Were the penalties against Verstappen justified?
A penalty against Lando Norris was discussed in Austin. Seven days later, Max Verstappen was targeted by the referees. Once again the two World Cup rivals were in a direct clinch. In the duel for second place, Norris attacked on the outside lane on lap 10, but was pushed off the track by his opponent. “I was ahead of Max both at the braking point and at the apex. In the end I had to swerve to avoid a collision,” complained the McLaren driver.
Norris shortened the curve and was ahead of his opponent. But Verstappen counterattacked just a little later. In turn 7 he stabbed inside, but was far too fast and slid off the track. Because Norris couldn’t turn in, he also had to go into the run-off zone. As in Austin, Charles Leclerc accepted the gift and easily passed both of them on the inside.
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Norris attacked Verstappen on the wing. But then he had to move off the track.
This time the FIA commissioners showed Verstappen no mercy. There was a ten-second penalty for both maneuvers, which the Red Bull driver had to serve during the pit stop. In order not to risk overheating, Verstappen even switched off the engine while waiting. The penalty ultimately threw him into sixth place behind both Mercedes.
“He’s no longer interested in winning. He’s only interested in beating me,” said Norris at the finish. “I have a lot of respect for Max, but for me it wasn’t clean racing today. He knows that he went over the limit. In the end he paid for it.” McLaren boss Zak Brown found even harsher words: “The penalties are probably not enough. This is getting ridiculous. Enough is enough! But it is now clear that the stewards have their eye on him.”
ams
During his press lap, Christian Horner unpacked telemetry data that is intended to prove that Lando Norris was not pushed off the track by Verstappen.
Verstappen himself didn’t want to say much about the penalties. The management level jumped to their protégé’s side: “That was an overreaction to what happened in Austin,” complained sports director Helmut Marko. Christian Horner brought a printout of the telemetry data to his press event, which showed a comparison of Norris’ second rounds.
“Lando was 15 km/h faster during his attack and hit the brakes later than during his fastest lap,” calculated the team boss as he followed the lines with his finger. “You can also see from the onboard recordings that he would never have made the turn.” Horner took the duel as an opportunity to criticize the current duel rules: “Normally the driver on the inside controls the corner, now he has to leave space. If the driver on the outside has an advantage, there will be chaos in the last five races. “
Toto Wolff also intervened in the dispute. The Mercedes team boss recognizes a rethink in the interpretation of the rules: “A driver like Max will always take advantage of what the rules allow. Now there is a new interpretation. This has an impact on how the drivers fight with each other in the future. So Mexico has a new precedent “It’s no longer allowed to drive an opponent off the track. That should improve racing.”
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Lando Norris was at least able to beat Leclerc and prevent a Ferrari double victory.
Could Norris have won the race?
Even if Verstappen sacrificed himself with his penalty, he at least managed to slow down his World Cup rival in the first stint. When the Red Bull finally pitted on lap 26, Norris’ gap to Sainz had already grown to 12.6 seconds. McLaren team boss Andrea Stella’s anger was initially limited: “I thought that the Ferraris were too strong for us anyway. But then Lando was suddenly just as fast in the second stint. Without the incidents at the beginning, he might have been in contention for the win can fight.”
On the hard tires, Norris caught up more and more in the final sprint. It was still enough to catch Charles Leclerc and prevent a Ferrari one-two. The Monegasque driver was just able to catch a stray driver in the finish corner on lap 63, but went off the track and had to let his pursuer pass without a fight. Team boss Frederic Vasseur was upset after the race that lapped drivers didn’t make room in time and that was the only reason why Leclerc came under pressure.
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Zak Brown smuggled himself into the Ferrari winner’s photo.
Why was Sainz so superior in Mexico?
In the end, Carlos Sainz crossed the finish line 4.7 seconds ahead of Norris. McLaren boss Stella could live with the defeat. “The most important thing for me is that our upgraded car can keep up with Ferrari – and on a track that should actually suit them better. That’s a good sign for the next races.” Sainz had a real weekend in Mexico. The Spaniard was helped by the fact that his car was well positioned from the first lap.
Leclerc had to hand over his Ferrari to junior driver Ollie Bearman in the opening session. This was followed by a tire test in the second training session, which did not allow any setup work. The third training session was not enough for Leclerc to find perfect balance and a good feel for the grip. Vasseur also indicated that the Monegasque had to manage more cooling than his teammate in the race.
Norris and Verstappen also involuntarily sat out the first training session and then panted for the lost time. At Red Bull on Friday, a leak in the turbo intake caused a diet of laps. In the race, Verstappen had to drive with an older engine that lacked power. “We were 3 to 5 km/h short on the straight,” calculated Marko. The man from Graz indicated that Verstappen could accept a grid penalty in Brazil for installing a new engine.
Red Bull
In the duel with Lawson, Perez damaged his car. Points went out of reach early on.
What went wrong with Perez?
The hoped-for liberation at the home game failed for Sergio Perez. As in Austin, the Mexican complained about a lack of feeling on the brakes. Qualifying was over after the first knockout round. The race then began with a false start because he rolled one meter over his starting box. Before serving the five-second penalty, Perez also collided with Toro Rosso driver Liam Lawson. “The side box had a hole and a part of the underbody was missing,” Horner was annoyed. “In total, he lost 70 points of downforce.”
The team boss is slowly running out of patience. Despite a contract for 2025, Perez is now threatened with expulsion: “He knows that in Formula 1 only the results count. If the performances regularly fall short of expectations, we have to take a closer look. We rely on both cars scoring points regularly .” When asked directly, Horner did not want to rule out that Perez would have to leave before the end of the season: “We have done everything that is possible. But at some point there comes a time when nothing works anymore. Then difficult decisions have to be made.”
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The Mercedes drivers changed the order three times in the race.
How good is the Mercedes upgrade?
Mercedes necessarily used the Mexico weekend to compare the USA upgrade with the old package. Russell had damaged his new subfloor in Austin. This meant that only one new kit was available for Lewis Hamilton. However, there was practically no difference to be seen. In qualifying, Russell even managed three tenths of a second over his teammate. In the race, Hamilton briefly reversed the order with a better start, but then his stable rival quickly counterattacked on lap 15.
It was only thanks to a front wing defect at Russell that the upgrade finally came through. “One of the flaps broke when George came out of the pits and hit a bump in the duel with Piastri. Maybe air turbulence also played a role,” pondered Wolff. The team boss couldn’t explain why the upgrade wasn’t clearly superior: “The upgrade parts show behavior that we don’t understand. We had the accidents in Austin. The car is like it’s on a razor blade. We’ll do it again in Brazil However, it is not yet possible to conclude from the performance here which package is better.”
