Four reasons not to miss the Mexican GP

Hamilton’s title charge

In reality, it’s likely the Mercedes ace will have to wait at least one more weekend before he can claim his latest crown – but in Mexico City, it will be within reach.

Hamilton leads team-mate and Japanese GP winner Valtteri Bottas, now officially his only title rival, by 64 points with only 104 available. He needs to beat Bottas by at least 14 points this weekend to become champion again, meaning that he’s probably relying on the Finn failing to finish. And Mercs don’t fail all too often in this hybrid era.

Despite his accomplished Suzuka win, during which he outpaced his team-mate on merit, Bottas is a long shot for the title and he accepts that. He’ll also knows that such a performance is a case of too little, too late. Two wins from the first four races and the championship lead promised so much this season, but the former Williams driver fell away badly as spring turned to summer, and at times he was left looking shell-shocked by Hamilton’s relentless ability to pull out the big performances.

Then again, it’s been a less than straightforward season for Lewis, despite winning nine of those 17 races so far. Such a stat suggests domination, and yet while the title hasn’t really been in doubt since his four-race winning streak between the Spanish and French GPs, the season hasn’t felt like a walkover. That’s largely thanks to Ferrari’s growing threat, largely led by Charles Leclerc, but also Red Bull’s mid-season spell when Max Verstappen claimed a couple of impressive wins and briefly moved into title contention.

In all, it’s been a decent season, with the Ferrari now clearly the fastest car on the grid. Since the largely dull French GP, each race has kept us hooked and entertained, with plenty of incident and overtaking. When you look at it that way, there’s some irony that a time of enjoyable racing should coincide with so much unrest about the future shape of F1, as the sport considers how it should change to become more entertaining…

Rules row coming to boiling point

The main talking point in Mexico away from the track action is likely to be the state of F1’s new technical rulebook, due to be signed off this month in time to be implemented for the 2021 season. But it’s a subject almost as contentious as Brexit.

The rulebook, which has already been delayed by the disagreements, is based around a premise to make it easier for F1 cars to follow each other and thus improve the racing spectacle. And the only way to do that is introduce huge restrictions on aerodynamics, the big factor in racing car design in which F1 teams have invested the most over the years. No surprise then that six of the 10 teams, including Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, are not in favour of what promoter Liberty Media and governing body the FIA are proposing. The fear is that F1 is about to head down a route where all the cars will look the same – although cynics would quickly add that has been the case for the past 20 years anyway…

Most pertinently, Ferrari could in theory invoke its infamous veto over new F1 rules if it believes they are ‘harmful’ to the sport. Team boss Mattia Binotto has said it would be a “shame” to do so and has played down such an extreme course of action – but stranger things have happened, especially with so much at stake.

Like Brexit, time is running out and talks between the teams and Liberty/the FIA have been ongoing. Let’s see what is said and done this weekend.

Ferrari and Renault under scrutiny

More pressingly, along with future F1 rules, technical controversies are swirling about two teams in the here and now. 

Long-running doubts about Ferrari’s oil cooler, basically doing more than it should, have resurfaced, with rival teams not for the first time querying the set-up with the FIA. More seriously, Racing Point has taken a complaint against Renault several steps further and issued a detailed protest against the French manufacturer’s alleged automatic brake bias adjustment system.

It amounts to a driver aid, which are banned in F1 within its sporting code. Will we have a ruling this weekend? If so, and if it goes against Renault, it would be tantamount to a judgement that the team has been cheating. That would be embarrassing, and given the state of its competitiveness in F1, could tip the manufacturer into extreme measures on its F1 future. It could be a potentially disastrous not just for Renault, but F1 as a whole at a time of great uncertainty.

Pérez hoping for a home advantage

Sergio Pérez is fast reaching ‘elder statesman’ status in F1 as he approaches his 10^th season at the pinnacle. Earlier this year, the former McLaren driver signed a rare three-year extension to his contract with Racing Point, solidifying his already strong relationship with the team and hinting at a future management role once he is finished driving.

But can he deliver a big result on home turf this weekend? Pérez is Mexico’s only F1 driver and a huge star in his home country, which itself has signed a contract extension to keep its F1 race until 2022 – so a decent performance this weekend would be significant on more than one count.

Previously, Pérez has often featured highly in Mexican GPs since the race returned to the calendar in 2015 – but his best finish on home turf has only been a seventh, in 2017. On current Racing Point form, more than that this weekend is asking a lot. But drama at the high-altitude track is never far from the surface, and with so much at stake for so many right now, you never know what might happen.

Photos: Motorsport Images