Why thin air of Mexico is Formula 1’s most brutal challenge

Mexico returned to the Formula 1 calendar in 2015, and for the last ten years the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez has presented a unique challenge: at more than 7,500ft above sea level, the air at the circuit is around 25% less dense than at sea level.

Thinner air doesn’t just make it harder to breathe, it also affects how a Formula 1 car operates: top speeds are higher – with reduced drag – but cornering speeds are lower due to loess downforce. This means the brakes are having to work harder, and the thinner air makes it more difficult to cool them, along with the power unit.

When the lights go out for this year’s race, it’ll also be the first time F1’s new generation of cars has faced anything like it – and with power units that lean far more on electric power, there’ll be yet another technical challenge for teams to contend with.

What’s different in 2026?

The biggest change comes from the new power units. This year’s cars produce roughly half their power from the internal combustion engine and half from electrical power, compared with around 20% electric last season. With the combustion engine now accounting for less of the total, the cars should theoretically lose less power due to altitude than in previous years – but there are other issues that could surface.

“I think it will still be a challenge,” Aston Martin team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa says. “Turbo engines don’t suffer as much with altitude, mainly because the turbo can compensate for the lack of oxygen by revving higher.”

“In the past, when we went to Mexico with a [naturally] aspirated engine, the penalty was huge. Now it is very much reduced. I think it won’t be that different to last year in that sense,” he adds. “We rely more on electric power, so I think it will be quite insensitive, I would say. What I think will be very, very challenging will be the cooling.”

Why could cooling be even harder in 2026?

Cooling has always been the toughest part of a Mexico weekend – and the new cars could suffer even more than before. According to the Spaniard, the brakes are a factor as in previous years, but only on the front axle:

“It will be a huge challenge for all teams, especially on the power units and on the brake side,” he says. “At the front end it will get hot, and you will have to run slightly bigger brake ducts. But the rear end is not an issue, because you are using the rear axle to harvest energy, so it’s not that difficult to cool the rear brakes.”

The power unit has always had the roughest time in Mexico, and that continues in 2026. Even ‘superclipping’ – when cars harvest energy to top up the battery while the driver is on full throttle – will present a huge challenge for engineers.

“Altitude will always be a challenge, especially with these power units, because even if we rely more on the electric side, let’s not forget that when we are superclipping, these engines are at full revs charging the batteries,” de la Rosa explains.

“So it’s not that because we superclip, the engines have an easier life. Not at all. Top speed will be lower, but the engine will be revving as high as before. So I think cooling will be very much a challenge for all teams with the current power units.”

To combat the demands, cars are fitted with larger brake  ducts to keep them cool and avoid glazing, where the surface of brake pads is burnt off, becomes shiny and loses its bite.

Larger air intakes are also needed to cool the engine, but it remains a balancing act, because larger ducts increase drag. Even though the penalty of that extra drag is reduced in Mexico, it does still hamper performance, so teams don’t want to increase it unnecessarily.

Getting the calculation wrong can result in drivers having to manage their brake temperatures by lapping slower, or by losing straightline speed from unnecessarily large intakes.

Downforce

The key to success in F1 is usually aerodynamic efficiency: generating as much downforce as possible for higher cornering speeds while minimising drag (where air resistance is holding the car back) for higher straightline speeds.

In Mexico, it’s all about downforce, even if it comes at a high price in terms of drag. The thin air means that cars’ speed on the straights is less affected by drag, while every extra bit of downforce you add will increase cornering speeds, making the latter the more important element.

Teams lay on Monaco levels of wing — optimised for slower-speed corners — but even this only generates the same level of downforce as at Monza, where the skinniest wings are used. That results in high top speeds of up to 225mph and the need to slow more in corners (Turn 1 is taken at about 75mph).

Cars that have been struggling with aerodynamic efficiency can suddenly become competitive, so we sometimes see a reshuffle in the competitive order.

Tyres

Pirelli brought a wider range of compounds to Mexico last year, in recognition of how the circuit can be harsh on the tyres. It’s partly due to graining — the small tears and scratches on the surface of the rubber caused by tyres sliding across the track. This is exacerbated by the low downforce which reduces grip in corners.

There are six compounds of F1 tyres, ranging from the hardest C1 (least grippy but most durable) to the C5 (grippiest but fast-wearing) and Pirelli selects three per race.

In 2026, teams had the choice of the “extremely conservative” C2 as the hard tyre, offering drivers the ability to run long and make only one pitstop, but with slower laptimes.

However, teams didn’t take the risk and largely used the two softer compounds, so this year, the harder tyre will be softer in the form of the C3.

As with last year, the C4 compound will be the medium tyre and the C5 the soft.

Track temperature is also a bigger issue in Mexico, once again due to the thinner air which deflects less of the sunlight before it hits the track. That often results in the asphalt getting considerably hotter than the air temperature, raising the risk of tyres overheating.

Power unit

At the heart of an F1 car is old-fashioned mechanics: the process of exploding fuel and oxygen to release energy. With less oxygen in the air, that bang is going to be less powerful.

The turbochargers in modern F1 cars can mitigate some of that effect because they compress the air, cramming more oxygen into every square centimetre that’s rammed into the cylinders.

The turbos are turned up in Mexico to spin faster, increasing the compression rate and bringing the oxygen levels closer to those that the engines use at sea level. However, the turbos can only spin so fast before they overheat or they exceed the safety limit, beyond which a failure could see blades explode out of the casing.

The result is a drop in power across the grid, but some teams suffer more than others, particularly if, like Ferrari, they have an engine with a smaller turbocharger.