Perez shows startling naïvety for F1 veteran – Up/down in Mexico

As anti-climaxes go, nowhere does it better than Mexico. The party atmosphere in a vibrant capital city of a colourful country always promises a race of similar character.

Add in the wildly passionate support for Sergio Perez, and it looks like you have could have a classic on your hands.

The Red Bull No2 made sure this definitely didn’t happen by continuing his dreadful 2023 form, eliminating himself at the first corner, and everyone remembered that when you hold GPs this high up, cars that are dependant on aerodynamics tend to race pretty dreadfully.

Like at Monaco, they should probably just race in go-karts.

Here’s what was going up and down at high-altitude in Mexico.

 

Goin’ Down

Negative effect

Poor Checo can’t catch a break – and hasn’t appeared able to for a while, but a lot of it appears self-inflicted. Sucked in by an incredible slipstream at the race start, he said the fervent home support left him with no choice but to attack and go three-wide at the first corner with Leclerc and Verstappen.

Perez simply turned in when he had space, sandwiching Leclerc and ending in disaster.

The Mexican said, surprisingly, that he expected Leclerc to lift. For an experienced driver such as him, his comments – and driving – did come across as pretty naïve. What did he seriously think was going to happen?

He’s done similar before – giving Russell no space in Austria last year before turning into him, then blaming the Mercedes driver – and has had so many other errors too right from the start of his Red Bull tenure. In 2021 he pranged into Esteban Ocon in Imola FP1, then crashed on his way to the grid at Belgium that year – setting the tone ever since.

For someone who was such a reliable midfield battler, often threading the needle in a congested pack, it really does seem like the pressure has told.

 

Honeymoon over

Sheer misery for the Aramco boys, with Alonso retiring and Stroll spinning off after a pointless (literally) tête-à-tête with Valtteri Bottas while battling for 15th.

Aston looks to have now surrendered fourth to McLaren in the title race – so much for that race win the Spaniard predicted earlier this season.

Alonso has now said the team is “not fighting for anything” in 2023 and focused on next year. Eek.

 

Hopeless Haas

The Mexico City GP summed up Haas’s season. Magnussen looked kind of nowhere, then was aggressively spat into the wall by right rear suspension failure.

Hülkenberg threatened to score points for most of the race, but then faded into obscurity. In light of the ongoing Andretti row, the ‘American’ team continued to not really prove its worth to the championship here.

 

No room at the F1 inn

Along with Ollie Bearman (he gets a mention below) Sauber junior driver and F2 points leader Theo Pourchaire has nowhere to go in grand prix racing next season – the Swiss team is retaining Bottas and Zhou next season.

One of racing’s most exciting young talents said this weekend he’s considering IndyCar next year – but his team boss revealed Super Formula or WEC actually looks more likely. What would be the US category’s gain would also be a sad indictment of F1.

 

Goin’ Up

Norris rocket

Norris overtook ten cars in the second half of the race following the restart (some have said he came from 14th, but footage shows him 15th out of Turn 3) – epic stuff in what is appearing to be a golden age of British F1 drivers…

 

The Bear

…with 18-year-old British Ferrari junior Ollie Bearman lighting up FP1 – just 0.3sec off Nico ‘200 races’ Hülkenberg. Someone give him a seat!

Incisive insight

Strategy analyst Bernie Collins was once again brilliant on Sky F1 coverage – a real expert sharing their knowledge and opening up the race story for viewers. Certainly beats some of the old boys wittering on about nothing.

 

Bring on the boos

Nothing wrong with a bit of pantomime booing for Leclerc at the end of race interviews. It’s supposed to be gladiatorial entertainment after all.

When Ferrari nemesis Mika Häkkinen lost the lead due to misfortune at the Italian GP in consecutive years (’98 and ’99), the tifosi went wild both times – and the atmosphere was all the better for it. Would you want that sanitised?

No need for the Mexican fans to fight over it though, as was filmed in the crowd. C’mon guys, it’s just rich people hanging out – with a select number of said rich people going round in circles.

 

Can you smell what The Ric is cooking? (sorry)

It was appropriate that in the weekend the famous Peraltada corner was renamed ‘Nigel Mansell’, after his famous overtake on Gerhard Berger in 1989, that F1’s most Mansell-esque driver (in driving terms) appeared to finally rediscover some of his mojo after so many years of looking lost.

Ricciardo wrestled his AlphaTauri to seventh after qualifying a brilliant fourth – with those points potentially being crucial in securing the team precious prize money come the end of the year.