[shibujp]

The 2019 Mexican GP

• The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is located in Mexico City
• Named after two racing driver brothers Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez.
• Built in 1959 and hosted it's first F1 GP in 1962. Remained on the calendar through the 1980s till 1992.
• Modern F1 returned to the circuit in 2013.
• Honda holds the maximum number of manufacturer wins here (4)
• Max Verstappen won the race in 2017 and 2018 holding the maximum number of wins following Jim Clark, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.
• The newly built stadium section is a highlight of the circuit with turns 13, 14 and 15 running through it.

Timings - Red Eye Race (IST)
28 OCT Race 00:40 - 02:40
26 OCT Qualifying 23:30 - 00:30
26 OCT Practice 3 20:30 - 21:30
26 OCT Practice 2 00:30 - 02:00
25 OCT Practice 1 20:30 - 22:00

The Circuit

• The biggest impact on racing at the circuit is the altitude. The thin air has 75% less oxygen at 2000m compared to sea level
• Downforce is also impacted by 10% compared to the Singapore circuit which also runs similar downforce levels.
• Asphalt is relatively high grip.
• Top speed is 345 kmph on the straight before the approach to turn 1
• Full throttle is only 47 percent of the time
• Gear changes are 44 per lap

Car Setup

• Cars are setup for high downforce
• Brake wear is high compounded by the fact that there is less air running through them.
• Almost all aspects of the setup are impacted by the thinner air. Though Singapore levels of downforce are run, grip levels are still low for example.

Tyre Choices


Weather

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 - FP1 & FP2 WEATHER
Conditions: Patchy rain possible
Maximum temperature expected: 21 Celsius
Chance of rain: 82%

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 - FP3 & QUALIFYING WEATHER
Conditions: Patchy rain possible
Maximum temperature expected: 23 Celsius
Chance of rain: 70%

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 - RACE WEATHER
Conditions: Moderate to heavy showers
Maximum temperature expected: 25 Celsius
Chance of rain: 59%

Link

2018 Race
Riccardo qualified on pole but was beat to Turn 1 by Verstappen who lead from start to finish. Vettel's chances of winning the championship were minimal, however he finished second thanks to Riccardo's DNF and a fine move on Hamilton. Raikkonen also finished thrid to join Vettel on the podium. However Hamilton finished fourth to lock the driver's championship and equalled Fangio's record with Mercedes.

Interesting to see how Ferrari and Red Bull match up. Another thing to watch out is how Mercedes facilitates fair racing between it's drivers.

Drive on,
Shibu

[SHAHBAAZ]

Originally Posted by shibujp

The 2019 Mexican GP

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 - FP1 & FP2 WEATHER
Conditions: Patchy rain possible
Maximum temperature expected: 21 Celsius
Chance of rain: 82%

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 - FP3 & QUALIFYING WEATHER
Conditions: Patchy rain possible
Maximum temperature expected: 23 Celsius
Chance of rain: 70%

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 - RACE WEATHER
Conditions: Moderate to heavy showers
Maximum temperature expected: 25 Celsius
Chance of rain: 59%

If it rains, then for sure this race will spring up surprises. Hope to see Lewis win.

[mayankk]

For Lewis, this race is inconsequential. He knows he cannot tie up the title, and this track with its air does not suit the Mercedes as it is.
Its going to be a cruise again. But who knows? He has already acknowledged that there shouldnt be much expected. Maybe with the mindset of not having anything to lose, he just might pull of a humdinger of a race.
I am still rooting in any case for the man!!

[sgiitk]

It seems that all the Qualification are not being covered live. Q1 is on Tata Select 1, others are on Select 2. Let us hope they do not mess around with the schedule.

[shibujp]

Ferrari and RedBull look to be the class of the field. Spectacular lockups in both sessions across the grid.

FP1

https://youtu.be/YByimapdqcg

FP2

https://youtu.be/BmT5V9shjLw

Drive on,
Shibu

[speedmiester]

Good qualifying session, but ultimately Max couldn't keep his mouth shut during post quali interviews to lose his pole lap.
So it's Ferrari one-two at the start and Lewis in 3rd.
Interesting race ahead.

[motorworks]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

Good qualifying session, but ultimately Max couldn't keep his mouth shut during post quali interviews to lose his pole lap.
So it's Ferrari one-two at the start and Lewis in 3rd.
Interesting race ahead.

I think Max did this whole thing deliberately. Starting in pole in tracks like Mexico is sometimes a disadvantage due to the massive tow the 2nd and 3rd placed guys get.

So Im guessing he realised this post the final lap and more or less played in to the hands of the questions raised by the reporters. If you see the way he answered, there is a hint of arrogance that seems a bit forced and deliberate, almost to tell the FIA to take notice of the whole incident.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I think Max did this whole thing deliberately. Starting in pole in tracks like Mexico is sometimes a disadvantage due to the massive tow the 2nd and 3rd placed guys get.

I don't think Max will gain much from tow from 4th position. Vettel and Hamilton who are better placed to take the advantage of tow into the first corner.
We could see a repeat of Russian GP where Charles will position his car to offer a better tow to Seb than others.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I think Max did this whole thing deliberately. Starting in pole in tracks like Mexico is sometimes a disadvantage due to the massive tow the 2nd and 3rd placed guys get.

So Im guessing he realised this post the final lap and more or less played in to the hands of the questions raised by the reporters. If you see the way he answered, there is a hint of arrogance that seems a bit forced and deliberate, almost to tell the FIA to take notice of the whole incident.

Even without taking into consideration what he said, some penalty was expected and justified. He probably thought they are going to just delete his last lap time and he will still get to keep the P1, may be that's why all his smug responses. Now, with P4 he will still get some tow but may not be enough to get to P1 straight away.

On the race start, will be interesting what Ferrari strategy is going to be. They better be wiser this time to not have any 'arrangements' on who should be on lead after turn 1. Let the boys race fair at the start and focus on keeping Mercs and Redbulls behind. I almost get an instinctive feeling that some scarlet and blue wings are going to be broken before turn 2.

Also interesting would be to see if Alex Albon manages to finish ahead of Bottas. I don't think the second Redbull has finished ahead of a Mercedes this season at all barring any incidents.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by motorworks

I think Max did this whole thing deliberately. Starting in pole in tracks like Mexico is sometimes a disadvantage due to the massive tow the 2nd and 3rd placed guys get.

So Im guessing he realised this post the final lap and more or less played in to the hands of the questions raised by the reporters. If you see the way he answered, there is a hint of arrogance that seems a bit forced and deliberate, almost to tell the FIA to take notice of the whole incident.

Going by how many beeps his radio comms get, I don't think Max has that much tact to be able to think and act on such a dicey strategy.
However, if there's tow to be had, it's going to a very interesting start later today, with the tow-ers being the fastest cars on the grid, and two extremely capable drivers being the tow-ees.

[shibujp]

Ferrari start 1-2 end up 2-4. Mercedes start 3-6 end up 1-3. Telling point on the execution between the two teams .

Another case of poor judgement from Max. Potential podium lost I feel.

Drive on,
Shibu.

[motorworks]

In hindsight, it looked like Mercedes made the right call on Hamilton and even on Bottas. However, almost everyone was predicting that the track at Mexico would be very hard on tyres and hence two stops were quite the plan from many teams.

Two glaring issues for Ferrari, their race pace is no better than Mercedes on any day, any track. So even in a track with lot of straights, if Mercedes get ahead, they can stay ahead all race. And second, their tyre management is quite poor. If you see Mercedes and even Redbull, they are able to keep the tyres working at decent performance levels for a longer window, but not Ferrari as much. Its not about Mexico alone, we have seen it in many races earlier this year as well.

Lastly about the drivers, although Hamilton kept cribbing over the radio, he was always on the right strategy that gave him track position and he did drive a very controlled race. Bottas too was right in the mix till the last lap, he lost out to the front runners earlier in the race a bit.

Seb, well, thats experience for you. When he knew that he will anyway come out behind Lewis after the pitstop, he made a call to stay out. And that helped him to finish P2. If he had come in earlier, I think his tyres would have gone off and Bottas would have probably had a better chance at P2.

[speedmiester]

Very very poor strategy by Ferrari, just throwing race wins away to Mercedes.
Evident that they need to prioritize on Strategy as much as they do on car development.

If Max didn't get his puncture early on, he would have been a clear factor in the race. Impatience got to him.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by motorworks

Lastly about the drivers, although Hamilton kept cribbing over the radio, he was always on the right strategy that gave him track position and he did drive a very controlled race. Bottas too was right in the mix till the last lap, he lost out to the front runners earlier in the race a bit.

Seb, well, thats experience for you. When he knew that he will anyway come out behind Lewis after the pitstop, he made a call to stay out. And that helped him to finish P2. If he had come in earlier, I think his tyres would have gone off and Bottas would have probably had a better chance at P2.

I needed my beauty sleep, hence not watched the race as yet. From what I read:

Hamilton was unduly antsy since his main focus is on the WDC

Vettel did a splendid job, handling the driving and the strategy considering Ferrari were failing him.

[SilentEngine]

Originally Posted by shibujp

Another case of poor judgement from Max. Potential podium lost I feel.

With right strategy he could have even won, but another what-if scenario for him.

Ferrari lost out by trying to cover Albon's pit stop with LeClerc. In hindsight it was a mistake because Albon didn't have the pace.