The grid gets little time to rest, as Formula 1 leaves Austin behind and heads south of the border for this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Here are the major storylines to watch.
Drivers’ Championship fight
Max Verstappen might have been the last holdout, but even the Red Bull driver admitted on Sunday night in Austin that he is a true contender in the Drivers’ Championship fight. The four-time champion took the maximum 33 points available in the United States Grand Prix, winning both the F1 Sprint race as well as the main event on Sunday.
Now Verstappen, who trailed Oscar Piastri by 104 points and Lando Norris by 70 following the Dutch Grand Prix, is only 40 points behind Piastri, and just 26 points behind Norris. Piastri remains in the lead with 346 points, but has seen both Verstappen and Norris close the gap in recent weeks, as Norris is now just 14 points behind his teammate.
Piastri has the lead, Verstappen has the momentum, and Norris is coming off his “finest” performance according to Team Principal Andrea Stella. Who wins in the end? That is anyone’s guess, but as FIA President Mohamed Ben Sulayem told me during our interview on Sunday — yes that is a teaser for content coming later this week — it looks like this three-way battle is going to Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes vs. Ferrari vs. Max
Verstappen’s resurgent form has not only turned the Drivers’ Championship race into a three-way fight, it has done the same for the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship.
After the Hungarian Grand Prix Ferrari was second in the standings with 260 points, followed by Mercedes with 236 points. Verstappen and Red Bull were fourth, with 194 points.
At the moment Mercedes sits second in the standings with 341 points, followed by Ferrari with 334, just seven points behind.
Then there is Red Bull — or really Verstappen given how the points have been scored by the team this season — with 331 points, just ten points behind Mercedes and four off the pace from Ferrari.
Verstappen has scored 308 of those 331 points.
The four-time champion’s charge has made him a threat in the Drivers’ Championship race. But even if he falls short of a fifth title, Verstappen could still deliver a critical second-place finish for Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship at this pace.
Battling for seats at Red Bull
If you spend any time in a Formula 1 paddock, or in an F1 media pen, you learn pretty quickly what the producers of Drive to Survive are covering on a given race weekend.
Last week in Austin, the battle for seats at Red Bull and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls was at the top of their list.
Everywhere Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar, and Liam Lawson went, boom mics and cameras followed. (And if you see a certain exhausted sportswriter wearning a pink shirt in an episode next season as Yuki Tsunoda speaks with the media after the United States Grand Prix, do not be surprised).
Dr. Helmut Marko indicated earlier this month that Red Bull would decide on the seat alongside Max Verstappen following the Mexico City Grand Prix. That means this week is perhaps the last chance for those three drivers to state their case for a spot with the senior team.
When he met with us on Thursday in Austin, Lawson was asked about the timeline, but outlined how every weekend matters in Formula 1.
“I mean, as important as any other weekend, honestly,” said Lawson when asked how important the next two weeks are for his future. “The sport moves very fast. As much as you have good race weekends, I think people in Formula 1 have very short memories, so, you know, it’s, it’s about trying to keep that consistency across the board, and I think they’re important, but so is every weekend in Formula 1.”
For his part, Hadjar pleaded ignorance at the Mexico City deadline during his media session Thursday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas.
“I didn’t know that,” said Hadjar on Thursday in Austin. “It doesn’t change my approach at all.”
Three drivers, one seat at Red Bull, and perhaps one final week to state their case.
This week, another challenge is added to what the teams and drivers face each Formula 1 weekend.
Rising 7,349 feet (2,240 meters) above sea level, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is the highest circuit on the F1 calendar. This impacts not just the drivers and the team members, but even the cars.
Racing at this altitude means the cars encounter less air density, meaning there is less downforce, and less drag. To help generate the downforce needed to corner at higher speeds, teams will run high-downforce configurations you might typically see at Monaco. But with the thin air, the speeds will still be among the fastest we see each season, and during the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix Valtteri Bottas with Williams set an F1 record when he hit 231.4 mph (372.5 km/h) in the FW38.
However, the thin air can also stress the cars. Thinner air means less air particles, which means critical components such as tires, brakes, and power units are tougher to cool. Teams will open up body work and widen ducts to try and get more air flowing over those components to compensate for the thinner air.
Finally, there is the impact the altitude has on the drivers and team members. As Williams outlined last season:
Humans will generally operate worse at higher altitudes and the thinner air that goes along with great heights. The drivers are the most visible example of this, seeing as they’re the ones pushing the limits for 300 km of racing, but altitude affects the whole team. Fatigue will happen quicker at higher heights, so strategy calls, pit stops, repairs, and car setup changes might become slower than when racing at sea level.
Sleeping isn’t as easy at altitude, either, as less oxygen affects the brain and results in more frequent awakenings and more difficulty falling asleep in the first place. Fatigued and sleep-deprived drivers and team personnel are more likely to make mistakes, further increasing the difficulty of competing in an already challenging sport.
One more factor to consider this week as the grid heads to Mexico City.
