Grand Prix thread GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2022

71 laps of the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City

28th October Practice 1 19:00 - 20:00
28th October Practice 2 22:00 - 23:30
29th October Practice 3 18:00 - 19:00
29th October Qualifying 21:00 - 22:00
30th October Race 20:00 - 22:00

All times are UK times

Poll closes before Quali.

 

Interesting weekend in Mexico.

As the air is thinner at such high altitude, cars who are usually draggy in a straight line may take far less pain this weekend and conversely cars who are very aero efficient might not have such an advantage as normal.

Traction and downforce are still important here and therefore on balance, and less of a drag penalty, I think Ferrari could be the ones to beat here if their engines hold up!

Mercedes shouldn’t take so much pain on the straights but their strength is high speed corners- not sure they’ll enjoy the slow corners here which might scupper them, albeit this is the one place where their top speed might find parity.

Hoping therefore for a decent fight!

 

I'm sure I read before the season that Mercedes has completely changed their turbo this year, and so shouldn't be punished at the higher altitudes like they used to be. Can't find anything online confirming my potentially false memory.

Looking forward to this one as I love being able to watch the race in the evening once the little people are asleep. Also got a good feeling about Merc for this race...

 

Paul di Resta is a plum. FACT!

 

That a gearbox gone and Charlie down the grid again?

 

i genuinely just heard him make a joke about Sergio Perez doing donuts in front of 130,000 fans and he said “what, someone was selling donuts?”.

Bore off you misery-inducing rain cloud.

he grinds my bloomin gears!!

 

Can I have a rant for a second?



WHY AM I PAYING FOR SKY F1 FP1&2 COVERAGE ONLY FOR THE FIA TO TURN IT INTO A PIRELLI TYRE TEST?!

Anyone remember those days when tyre tests were done after the main race weekend was over?

What the hell is going on?!

 

Cheers! That made me chuckle.

 

Jenny Gowe or Anthony Davidson please

Di Resta should be called Eeyore !

 

Cost saving.

 

This is looking decent for Mercedes so far.

So far they are miles ahead of ferrari and 4 tenths in red bull.

 

They have been better at high downforce tracks but fingers crossed it looks good depending on top speed.

 

It'll be interesting quali.

 

Seems like something has changed and the track is a bit different to fp3!

 

Or in secret before the start of the season

 

Has the track changed all of a sudden. Merc 1&2 on merit in Q2 so far

 

Gobsmacked have far off the pace Ferrari are. This should be a shoe in for them to at least have a car on the front row.

 

Weird even Bottas has beat one of them with same engine but a lot less budget!

 

Apart from Verstappen improving slightly on pole on the second runs, Merc’s grab 2nd and 3rd and Ferrari were even worse than in their first runs.

 

Just reflecting on quali yesterday- were Ferrari basically strong on the final sector? Sainz I believe went purple in S3 on his final run?

Given the twisty, traction-dependant demands of that part of the circuit, I wonder if it indicates Ferrari will have more left on their tyres for long runs?

They were uncharacteristically slow for quali and I wonder if they’ve got a better race set up.

Time will tell!!