating like Pérez’s father, one unlikely driver outside the dominant top six surged through the field to steal the show—McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Here are three takeaways from the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, where a duo of spicy battles for second in both standings unfolded as a driver without the 2023 seat surged into points.
F1’s Honey Badger is back.
For a moment, it looked like Ricciardo would finish outside of the points yet again, a theme throughout much of this season.
The Australian took a gamble on his tire strategy, moving onto softs for his final stint. It ended up paying off as he rocketed through the field. However, he made clumsy contact with Yuki Tsunoda as the AlphaTauri driver turned in to take the apex as Ricciardo lunged. The two clipped wheels, and Tsunoda retired early. The Japanese driver said in the team’s post-race recap, “Daniel was on a different strategy and would’ve easily made it past later on, so for such an experienced driver to try to overtake in an area that it’s just not possible to is so annoying.”
Ricciardo was dealt a 10-second penalty and faced with the task of creating enough of a buffer to opponents around him to lessen the blow. He said to Sky Sports F1, “that was the little bit of a difficult moment in the race, but after Tom [Stallard, race engineer] told me I had 10 seconds I didn’t respond. I was pretty dark. But then I felt like I still had really good pace, so I got on with it. And I managed to somehow make it work.”
The differing tire strategy seemed to be key. Ricciardo, who would go on to finish seventh with enough of a gap ahead of Esteban Ocon to keep his finishing spot, made a deep run on the mediums before swapping for softs. Comparatively, others, like the Mercedes duo, were opting for hards.
What transpired in Mexico City was a complete 180 from the dejected Ricciardo fans saw at the U.S. Grand Prix. While he embodied his old form, Ricciardo reconfirmed to Sky Sports F1 that he “won’t be on the grid behind a wheel” in 2023 despite one seat still unconfirmed. He added, “I feel like a bit of time away from a race seat will do me good, and then try to rebuild on something for 2024. I’m not done but it will look a bit different.”
Ricciardo said that a brief break would “be, in a way, a blessing in disguise for me. By doing less, I’ll achieve more.” But, he did add that he’s open to a reserve role with one of the top dogs—Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes. With current reserve driver Nyck de Vries leaving for AlphaTauri next season, a spot is open now at Mercedes.
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Tire Strategies and Need for Speed
Could Mercedes have recorded its first win of the season in Mexico?
Before Sunday, team boss Toto Wolff felt the Silver Arrows could after George Russell and Hamilton snagged second and third, respectively, in qualifying. In fact, Wolff felt it was their best shot of the season, saying Saturday, “The good thing is that in our simulations we had that in a way on the radar—it being the best race—so that is good that it correlates with the real world.
“But the most important thing is that we really have the pace and slowly but surely we are going forward and learning the lessons for next year.”
With divergent tire strategies, Sunday’s race was close at first. Red Bull began on the softs while Mercedes opted for mediums, and while Verstappen had a hold on the lead into the first corner, Hamilton wasn’t letting his rival sneak away so easily. He kept the pressure up, and the Red Bulls stopped at lap 25 for mediums while Hamilton pitted four laps later for hard tires.
It seemed like Hamilton would be set to cruise while time would tell for Verstappen’s mediums, but it became evident that the hard tires were not a good option. The Brit started falling away from the Dutchman, lacking the necessary speed to stay with the rising star.
Although Hamilton and Russell repeatedly complained about the tires, engineers assured Hamilton the mediums would start dropping off by the end of the race. That ended up not being the case.
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Battle for Second Stays Piping Hot
While the driver and constructors’ world championships may be complete after a Verstappen-Red Bull sweep, the battle for second remains tight. Mercedes closed the gap on Ferrari, just 40 points between the two after a 31-point haul for the Silver Arrows compared to the Prancing Horse’s 18 in Mexico.
Both powerhouses have faced their struggles this year as Mercedes saw their eight-year reign as the leading constructor come to an end. While the season started rocky as Hamilton struggled and Russell maintained a top five finish streak up until Silverstone, the Silver Arrows started to perform in tandem, making incremental gains.
One of their biggest weaknesses this season has been the cars’ drag, and with the high elevation in Mexico City, Mercedes saw a drastic increase in performance. A reduction in air density leads to the cars having less drag, but in turn, the engine’s turbocharger has to go fast to generate equitable power. Mercedes’ power unit has led to a strong engine, which coupled with the high downforce the entire grid had, there was potential in Mexico.
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Comparatively, Ferrari started out the season red hot as Leclerc and Sainz went one-two in Bahrain. But then they hit a rough patch as questionable strategy calls, reliability issues and lack of race pace persisted. After the Miami Grand Prix in May, the due didn’t share the podium again until Singapore at the beginning of October.
Race day pace eluded Ferrari for a period of time, dating back to the Hungarian Grand Prix before summer break where they were competitive in qualifying but faltered come Sunday. Leclerc was adamant during the U.S. Grand Prix weekend that Ferrari needed to focus on “Sunday execution” next season and highlighted how tire management is still an issue.
Both Sainz and Leclerc highlighted the lack of pace in Mexico on Sunday as they were unable to keep up with the race leaders. As Leclerc put it in the team’s recap, “It was a lonely race. Carlos and I were lapping together, too quick for the midfield but too slow for the front runners.
“We stuck to our strategy, focused on ourselves and got the most out of our package, but we were just too far off and we have to understand why so that we can work on being more consistent.”
Team principal Mattia Binotto said after the race that Ferrari “didn't have the capacity at least to run maximum power here,” and the drivers “were running maximum downforce at the end.”
Heading into Brazil, a battle continues between the two camps (plus Red Bull). Outside of Leclerc and Pérez’s fight for second, there’s a three-way battle between Russell (231), Hamilton (216) and Sainz (212).
What to monitor: With his latest penalty for forcing Lance Stroll off the track, Pierre Gasly is dangerously close to a F1 race ban. He won’t lose any of his existing penalty points until May given the 12-month period.
Where F1 is next: Enjoy the bye week, F1 fans, because next up is the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 1 p.m.
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