Official F1 Journal Track Guide- Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez

Its Mexican Grand Prix weekend and you can already feel the buzz of excitement for what can only be described as the most intoxicating atmosphere of the year. The Mexican crowd make this race one of the most anticipated of the year and with their man Sergio Perez being on the podium multiple times here they have every reason to be in optimistic high spirits. 

Race Stats

Laps- 71 
​Circuit Length- 4.303km
Race Distance- 305.354
 Corners- 17   10 Right   7 Left 
DRS Zones- 2 
        Activation 1- Exit Turn 9
           Deployment 2- Exit Turn 11 
        Activation 2- Exit Turn 14 
           Deployment 2- Start/Finish Straight 
Downforce Level- High
Tyre Degradation- Low 
Time @ Full Throttle- 46%
Time Lost in Pitlane- 22.5 seconds 
Gear Changes- 52 per lap/3692 per race
Pole Side- Left 
Tyre Compounds -
        Hard         Medium      Soft 
          C3               C4          C5 

Minimum Starting 
Tyre Pressures-       Front          Rear
                               23.5psi       20.5psi

Maximum Tyre
Camber-                   Front         Rear 
                                 -3.25º       -1.75º
​ 

Weekend Schedule 

Track Stats

Times Held- 22
First Time Held- 1963
Finishing Percentage- 65%
Pole Record- 1.14.758 VER 2019
Lap Record- 1.17.774 BOT 2021
Winners- 15
Pole Sitters- 16
Podium Finishers- 29
Fastest Lap Holders-15
Most Driver Poles- Jim Clark 4
Most Team Poles- Lotus 6
Most Driver Wins- Verstappen 4
Most Team Wins- Redbull 4
Most Driver Podiums- Hamilton 5
Most Team Podiums- Ferrari 11
Most Fastest Laps (Driver)- Clark 3
Most Fastest Laps (Team)- Ferrari 5
Most Consecutive
Driver Wins -Vertsappen  2 
Most Consecutive Team Wins- Redbull  2 
Times Won from Pole- 10
Times Won from Front Row- 14
​Lowest Start Position to Win- 13th Prost 1990
Smallest Win Margin- 1.336 seconds Patrese 1991
Largest Win Margin- 101.1 seconds Clark 1963
Most Cars to finish a Race- 21 2016
Least Cars to Finish- 8   1965/66
Virtual Safety cars- 1 2017, 2018 & 2019
​Safety Cars- 1 2015, 2016 & 2021
Red Flags- The race has not been a Red Flag since 1989 ​

Random Facts 

• Max Verstappen could equal Alain Prost for both wins (51) and laps lead this weekend. Joining him in 4th over all in the F1 history books. 
• Perez has finished on the podium here the last 2 years ( much to the delight of his home crowd)
• The 2023 Mexican Grand Prix is the 1098th Formula 1 Grand Prix 
• Its Lance Strolls birthday on Sunday and he will race in the Mexican Grand Prix on his birthday for the 2nd time. He became the 76th driver to race on that special occasion and if he wins could become only the 3rd driver to do so. The other 2 being James Hunt and Jean Alesi 
• Verstappen has lead more laps at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez than anyone else with 264 laps lead.
• 517 Cars entered
  476 Cars Qualified 
  469 Cars Started 
  306 Cars Finished 
  = 65% finishing percentage
• It's Charles Leclerc's 100th Grand Prix as  a Ferrari Driver this weekend. Let's hope he can mark the occasion with a good result.
• Lewis Hamilton won 2 of his 7 title here.
• If a British Driver finishes on the podium this weekend it will be their 750th Formula 1 podium and the most of any nation to have taken part on the World Championship since its first race in 1950
• If Verstappen, Hamilton & Perez finish the Mexican Grand Prix in that order it will be the first time in F1 History that 3 consecutive races at the same venue have had the same top 3 finishers.
• If Lance Stroll takes part in Sundays Grand Prix it will be the 400th race to feature a Canadian Driver 
• Pedro Rodriguez, Jack Brabham & Jo Siffert hold the record for most races at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez but that list is about to get much longer as providing they all take the lights at this weekends race Max Vertsappen, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo will join that list. 

Previous Results 

2019

Qualifying-
                 1 VER 1.14.758
                   2 LEC 1.15.024
                     3 VET 1.15.170 
Race-
          1 HAM (1 stop)
            2 VET (1stop)
              3 BOT (1 stop)
Fastest Lap-  1.19.232 LEC Lap 53

2021

Qualifying-
                 1 BOT 1.15.875
                   2 HAM 1.16.020
                     3 VER 1.16.342
Race- 
          1 VER (1 stop)
            2 HAM (1 stop)
             3 PER (1 stop)
Fastest Lap- 1.17.774 BOT Lap 69

2022

Qualifying-
                  1 VER 1.17.775
                    2 RUS 1.18.079
                     3 HAM 1.18.084
Race- 
          1 VER (1 stop)
            2 HAM (1 stop)
             3 PER (1 stop)
Fastest Lap-  1.20.153 RUS Lap 71 

Things to look out for

• This weekend we will see 4 young drivers take to the track in Free Practice  1. Both the Formula 2 Prema team mates Ollie Bearman and Fredrik Vesti will be taking part with F2 title contender Vesti driving George Russell's Mercedes and Bearman the Ferrari Jr driver running one of the HAAS cars. Also taking part are Jack Doohan in the Alpine for the 2nd year in a row in Mexico and Isack Hadjar will pilot an Alpha Tauri for the opening session of the weekend. We will see Ollie Bearman again in Abu Dhabi were he will get another go in a HAAS in FP1, along with Indy Cars Pato O'ward in the Mclaren. 

• Expect a 1 stop strategy to win the race but a few optimistic cars will try the 2 stop but in the last 3 races no car on the podium had done more than 1 stop.
•  Mercedes continue to optimize their latest package. Despite Hamilton's disqualification there was an undeniable improvement in the Mercedes over the whole weekend in Austin and with the switch back to the standard weekend layout, they will have the track time in FP1 & 2  to really start to optimize the new package.
• Will we see Oscar Piastri back on form? The US Grand Prix proved a blip in what has been a really brilliant rookie season for Oscar. He never really seemed comfortable with the track or the car but everyone has a bad weekend and he should be on for a top 5 weekend in Mexico
• Can Aston Martin finally make sense of their latest upgrades? In Austin Alonso was so unhappy with the latest changes he opted to go back to the older spec over night on Saturday and start from the pit lane for the Grand Prix, and it seemed to be working till he was forced to retire. That meant Mclaren took 4th place in the Constructors Championship from them and with it ALOT of prize money. Can the Mexican Grand Prix begin their fight back against Mclaren and push back to the form they started the season with?
• In Austin Logan Sargeant scored his first point of the season and the first for an American since 1993,  after Hamilton & Leclerc were disqualified. Will we see him score again this year? Because even if you argue that he only scored the point because of the removal of 2 other drivers, he finished 12th on the road which is a massive improvement on his recent results and with the very significant steps forward Williams have been taking under the new leader ship of James Vowles, we could see Sargeant score again before the end of the season

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk