Adam Cooper F1

Piastri recovered to eighth after starting only 17th

Oscar Piastri says it was tougher than he had expected to get through the field in the Formula 1 Mexico City GP, and that he suffered from rarely being able to run in clear air.

The McLaren driver started only 187^th after a mistake in qualifying, and was one of the few drivers at the back of the field to start on medium tyres.

He managed to run a marathon 40-lap stint on them as he worked his way up to an eventual eighth place at the flag.

Piastri said while the result was disappointing, it had nevertheless been a good weekend for him.

“I think when the field is so tightly-bunched, it’s always very difficult to make progress,” he said. “So, yeah it was maybe a little bit tougher than I expected.

“I think the pace at the end of the race was good once I got some clean air. I just didn’t have enough of it, starting from where I was.

“So obviously that’s the thing to work on next week. I think outside the results, honestly, it felt like it was coming together to be a good weekend.

“So the result is obviously a massive shame, but I think there’s still some positives comparing to last weekend, which was a pretty lonely P5, I felt like today, I at least had a bit more control over my destiny. So let’s see what can happen next week.”

After the start Piastri took several laps even to get past the Saubers of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas.

“It was tough,” he said. “I think looking at last year’s race for Lando, and even last week for George, it’s very, very tough no matter which car you’re in, to get through a pack.

“You kind of need to wait for everything to spread out a bit. And once it did spread out, then I was able to come through reasonably quickly.

“It’s just that you’re kind of at the mercy of what the cars ahead of you do. So hopefully the tyres we tested in FP2 make that a bit easier next year, but hopefully I don’t have to start that far back again and do a better job at quali.

“So obviously, some things to improve, but I think outside of the results, behind the scenes, I felt like it was a much more positive weekend than Austin. So looking forward to next week.”

Among the drivers who made it hardest for him was Franco Colapinto, with Piastri twice coming up behind the Williams driver.

“Honestly, in the first stint, he was not too slow,” said the Australian. “I think after I pitted, he had to quite a big moment, and then defended very hard, which I think cost both of us a lot of time. But he can do what he wants. He doesn’t have to make life easy.

“So it was just a bit tougher than I expected to get through. But once we had some clean air, the pace was good. So think the key in that is make sure we got clean air by qualifying in front.”

Alonso didn’t have much luck in his 400th start

Fernando Alonso says it was “destiny” to retire from his 400^th Formula 1 race in Mexico City with overheating brakes after his unique milestone put him in the spotlight all weekend.

The Aston Martin driver suffered with soaring front left brake temperatures after a visor tear-off was caught in the duct.

He was thus called into retire after only 15 laps while running outside the points in 13^th place.

“The start was a little bit chaotic,” he said when asked by this writer about the first lap. “But I think we took advantage, Lance [Stroll] and myself, to gain some positions. I think we were under control, 11th and 12th, waiting for some opportunities, maybe to score points.

“But by lap 13, or something like that, apparently, the temperatures were unsafe and a little bit over the moon on the front left, so we took some actions on the steering wheel to protect the front temperatures.

“But they told me there is a little a bit of debris or tear-off or something in the front from brake duct. So destiny, a little bit unlucky today to not finish the race.”

He added: “Initially, the team was spotting the temperature. And then the last two laps, the brake pedal was slowing, and I think we reached an unsafe temperature to keep running.”

Alonso said that the team had learned some useful information having run a mixture of older and newer parts, and different specs on both cars.

“It was a useful weekend,” he said. “A lot of testing going on in FP1, FP2, some conclusions that we can take on board. And, yeah, hopefully we come back stronger.

“The level of performance is still not where we want to be, and we need more, so more evaluation will come in Brazil.”

He said he appreciated the attention that his 400 races record attracted.

“It was a good weekend in that side, a lot of love from everyone in the paddock this weekend, a lot of respect,” he said. “So it was nice to feel all of that. And I take it. I have a positive feeling after this weekend, despite the result, after the emotions that I was going through from Friday to today’s race.

“So, yeah, looking forward for a better result. As I said, first of all, the performance needs to get better. It was a unlucky weekend, with the yellow flag in Q2, and with today the debris on the front brake duct.

“But some other weekends, I was very lucky. And we were maybe not in the points today. So I take the bad luck when we are not in the points.”

Asked if Interlagos will suit the car he said: “Last year it did. I think we were out of Q1 or nearly out of Q1 here in Mexico, and then we went in Brazil, and we fought for a podium until the last lap. So yeah, reasonably confident that Brazil will get better.”

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack acknowledged that the temperature issue could not be resolved, and added that he hopes Alonso’s net race will be better.

“It was building, building, building,” he said. “Normally in the first 10 laps of a race everything is overheating. And then there is stabilisation phase.

“But we saw quickly that on the brake side. It did not stabilise, it just went and went. And then if you go into the oxidation phase, that is something that you should always avoid. “So we had to make the unfortunate call that 400th race we had to end it quite early. I said it to his own colleagues we have to make sure that 401 is the proper one.”

Wing damage cost Russell time as he tried to hold off Hamilton

George Russell admits that a collapsed front wing cost him lap time and made it “tricky to hold on” in front of Mercedes Formula 1 team mate Lewis Hamilton in the Mexico City GP.

Hamilton got ahead of Russell at the start, but Russell later repassed. However the wing was damaged when he hit a bump passing Oscar Piastri, and that cost him downforce, and left him vulnerable to attack from Hamilton.

Having managed to stay ahead for many laps Russell eventually had to cede what was by then fourth place.

“I made a really strong start, but you’re kind of at the mercy of where the drivers in front of you go,” he said I asked about initially losing out to Hamilton.

“And unfortunately, they all went to the right. Last year they went to my left, and I’d have been able to get the launch, but I kind of got a bit snowballed from not getting my slipstream.

“The pace looked pretty strong in the first stint, but when I came out the pits behind Piastri, I pulled out down the straight and my front left flap just completely collapsed. I hit this bump.

“So that probably cost me a good three or four-tenths for the remainder of the race. So that was tricky to hold on for 40 laps. P5, I probably would have taken that after Friday.”

Russell agreed that he’d enjoyed a fair fight with Hamilton, contrasting to the footage he’d seen of the Max Verstappen/Lando Norris battle up ahead.

“It was nice to have the battle,” he said. “It’s always good when you fight with Lewis, because it’s hard and fair. And at the moment, you see a number of manoeuvres that are just getting beyond entertaining, or beyond sort of sporting. It’s just almost unfair to a point now.”

GPDA director Russell said that discussions over racing guidelines with the FIA at the drivers’ briefing had been productive.

“I think the stewards are totally on board with what needs to change,” he said. “I think the biggest discussion is they wanted to wait until ’25 so it’s something consistent through this year.

“I would say 19 out of 20 drivers said, well, if it’s incorrect, make the change today. And I’m glad to see those incidents were punished today. And I suspect moving forward in Brazil, what we saw today and what we saw last week, you won’t be able to get away with.”

Regarding the time lag he added: “Sometimes seems more difficult when it has to be, when things have to get approved and they’ve got to go to a vote the SAC [sporting advisory committee] or whatever it is. But as I said, 19 out of 20, we’re all aligned with where it needs to be.”

Three big crashes have put a dent in the Mercedes cost cap budget

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that the team’s recent run of major accidents has impacted the cost cap so severely that it has stopped the flow of development updates.

Kimi Antonelli crashed in FP1 in Monza and then George Russell had offs in both Austin and Mexico, with the latter forcing the spare chassis into usage.

After the Austin crash the team had only one of its latest floors in Mexico last weekend, but the damaged one has been repaired, and will be available in Brazil.

However Wolff anticipates that no further new parts will make it to the track.  

“Kimi’s crash in Monza, George’s crash in Austin, George’s crash here,” said Wolff last weekend. “I love a driver to push, and I’d rather crash and we know what the car is capable of doing than not. In cost cap land nevertheless, it’s a tricky situation.

“So these three shunts put us on the back foot. And certainly the one that happened [in FP2 In Mexico] was massive. We had to opt for a completely new chassis, and that is a tremendous hit in the cost cap.

“And we probably have to dial down on what we put on the car. So we will be having two upgrade packages in Brazil, two floors, but that’s basically it.

“There’s nothing else that’s going to come. We have certain limitation on parts where we need to be creative how we’re managing this. And certainly there is an impact on how many development parts we can put on the car, because the answer is zero.”

In Mexico Lewis Hamilton had the newer floor and Russell the older one, although no decision has been made on what will happen in Brazil.

“I’m always open-minded about what the drivers think,” said Wolff. “If I’m certain that George is going to go for the new and Lewis may want to back-to-back the old floor now in Brazil, and we will certainly talk with him what his preference is.”

Wolff also explained how Russell suffered the front wing damage that hampered him during the Mexican race.

“When overtaking Piastri out of the pits he hit a bump, and they came very close, so the amount of turbulence might have played a role,” he said.

“One of the main front flaps collapsed. So it was a tremendous loss of downforce. I think in the high-speed, it was 20 points. He then kind of drove around it very well. But obviously, the more your tyres are being hit, the impact on lap time is exponential.”

Regarding Russell’s superior pace in Mexico he added: “I think with the hard run, you saw that there was quite a bit of a difference. So two reasons. First of all, I think George drove very well all weekend.

“And on the other side, there may be something in the update package that causes something that we don’t understand, because we had two massive crashes in the same corner in Austin, but then we had a crash on the old car too.

“So these cars are so on the knife’s edge that it will be an interesting experiment in Brazil to see whether there is a high-speed instability or low-speed factor.

“So I don’t think we can just extrapolate that one is better than the other, which we know it’s not.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen will “always drive aggressively” within the current FIA Formula 1 driving guidelines.

Horner also suggested that those guidelines encourage drivers to dive down the outside into corners even if they are likely to go off track.

He indicated that was the case when Verstappen picked up a 10-second penalty for forcing Lando Norris off track at Turn 4 early in the Mexico City GP, before the Dutchman received another one for gaining an advantage while passing off-track.

He believes that the guidelines should be revisited to avoid “a mess” in the remaining four races.

The FIA has already invited drivers to discuss them in Qatar, although that meeting will be after the Interlagos and Las Vegas events.

“Max will always drive aggressively to what he perceives as the regulations,” said Horner. And when you step over that mark, then of course, you’ll get a penalty.

“I just fear that we’re perhaps over-complicating, and all I would do is encourage that there’s is a constructive discussion between the drivers and the driver steward to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to have another four hotly contested races. What is and what isn’t allowed?’”

Horner used a GPS data trace in an attempt to demonstrate to the media that Norris would not have made the corner at Turn 4 when the first incident occurred. He compared the McLaren driver’s fastest lap with the lap he was battling with Verstappen.

“He wouldn’t have made the corner,” Horner insisted. “He would have run off-track. You can see from his onboard steering. And of course, at this point in the race, he’s got probably 80 kilos more fuel than the point that he’s done his fastest lap.

“It used to be a reward of the bravest to go around the outside. I think we’re in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down, where drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the apex, and then claim that they have to be given room on the exit.

“You can see quite clearly, he’s effectively come off the brakes, gone in super, super late to try and win that argument, as far as the way these regulations are written. And then at that point, you’re penalised.”

Horner said that the driver on the inside should always have priority.

“Now, every karting circuit, every indoor karting circuit around the world, if you’ve got the inside line, you control the corner,” he said. “It’s one of the principles in the physics of racing.

“And I think that they just need to get back to basics, that if you’re on the outside, you don’t have priority, and otherwise we will end up with a mess over these last four races.

“So I think it’s really important that that the driver steward, together with the drivers, agrees something that is sensible, rather than what we’re getting.”

He added: “Maybe we’re over-complicating things. And when you have to revert to an instruction manual of an overtake. I mean, the racing principles for years have been, if you have the inside line, you dictate the corner.

“And the way the regulations have, or the guidelines have evolved, is encouraging a driver to have his nose ahead at apex, irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner.

“You can quite see it clearly see on the overlay of those two laps that Lando has hung out there to get that advantage.

“So it’s something that just needs to be, I think, tidied up, so that everybody knows what is acceptable between now and the end of the season. Otherwise, we’re going to end up in a mess at the upcoming races.

“And I think it’s just important that the rules of engagement are fair, rather than giving an advantage to the outside line, which in the history of motorsport, being on the outside has always been the more risked place to be.

“But now it’s almost the advantage, because all you’ve got to do is have your nose ahead at the point that they turn in, irrelevant of whether you’re going to make the corner or not.”