Just one week after the United States Grand Prix, Formula 1 heads south of the border into Mexico for the second round of a triple header of races.
Unlike last weekend in Austin, a traditional race weekend format awaits drivers in Mexico City. The thousands of passionate Mexican fans who will be heading to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be hoping for another weekend of close competition at the front of the field, as was seen at Circuit of the Americas.
But could this be the last Mexican Grand Prix weekend for the nation’s most successful Formula 1 driver? These are the talking points for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Checo’s curtain call?
It’s been a difficult few seasons for Sergio Perez.
Despite having his best year of his career, statistically, in 2023, coming second in the drivers’ championship to his team mate, and helping his team to two consecutive constructors’ titles, Sergio Perez has consistently underperformed over the last two seasons relative to the potential of his car. While Verstappen has dominated for so much of that time and continued to score podiums even when Red Bull were caught by rivals, Perez has regularly been nowhere in comparison to his world champion team mate.
Although he signed a contract extension with his team earlier in the year, that has done little to boost his on-track production. Over the months, Perez’s lack of points compared to Verstappen have seen Red Bull lose the lead of the constructors’ championship – something that seemed unfathomable in the early phase of the season as the team dominated.
Team principal Christian Horner has continued to remain patient with his second driver. But while he has publicly backed him, Horner has also not shied away from admitting they need Perez to be contributing a lot more to their constructors’ championship efforts than he is. The pressure on him has only increased following Liam Lawson’s successful return to Red Bull’s second team last weekend.
At the very least, Perez will want to put on a better showing than last year, when he was eliminated from the race at the first corner after clashing with Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes’ mystery car
Out of the four race winning teams in 2024, none have fluctuated so much in form or been as difficult to predict race-to-race as Mercedes.
The team that have won three rounds so far this season looked like they were primed to…
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