#F1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2022 Preview. #MexicoCityGP
Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2022, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. 2022 Mexico City GP Preview, F1 Mexico City GP Preview, 2022 Mexican GP Preview.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – After Max Verstappen recovered from a botched pit-stop to snatch victory from Lewis Hamilton to secure victory in Austin and Red Bull wrapping up their first Constructors Championship in the 1.6L V6 Turbocharged Hybrid Era and their fifth Constructors crown in total, round 20 of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico this weekend for the Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2022. This will be the 23rd time that Mexico will be hosting a Grand Prix and the nineteenth as part of the FIA Formula One World Championship.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – A look at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a permanent racing circuit located in Mexico City, Mexico named after famous racing drivers and brothers Ricardo and Pedro Rodriguez. The circuit was built in 1962 within the public park of Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City in southeast Mexico City and hosted its first Formula One Grand Prix the same year as a non-championship round. The following year the Mexican Grand Prix became a full World Championship event. The circuit remained part of the calendar through until 1970 when spectator overcrowding caused unsafe conditions and was dropped from the calendar for 15 years. When the track re-opened and Formula 1 returned from 1986-1992, it boasted a new pit building complex, as well as improved safety all around. Eventually as race speeds increased, the number of serious accidents grew and demands for further safety improvements were made. The organisers were faced with financial difficulties and could not meet the demands needed to keep it on the calendar and was again dropped. In August 2011 with the rise of Mexican drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez, its revived plans to bring Grand Prix racing back to Mexico with tycoon Carlos Slim proposing a revived Mexican Grand Prix.
In May 2012, it was announced that the circuit again will host a Grand Prix from 2013 in a five-year deal to replace Valencia, but this did not happen. It was then listed as the 19th round of the 2014 championship on the provisional calendar but was not finalised on the schedule. In July 2014, it was then announced by Bernie Ecclestone that the Mexican Grand Prix will return starting in 2015 on a 5- year deal.
The Grand Prix circuit underwent major renovations from circuit designer Hermann Tilke for the return of Formula 1 in 2015. The front straight was slightly extended and modified to incorporate a new media centre and paddock. The iconic Esses between turns 7 and 13 were significantly changed with the prolific, high radius turns largely diminished and some replaced with fixed angle turns. The baseball field portion of the track was also altered to accommodate a low-speed left-right combination that bypassed the first half of the famous Peraltada, allowing the cars to re-enter the Peraltada halfway through the corner.
The circuit has the highest altitude of any Formula One event on the calendar all year and this affects aerodynamics as well as top speed. On the 1.3 kilometre main straight, the 1.6L turbocharged V6 era cars will exceed 330kph.
The current Grand Prix circuit is 4.304km (2.674mi) in length with 17 corners and runs in a clockwise direction.
Race distance is 305.354km (190.846mi) in length with 71 laps in total.
Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest lap record at the Mexican Grand Prix with a 1:17.774 set at last year’s event in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 E Performance racer.
Jim Clark holds the record of most Mexican Grand Prix victories with three.
Team Lotus are the most successful constructor at the Mexican Grand Prix with four victories.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – The Last Five Mexican Grand Prix Winners
2021: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2020: Not held. 2019: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2017: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – Onboard lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Here is the onboard pole lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez set at last year’s Mexico City Grand Prix by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 E Performance racer, with the Finn posting a blistering 1:15.875. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwJOmeDjX8g
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – Tyres
Pirelli will be bringing with them to Mexico, the white side-walled C2 Hards, the yellow-branded C3 Mediums and the red-marked C4 Softs along with the green-marked Intermediate and blue-branded Full Wet tyre compounds in case of rain.
Drivers will have eight sets of the softs, three sets of the mediums and two sets of the hards.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – DRS Zones
At the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez there will be two DRS Zones, with the detection point between turns 14 and 15 with the first activation point on the main straight with the second activation zone between turns 3 and 4 on the second straight.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Verstappen clinches victory in thrilling US GP as Red Bull wrap up Constructors Championship
Verstappen US GP Victory – Newly-crowned two-time World Champion Max Verstappen recovered from a pit-stop error to snatch victory from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton late on in an epic US GP as Red Bull scored their first Constructors Championship since 2013, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three.
The win put Verstappen tied with Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel on Formula One’s single season record, with 13 victories apiece in one campaign for the multiple world champions.
Leclerc recovered from his power-unit component change grid drop to take third place for the Scuderia, salvaging a podium for the Maranello-marque after pole-sitter Carlos Sainz was eliminated in an opening corner collision with Mercedes’ George Russell, which left Verstappen as a leader for majority of proceedings even through safety car deployments before the complexion changed late-on.
When the 56-lap US GP began, Verstappen got a great launch off the line alongside pole-sitter Sainz and took the lead into turn one, behind them the two Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell were battling for third.
Russell locked up as he steamed into the turn one apex alongside team-mate Hamilton, went a bit wide and speared into the side of Sainz’s F1-75 racer, sending the Ferrari into a spin and to the back of the field.
Sainz was forced to retire at the end of the opening lap due to a damage in the radiator causing a water leak issue as Russell was given a five-second time penalty due to the collision with the Spaniard.
By lap three Verstappen already pulled out a two second lead over Hamilton with Stroll a further 2.6 seconds back in third as Russell drew closer to the Aston Martin.
On lap five, race-leader Verstappen increased his lead to 2.3 seconds over Hamilton as Russell breezed past Stroll with DRS assistance to take third.
Further back, Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi was sent into a spin caused by a gust of wind.
On lap nine, Verstappen crossed the line, taking another four tenths out of Hamilton on that previous lap out front. Those two had some breathing space, with Russell in third both carrying damage and on the defensive with Perez rapidly charging in on the Mercedes. Perez’s own damage to his RB18 racer did not seem to be slowing the Mexican on his chase.
A lap later, the pit-stop window opened as Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo all came to push for the undercut on the cars they were battling on track.
On the eleventh tour, Verstappen reported “I was struggling with the wind” as the blustery conditions continued in Texas, but the Dutchman held a comfortable 3.6 second lead over second Hamilton.
On lap 12, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who started back in twelfth due to his ten-grid-placed penalty for a new Internal Combustion Engine and Turbocharger moved ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel diving up the inside of the braking zone at the end of the back straight to take sixth.
Verstappen was told by his team “Mind that single bump on the run down to Turn 12.” Meanwhile, Hamilton got the “hammer time” message and stopped for a new set of hard tyres having lost further time to the Red Bull driver, as Russell moved up to second.
Verstappen was given the “Free to push,” command by his team, as Red Bull reacted to Hamilton and brought in the race leader with Russell also pitting from second, and to serve his five-second time penalty.
Perez was leading the race by six seconds over his Red Bull team-mate, with Stroll remaining in third and Leclerc all over the rear of the Aston Martin’s gearbox in fourth. Vettel was yet to stop in fifth, and Hamilton is sixth.
On lap 15, Perez pitted next time around and took a solid 2.1 second stop as the Mexican overcut Russell thanks to the Briton’s penalty that he served, and he emerged just behind Hamilton which was a de-facto third place on track.
Leclerc overtook Stroll for second place, but the Monegasque driver was yet to pit as Hamilton ran all over the rear of both Aston Martin AMR22 entries with Verstappen having a 6.3 second lead.
Just as Red Bull and Mercedes were asking their drivers for feedback on the harder compounds, the safety car changed the race’s complexion after Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas lost the rear of his C42 racer going through the penultimate corner on Verstappen’s 18th tour as the Finn ended up in the gravel trap.
This meant Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Vettel could take cheap pit-stops – Stroll having pitted just before Bottas’s off – and then they followed Hamilton and Perez in the train behind Verstappen.
The Dutchman, his previous gap vanished, lead the restart on the 22nd tour – easily moving clear of Hamilton again – but the green flag did not last long as on the same lap with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Stroll suffering a shocking crash running down the Circuit of the America’s back straight.
With Stroll behind team-mate Vettel and Mercedes’ Russell after his initial pre-safety car stop having run as high as third in the early proceedings in the aftermath of the opening corner tangle, Alonso got a solid run on his soon-to-be Aston Martin team-mate heading down the back straight.
Alonso reel in Stroll and moved to the left of the Canadian as they approached top speed, but the latter nudged a split-second later and the A522 was launched skywards over the AMR22’s left rear.
Stroll was sent spinning and forced to retire, but Alonso – without his front wing – was able to recover to the pits after bouncing down hard, but only slightly touching the wall on the inside of the circuit.
Although the incident, which is being investigated after the race, sent a clutter of debris into the pack behind and across the track, it took only three laps behind the safety car for everything to be cleared.
On the 26th tour, Verstappen got another brilliant getaway after the restart and pulled over a second ahead, as the attention drew to Leclerc’s attempts to get onto the podium as he followed Perez closely in-front as DRS was enabled again for the 28th lap.
After his initial attempt of overtaking the Red Bull into turn 12 at the end of the long back straight went wrong as Leclerc went deep and ran into the run-off area, also avoiding Perez suffering a lock-up and sliding on the inside, as he attacked at the same spot on the 30th lap.
With a late lunge to the inside, Leclerc darted to the left hander’s apex and wrestled his way ahead, then crucially remained within the circuit’s track limits to remain in-front.
The Monegasque driver was then unable to catch Hamilton, who was at this point trying to threaten Verstappen’s lead for the initial time as the Red Bull driver struggled in the gusty conditions.
Just as Hamilton got near a second adrift of Verstappen again, Mercedes opted to bring the seven-time World Champion again for a set of harder tyres at the end of the 34th tour, but it was Verstappen’s second pit-stop on the following tour that turned the Grand Prix on its head.
When the Red Bull driver went back onto the mediums, a delay on getting his front-left hard tyre off was compounded by the Milton Keynes based-outfit needing to use a second wheel-gun to tighten the nut back up on the replacement medium.
This left Verstappen stuck for 11 seconds, which not only meant Hamilton went into the lead on his out-lap, but Leclerc also jumped the long-time race leader.
Although Perez and Vettel ran long, the latter also suffering a long-delayed pit-stop, Hamilton suddenly had the net-lead of 5.6 seconds, as Verstappen set himself up to charge by Leclerc.
The Dutchman quickly followed his former 2022 championship rival and made his attempt at turn one on the 39th lap and dived to the inside of Leclerc, but the Ferrari was able to switch-back and take the place back on the exit before Verstappen used DRS assistance to blast by down the back straight later on the same tour.
This left 4.5 seconds for Verstappen to chase down Hamilton, with a tyre compound difference the factor, and Leclerc initially hanging onto the rear of the Red Bull before eventually fading away.
Verstappen ate into Hamilton’s gap over the next few tours and entering the final ten laps, had cut that down to two seconds – reaching DRS range for the first time on the 49th tour.
The following lap, Verstappen used the adjustable rear wing to close in on Hamilton’s F1 W13 racer running down the back straight and the Red Bull shot to the inside of turn 12, with the Briton nearly jinking left late on in defence before moving back right away from any possible tangle.
Hamilton planted the throttle and got his nose back in-front approaching the next corner, but with Verstappen holding the inside line, the Mercedes driver was unable to mount a full attack and was then impeded by Verstappen running slow on the apex of the double-apexed left-hand turn 15.
Verstappen pulled ahead, but Hamilton was able to stick close behind the RB18 – noting Verstappen had run off the circuit several times leading the Dutchman to be hit with a black-and-white flag about track limits violations from the stewards.
Hamilton kept suggesting that Verstappen was continuing to exceed track limits at several points, but as the Briton tried to hang on in-close behind, he himself was given a black-and-white flag for the same infringement.
After Hamilton lost DRS assistance at the end of the 53rd lap, the Briton dropped back rapidly and eventually settled 5.023 seconds behind race-winner Verstappen, with Leclerc crossing the line third and Perez fourth – the top four were just covered by 8.2 seconds.
Mercedes pitted Russell late for a set of softer tyres to push for the fastest lap bonus point, which the Briton scored on the final tour as he rounded out the top five with McLaren’s Lando Norris in sixth.
After all he went through, Alonso brilliantly charged to a seventh-placed finish with a string of late overtakes, whilst Vettel’s race ended with a spectacular end as he fought with Haas F1 Team’s one-stopping Kevin Magnussen on the final lap.
Vettel recovered from his very own slow pit-stop trouble to reach Magnussen’s eighth place right at the end – snatching it with an amazing move into the penultimate corner having tried to brave it out around the outside through turns 16, 17 and 18 just before.
Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda rounded out the top ten with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon 11th, Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon 12th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu 13th.
The other AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly had a race to forget down in 14th and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher who was 15th, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in 17th as the aforementioned Latifi brought up the rear for Williams.
Stroll, Bottas and Sainz were the only retirees of the Grand Prix as a heap of drivers were hit with track limits violations and collision time penalties.
2022 Mexico City GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen returns to Mexico as two-time World Driver’s Championship, currently sitting on 391 points with a 124-point advantage over Charles Leclerc who is second on 267 points whilst Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez is third and a further 126 behind the Dutchman on 265 points.
Another brilliant race weekend for Verstappen at last round’s United States GP helped Red Bull seal their fifth World Constructor’s Championship alongside the Driver’s title the Dutchman already delivered for the Milton Keynes based-squad.
However, as Formula 1 heads on it’s short journey from Austin to Mexico City, the sport is still awaiting on the ruling from sport’s governing body, the FIA, on Red Bull’s 2021 cost-cap breach.
Discussions between Red Bull Racing and the FIA, and an outcome, were pushed back following the passing of team owner Dietrich Mateschitz during the United States Grand Prix weekend – perhaps a resolution may be done in Mexico.
Whatever the FIA’s decision will be, there will be a likely strong reaction in the F1 paddock, making this weekend’s media sessions with Team Principals and Drivers the most of interest.
On track, home favourite Perez will continue his fight for second in the World Driver’s Championship standings with Leclerc, whilst Mercedes will be looking to go one-step further after Sir Lewis Hamilton came very close to capturing his first victory of the 2022 season at the Circuit of the Americas.
Oracle Red Bull Racing returns to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as newly-crowned Constructors Champions, sitting on top with 656 points with a 187-point gap over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 469 points while Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are a further 240 behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third on 416 points.
Reserves Pietro Fittipaldi and Logan Sargeant are due to drive for Haas F1 Team in place of Mick Schumacher and for Williams Racing in place of Alexander Albon respectively during the opening Free Practice 1 session. Jack Doohan is also due to pilot the Alpine A522 in place of Esteban Ocon in the same session.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also carries a three-grid placed penalty for his collision with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso last time out at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
The Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2022 weekend begins Friday October 28 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday October 29 and the 71 lap Race Sunday October 30.
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