Magnificent Mexico – a city that keeps giving

Mexico City is set up on a plateau at an altitude of 2200 m. Yes it does have an effect on walking up stairs ! Well we found that anyway. The city is huge with a reputation for pollution and not being safe! The introduction of a very good bus and metro transit system has much reduced the pollution and we felt vey safe while we were here. The race days coincided with the beginning of the Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead, where you celebrate the memory of loved ones. This meant our small hotel gave free coffee, Bicardi, beer and tequila every day!! Happy days. The people in Mexico City were friendly and helpful, and as we have found everywhere very kind. We would definitely come back. We will post another page regarding all the amazing attractions, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mesoamerican ruins (prior to Aztec civilisation) outside the city in Teotihuacan, as well as Aztec ruins within the city itself. Fascinating and amazing!

Getting to the race was simple and cheap using the metro system, which took you directly to the race track. The system was very efficient despite the large numbers using it at the same time. A lot of circuits can learn from this. We were seated in the amazing Foro Sol grandstand which is a large curved grandstand spilt in two by the racetrack itself which then runs through the stands and behind! This gave some incredible views of the race. The crowds were very passionate, especially for Checo but also Alonso and the Ferrari pair. The crowd noise was amongst the loudest we have experienced and the crowd were really good fun. The only letdown was that the circuit kept you in a zone and you could not move from that zone to another part of the circuit. You were stuck in the area. Our area had no F1 Fanzone activities and was very cramped for the number of people. There were plenty of food and drink outlets but only one water refill station for 10,000 people which kept closing and running of water and the queues huge. However, the view of the track was amazing!!

The Mexico GP threw up lots of surprises. The qualies were very exciting with lots of surprising results. For a start the Ferrari’s placed were P1 and P2 ?? Charles got P1 followed by Sainz. Max was P3 with Ricciardo making P4! In an Alpha Tauri – what is going on? Is Danny Boy finally making a come-back? The home-town favourite Checo was lined up 5th. the McLarens and Mercedes made it into the top 8 with another surprise of Alpha Romeo duo Bottas and Guanyu rounding off the top ten. Once again, Alpine were not really showing the placing they should. And Aston Martin, what has gone wrong?

There were lots of infringements which could further affect the line up on race day. Russell, Verstappen and Alonso all holding up the exit lane for the last lap during qualies. However, the FIA did not action this and other infringements (Hamilton speeding during yellow flag) which is a shame on two counts; firstly consistency – the FIA have a very troubled history of not punishing the top drivers (particularly Max and Hamilton) and secondly, the starting grid would have been even more mixed up (aka exciting!).

Before the race we always get a drivers parade where the drivers are on the back of a flatbed truck or in antique cars. Mexico went the whole hog with a marching band and flag waving, and creating a real festival spirit. The crowd were given different coloured cards representing the teams which were held up as each team came out to their cars. It was great fun and by far the best drivers parade we have seen.

However, the race was very exciting with lots of action straight from the start. The Ferraris were particularly ineffective at the start and Max powered through both of them to take the lead from turn one. Well, that’s Ferrari – Sainz especially had a terrible start (not his first) and Leclerc could not fend off Max. Add to that Checo going on the outside at the same time as Max and Leclerc which led to Checo hitting Leclerc and being bounced off the track with irreparable damage. Checo, what were you thinking? The loss of Checo on the first corner really affected the crowd. Everyone was very upset as we all hoped for a good race for the home town driver (he was actually born in Guatemala but who cares?). However, after a couple of beers and a margarita or two the crowd were on fire again! The noise was incredible all through the race. From that point on no-one was going to catch Max so all eyes were on the rest.

Once again, the race was very strategic with what tyres to use and when to change. The timing of the change was very important to ensure the driver kept their position. Hamilton did a great job in moving up the order and getting past the Ferraris. On lap 35 Magussen had a suspension failure which caused him to career into the wall at high speed and resulting in his car catching fire. Magnussen walked away from that one. A nasty incident which meant that the race was held up for a while and a restart occurred. Most of the drivers restarted on the hard compound – to make sure they lasted until the end of the race. But wait, there’s more! Mercedes came out on medium tyres! What are they doing? Will they last 36 laps and still be competitive against the mediums?

The second half of the race was very exciting too. Norris, who started 17th on the grid was amazing in his efforts and moved up to finish 5th overall. Those McLarens are good. Ricciardo managed to hold onto 7th place with Oscar Piastri coming in 8th. Hamilton finished second with Leclerc and Sainz of Ferrari taking 3rd and 4th. Russell struggled all race and came in 6th. Russell seems not to like the new upgrades as much as Hamilton. Piastri and Yuki had a couple of hits and Yuki came off worst finishing 12th. Alex Albon of Williams did another great job and finished 9th while Esteban Ocon obtained the last point on offer for Alpine. Poor Stroll (Aston Martin) was hit by Bottas on lap 67 and had to retire. Bottas was hit with a 5 second penalty for the incident. Alonso had been struggling al weekend and the race itself was no better. The Astons were not doing well. Alonso picked up some damage from Checo’s debris on turn 1 which ultimately led to his retirement from the race. Alonso had been having a torrid weekend with the Aston Martin spinning ff track at regular intervals. Aston must be very worried with two DNF’s and losing constructors position to McLaren and Alonso’s 5th position under threat.

Overall, the Mexico GP must rank up there with the best for transportation, views, atmosphere, access to the track post-race and race action but last for facilities for fans, including; shade, water, space and ability to move around the circuit (non existent).