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Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix 2023 - Results
I can't get enough of that mariachi F1 theme, no joke.
Next weekend (Nov. 3-5), we head to the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace PACE in Sao Paulo, Brazil to finish up the triple header. Only 3 more grands prix left!
EDIT: Results updated to account for BOT post-race penalty.
Results -- SPOILER
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 71 | 2:02:30.814 | 25 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 71 | +13.875s | 19 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 71 | +23.124s | 15 |
| 4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 71 | +27.154s | 12 |
| 5 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 71 | +33.266s | 10 |
| 6 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 71 | +41.020s | 8 |
| 7 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 71 | +41.570s | 6 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 71 | +43.104s | 4 |
| 9 | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 71 | +48.573s | 2 |
| 10 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 71 | +62.879s | 1 |
| 11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 71 | +66.208s | 0 |
| 12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT | 71 | +78.982s | 0 |
| 13 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 71 | +80.309s | 0 |
| 14 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 71 | +81.676s | 0 |
| 15 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | ALFA ROMEO FERRARI | 71 | +85.597s | 0 |
| 16 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 70 | DNF | 0 |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 66 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 47 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 31 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 1 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Lewis Hamilton
Source: F1.com
Man, seeing Perez DNF in the first couple seconds of the GP in his home country was... a heck of a way to start a race.
So shocking.. and really just sad. I've been waiting for Perez to get back on form and I really felt like Mexico was where we'd see him get back, yk? It would be the comeback! And I mean, he had a very good start, great reaction time but then the inchident happened and.. oh well
Sucks for Yuki that everyone is going to remember Ricciardo putting in a solid drive instead of Yuki almost catching up to him despite starting from the back. The move was his own fault ofc but still. Also sucks that Sargeant dropped to P16 because he had to pit due to car issues. He put in a solid drive at the end stint to get to P12, great move on Hulk.
If I’m Toto Wolff I’m taking a long look at George Russell’s status as the Mercedes heir apparent at the moment. Don’t know what happened to Mr. Saturday since last year but the guy cooks his tyres in half the time with slower laps compared to Hamilton, and struggles to overtake under pressure in multiple weekends this year.
I think this year has been quite revealing for Russell. He was flattered last year when Mercedes where nowhere and Hamilton, having experienced huge success, didn't mind sacrificing his own results to potentially find more speed. Also, I have an impression that Hamilton had worse luck, with Russell often benefitting from safety cars etc.
This year, with both drivers pushing to be fast like normal, Hamilton has completely outclassed him. I know there have been a few moments of bad luck, but I think the score is pretty representative of the skill gap. Russell not being able to pass Sainz when Hamilton caught up to and passed Leclerc was indicative of the difference between the two drivers.
I'd be looking very hard for a replacement, but I can't see who would be the best candidate. I don't rate Norris, personally and Piastri has just renewed. But Piastri or Sainz would be my choices - perhaps Leclerc (I'm ignorant of the end dates of their respective contracts, though).
Pretty much everyone's contract is up at the end of next year. EDIT: The only ones not expiring are Verstappen (2028), Norris (2025), Piastri (2026), Hamilton (2025), Russell (2025), Stroll (20XX). It's going to be a wild contract season.
For the Merc seats I'd kind of like Antonelli come up for 2026/7 to replace either Russell or Hamilton depending on if he gets swallowed up by F2 next year/2025. Alternatively it would be nice to see Leclerc in a team that doesn't fuck up like Ferrari.
Also, may I ask why don't you rate Norris? IMO he's the driver performing the best out of the non verstappen-hamilton duo who are very clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the field.
Wow, it's going to be an absolute shambles soon, excellent.
I don't know anything about Antonelli - I think the last time I heard a lot about an up-and-coming driver was Piastri, and what a début he's made. I think Pourchaire's name has come across my radar too. I tend to be fairly disconnected from these things, so if those names made an impression, there must have been quite a lot of chatter about them. You think Antonelli could skip straight over F2 into an F1 seat? He must have made quite the impression.
Re. Norris, it's not entirely rational. I can acknowledge that he's taking that car as far as it can go, I think, but I don't think his results were that impressive against Sainz, and I feel that Sainz has been shown to be very-good-but-not-great. Could Sainz or Norris win in a car with an advantage like this year's Red Bull? Yes, I think so. But could they have muscled their way into a championship à la Rosberg 2016 or Verstappen 2021? No, I don't think they could.
I was going to write that I wish Norris could go up against a benchmark driver (not early Sainz or rookie Piastri), but then I realised that he has - Ricciardo. And he wiped the floor with him. But somehow, I put that down more to Ricciardo being not as good as he's made out to be (Verstappen made pretty short work of him after getting up to speed in the sport, there was an extremely clear trend) because he's just not that adaptable. In a car he likes, he'll be decently fast, even incredibly fast now and again, but he didn't have the skill to adapt to a strange car, which is a big negative mark, in my opinion.
So Antonelli is the current prodigy running around the junior circuits. He won Italian F4 and ADAC (German) F4 last year, and then Formula Regional Middle East & Formula Regional Europe this year as a rookie entrant for everything but Italian F4 where he did half a season the year before he won and still came 10th. He's skipping F3 and going straight to F2 next year. I'm hoping he doesn't get caught out by this jump, but only time will tell. If he does well next year I can only imagine where he'll end up.
RE: Norris, that entirely makes sense. It's been a bit of a weird career for him so far without a real benchmark, or one that isn't Ricciardo struggling with the car day in day out.
I've got the mariachi theme as a ringtone :)
Great little race. Lando absolutely killed it. I think he was up six or eight spots before the flag, fell back five, then back up another 8 or something. I need to double check that. Anyway, this had everything.
There's a lot of talk about Checo's future... and I really think Danny is a valid threat, no matter what RB says.
I was definitely a bit ambivalent about RIC's return to AT. I started watching F1 in 2021, so I never saw him in his prime. He had that great win in Monza, but otherwise I only saw his struggles with McLaren. So all the rumors of him replacing Checo seemed premature, even with Checo having problems. Was Daniel washed up or did he still have it?
But after this weekend's performance, his stock has definitely risen in my book. Obviously we haven't seen much of him this half of the season due to his hand injury. And Mexico is but one weekend; there are still three more races to go. But still being able to get that AT that high is impressive. He even brought the fight to a Mercedes! A few more laps and he would've overtaken Russell.
Checo definitely needs to watch out and shape up. Especially if he loses that P2 in the WDC. Lewis is only 20 points behind him now. If Lewis has another great weekend, like at a track he's good at like Brazil, then he's gonna be right on Checo's heels.
I got in around the same time as you. I went back and watched a few seasons to fill in the breaks. When he was good, he was really good and I can see why he left.
That fight with Russell was great. I watched it from both of their on-boards. Maybe Danny should have given Merc the heads up like Ocon did :)
Ditto on the special theme. So much fun.
Nice drive from NOR.
This race kind of crystallized in my mind that RUS lacks the killer instinct of a champion. That radio message encouraging whoever was behind him influenced my thoughts. But after that crash in Singapore... This year has been one to forget for him. Even though he's done really well in the quali matchup and has good points.
Good drive from HAM. I don't buy into the idea that Mercedes is gonna be closer next year. VER is just bonkers speed. He's the little dutch kid telling the interviewing he's going 37 speed on his bicycle in that old meme. No one is gonna catch VER next year even if Red Bull racing doesn't nail the car perfectly.