The second cease on Components 1’s lengthy journey to the Americas takes place within the Mexican capital, Mexico Metropolis, earlier than the circus strikes onto Sao Paulo to finish the run of three consecutive races.
On the circuit named in honour of the brothers, Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez, the accessible tyres are the C3 as Arduous, the C4 as Medium and the C5 as Mushy, a step softer than up to now, as was already the case final yr, the choice taken so as to open up extra strategic choices for the race.
The primary day of monitor motion, Friday 25 October, shall be barely totally different to standard. The second free apply session shall be totally given over to validating the softer compounds in Pirelli’s 2025 vary (C4, C5 and C6) in what is named an in-competition check. The session is prolonged by half-hour to 90 and all drivers and groups should observe a particular programme established by the Pirelli engineers. Other than the dry tyre allocation particularly for the Grand Prix (two units of Arduous, three of Medium and 7 of Mushy, one lower than standard), every driver could have two extra units of tyres: one shall be similar to the one accessible for the weekend, to behave as a baseline, whereas the opposite shall be a 2025 prototype choice, each when it comes to compound and of development – really the latter already homologated again in September.
These two units is not going to have any sidewall color bands. The plan is for the programme to incorporate a efficiency run and a long term for every set, with each workforce working the identical variety of laps with the same amount of gasoline on board, depending on the kind of run. The one exception shall be within the case of an everyday race driver being changed for FP1 by a younger driver. These race drivers will perform the Pirelli check for 60 minutes of FP2 solely and could have a further set of Medium compound tyres to catch up as a lot as attainable on buying information for the remainder of the weekend. All of the check information will then be analysed by Pirelli engineers to wonderful tune the traits of the compounds previous to the group check in Abu Dhabi, which begins on the Tuesday after the ultimate spherical of the 2024 championship. It implies that groups should put together their vehicles for qualifying and the race within the area of two hours: FP1 on Friday and FP3 on Saturday.
The Hermanos Rodriguez monitor is 4.304 km lengthy, with 17 corners and a floor that’s low when it comes to its severity on tyres. This yr the promoter has resurfaced the part between turns 12 and 15 within the third sector. The very easy asphalt and the actual fact the monitor is hardly used implies that grip ranges are reasonably low at the beginning of the weekend and monitor evolution could be very marked, rubbering within the extra the vehicles run.
Mexico Metropolis is positioned at over 2000 metres above sea stage and the rarified air has an affect on automobile efficiency, lowering the aerodynamic downforce generated by the vehicles. One of many penalties of that is that high speeds reached are very excessive, regardless of a configuration that really seems typical of tracks that require most downforce – the pace report was set right here in 2016 when Valtteri Bottas within the Williams-Mercedes was clocked at 372.5 km/h – even when the extent of graining is normally fairly excessive. Moreover, on the longest straights, the principle one and the one between turns 3 and 4, the floor temperature of the tyres tends to drop fairly shortly and the drivers must be very cautious when braking, particularly at flip 1, to keep away from locking the wheels and subsequently damaging the tyres.
When it comes to technique, that is normally a one-stop race. Final yr, nearly all of drivers tried to handle the Medium to elongate the primary stint as a lot as attainable. A Security Automotive and a later pink flag, after Kevin Magnussen went off the monitor within the Haas, meant that just about your entire subject used three units of tyres in a race that was just about divided in two.
Components 1 has at all times been very fashionable in Mexico, even when there have solely ever been 23 championship races held right here, all of them at this circuit within the capital metropolis, inaugurated in 1962. The races came about in three durations: from 1963 to 1970, from 1986 to 1992 and from 2015 onwards. A change of title in 2021 noticed the Mexican Grand Prix renamed after town.
There have been 15 totally different winners over the 23 editions of this race. Max Verstappen is probably the most profitable driver with 5 wins, together with his Pink Bull workforce on the identical quantity heading the groups’ classification. Jim Clark has began from pole probably the most typically (4 instances) whereas Lewis Hamilton has probably the most podium finishes with six. Of the constructors, Lotus on 6 has probably the most poles and Ferrari leads the way in which for podium finishes with 12.
