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F1 in Mexico City: Yet another Ferrari fiasco, but that’s not all
There was plenty of drama on and off the track for Formula 1 this weekend.
Formula 1 has a new World Drivers’ Champion. Just a few months after turning 20, Kimi Antonelli sealed his first title this weekend at Mexico City, becoming the sport’s youngest-ever champion. Elsewhere, there was drama aplenty, perhaps a consequence of the thin air affecting decision-making in some cases. The race was Ferrari’s to win, but yet again, the team handed victory to a rival this season, in this case Red Bull. Further down the grid, we saw a last-minute driver change in the Haas team, synchronized retirements from both Aston Martins, and the wheels literally coming off Cadillac Racing. And there was I, expecting a dull weekend.
It might not be as high as Pikes Peak, but at an elevation of 7,350 feet (2,240 m) above sea level, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez provides a unique challenge on the F1 calendar. Wings that would create huge amounts of downforce at circuits like Monaco just generate Monza-like levels in Mexico, and there’s little slipstream effect when following another car.
Cooling tends to be a problem, too, with insufficient airflow across radiators, and obviously engine power is reduced with less oxygen to burn. The track is very flat, with a rather low-grip surface and mostly medium- and slow-speed corners, including a processional route through a stadium that was built in the 1990s, plus a very long run from the start into turn 1.
Friday’s first practice saw 10 rookie drivers substitute in for series regulars—each team must run a young or test driver in each of their two cars at least twice in a season. Make that six times in the case of Cadillac?
The American startup team wants IndyCar star Colton Herta to race in F1, but Herta needs a total of 40 points over three years to get the requisite F1 super license. Sadly, his IndyCar record was too inconsistent—10th place in 2023, 2nd in 2024, but then 7th again in 2025—so he entered F2 this year, both to learn the circuits and to finish well enough in that championship to earn the remaining points.
That hasn’t happened, but you also earn a point for completing 100 km in an FP1 session, and Herta stepped into the Cadillac in Barcelona, Italy, Hungary, and in Texas. His run in Italy was cut short by unreliability, so Cadillac put him in the car again this weekend, hoping it would be the final run.
But it turns out they hadn’t added the numbers properly. Rather than pulling Herta’s IndyCar results from the official scoring, the team apparently relied on IndyCar’s erroneous website. Instead of starting the year with 36 super license points, Herta only had 35, and with four successful FP1 runs under his belt, he still needs one more point if the team wants to replace an underperforming Valteri Bottas next year, something that should happen with another run next time out in Brazil.
It’s not the first time that paperwork has proved to be a problem for the American team, which almost lost a chance to enter the sport after FIA emails went to its spam folder in 2024.
Friday’s second practice session also had more action than normal. Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson both sat out FP1 so rookies could drive their cars, which may have contributed to both being too eager to set a fast time in FP2. As Lawson’s Racing Bull got held up by Carlos Sainz’ slow Williams in front, Verstappen wanted past in the Red Bull, but both drivers were intransigent, and neither was prepared to yield. Paint was traded and cars were damaged, and both drivers were handed a one-place grid penalty for failing to behave themselves.