Only two drivers have won the Mexican Grand Prix in the past six years and appropriately they are Formula One’s central protagonists, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The former is on a roll having already claimed the world championship this season and is set on closing it out with clinical control. However for Hamilton and his Mercedes team, Sunday’s race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez offers late-season redemption in the hope of taking the fight to the Dutchman and perhaps a real fillip as they look to 2024.
At the last round in the US Hamilton was as close to Verstappen as he has been all season, just two seconds behind at the flag. He believes he could have challenged for the win but for Mercedes making the wrong strategy call. A decision which was ultimately moot when he was disqualified for a technical infringement in over-wearing the plank beneath the car.
Yet despite the disappointment the pace they had shown in the race was encouraging. Mercedes had brought their final major upgrade of the season to Texas, in the form of a new floor and with Verstappen’s Red Bull team having long shifted focus to next year’s car, the Mercedes did appear to have made a major step toward their rivals.
Mercedes were strong in the thin air and altitude of Mexico City last year, with Hamilton claiming second place and the British driver was optimistic they could go one better this time round.
“We were very close, I could almost taste it in the last one,” he said. “I think had we got the strategy right, I would have been a lot closer to having that win.
“Definitely we have taken a step forwards. Over these next four races, I can’t predict which one we’re going to be closer, which one we may or may not be further away. We were close here last year. So hopefully we will be a little bit closer maybe this weekend. If we get the strategy right this weekend maybe we can really take the fight to them.”
Hamilton dearly wants to just get into wheel-to-wheel competition with Verstappen after what has been a frustrating season and his team are confident they will have a strong car in Mexico. However their focus will likely fall on how well the car performs as much as whether it has closed the gap to Hamilton’s satisfaction.
The success or otherwise of the new floor was somewhat obscured by the disqualification in the US GP. They were penalised effectively for running at too low a ride height and this weekend will discover if their pace can be maintained with a ride height set to meet the parameters.
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The team principal, Toto Wolff, noted how important it was in the development of next year’s car which, although expected to be an entirely new design, is being informed by the performance of this year’s W14. “It will be a good test of our upgrade package, seeing how it performs at a circuit with very different characteristics,” he said. “That will be useful for our continued learning and development for the W15.”
Britain’s Oliver Bearman made his F1 debut on Friday taking part in first practice in Mexico City with the Haas team. The 18-year-old, part of the Ferrari young driver programme, is the youngest Briton to take part in an F1 weekend. He is currently sixth in the F2 championship, having taken four victories.
He acquitted himself well in Mexico, finishing a respectable 15th place, the highest of the five rookies running in the session. Verstappen topped the timesheets, with Williams’ Alex Albon in second and Sergio Pérez in third. Hamilton was in 11th but Mercedes were testing parts during practice and had the British driver not made an error on his quick lap the team believe he would have been in the top three.