Ferrari’s title dreams, a ‘perfect’ day for Haas, and more F1 Mexico City winners and losers

For a moment Sunday, it looked as if Ferrari was going to accomplish something that they had not achieved since the 2008 Formula 1 season. As the laps ticked down in the Mexico City Grand Prix, the team was on the verge of a second-straight one-two finish, in the wake of Charles Leclerc’s victory last week in Austin. Carlos Sainz Jr. was powering his SF-24 around the circuit with a commanding lead, and with Leclerc behind him, the Scuderia were on the cusp of their second-straight front-row lockout, the first time since Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen accomplished the feat in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and then the Spanish Grand Prix, early in 2008.

However, it was not to be. A slide from Leclerc at Turn 17 on the 63rd lap of the race opened the door for Lando Norris, and the McLaren driver rocketed into second. Leclerc managed to save the slide before slamming into the barrier — preventing what would have been a disastrous end to a strong day — but the miscue denied Ferrari their one-two finish as Leclerc settled for third behind his teammate and Norris.

But with Sunday’s results, Sainz and Leclerc moved one step closer to something else Massa and Räikkönen accomplished in 2008.

A Constructors’ Championship.

Sainz’s win, his second this season, vaulted Ferrari over Red Bull and into second in the Constructors’ Championship standings. Now they sit just 29 points behind McLaren in that fight, and with four race weekends remaining — plus a pair of F1 Sprint races in São Paulo and Qatar — they are firmly in that fight.

A fact both drivers addressed in the FIA Press Conference after the race.

“Yeah, of course [the Constructors’ Championship] has to be our target, because we don’t have to think about it every day. And I think the best way to achieve it is by just focusing on our own self and trying to maximise the package of our car, which is what we have done since two weekends,” said Leclerc. “But yeah, the Constructors’ now is realistically possible. And it relies on us doing well more than others doing something wrong, which I’ve often said is probably the case for the Drivers’ Championship. For the Drivers’ Championship I need to do everything right and I need a lot of bad luck to happen elsewhere. So the Constructors’ is definitely our main target and if we continue in that form it’s a realistic one.”

“Yeah, I think we both believe it is possible and we are actually talking about it more and more often now. We pump each other up a bit, knowing that there’s a chance and we are like, ‘Yeah, come on’. You know, we have a good relationship and I think we both know there is a chance and we both know we are in a good moment in our driving, the way we’re driving,” said Sainz. “And yeah, I think one of the keys is going to be consistency and having the two drivers always up there. I think this weekend, We did a really good job on that on a tricky track where you could see Q1 and Q2 was a bit of chaos and anything could go right or wrong.

“So we just need to keep ourselves in that fight. And as Charles said, don’t get obsessed with it because it’s not like it depends only on us. We also, given how fast McLaren is, depend a bit on them. But yeah, we’re going to keep doing the best we can and keep pumping each other up to win it.”

Thanks to Ferrari’s recent form, the Tifosi can believe.

Here are some more winners and losers from the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Winners: McLaren

With four race weekends remaining, McLaren remains in the lead for the Constructors’ Championship. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished in the points on Sunday, with Norris up in second behind Sainz. As for Piastri, he needed to deliver a tremendous recovery drive after he was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday and he did just that, fighting through the field to finish eighth.

While Piastri conceded following the race that “P8’s not where we want to be finishing,” it was a strong recovery drive when the team needed one from him.

As for Norris, the second-place finish — coupled with Verstappen’s 20 seconds worth of penalties — saw him inch ten points closer to the Red Bull driver in the Drivers’ Championship race.

Still, Norris is honest about the gap to Verstappen in that fight.

“I mean, I’m 47 behind still, so it doesn’t feel like I’m much closer than what I was, but every point helps,” said Norris in the FIA Press Conference. “Charles got fastest lap at the end, so that’s one point they took away from me, but… Yeah, I don’t know. I’m just doing my own thing and focusing. And as a team, we’re doing our own thing and focusing on ourselves. A lot of people against us, but we’ll keep pushing forward.”

With four race weekends left, McLaren is running at the front.

And a Constructors’ Championship is in sight, but it might go down to the wire.

“Lando raced our upgraded car this weekend, and once again I’d like to say a big thank you to the Technical Department for preparing this car and to the entire team for getting it to the track,” said Andrea Stella in the team’s post-race report.

“Oscar will also have the upgrade in Brazil. He drove a beautiful race today. It wasn’t easy to get through the field, but he was patient when he needed to be and brought home some useful points,” added Stella. “Those could be critical at the end of the season, because this championship is going to the wire.

“Now we focus on São Paulo. We’re looking forward to another entertaining race with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. This is good for Formula One – and we’re having fun!”

Losers: Red Bull

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

By almost any metric, Sunday was a disaster for Red Bull.

With Sergio Pérez starting at the back of the grid due to a shocking Q1 exit on Saturday — more on him in a moment — Max Verstappen was left to fight at the front by himself on Sunday.

As you might have expected, his biggest scrape came against Lando Norris, his rival in the Drivers’ Championship race. Similar to last week the two banged their way through a portion of the track, but this time the penalties that race officials handed down in the aftermath were harsh and solely Verstappen’s. The driver was hit with a pair of ten-second penalties — as well as a pair of penalty points on his Super License — and those rulings doomed any chance of Verstappen fighting for a podium.

After serving his penalty on his one pit stop, Verstappen managed to fight back into the points and manage a sixth-place finish.

But with Norris finishing ahead of him Verstappen saw his rival inch closer to him in the Drivers’ Championship fight, and the team saw Ferrari leapfrog them in the Constructors’ race.

“Start was good but after that, there was no pace,” said Verstappen in the team’s post-race report. “Quite a long pit stop as well because of the penalties, but it is what it is. We just have to try and understand what went wrong this whole weekend because it felt like we were not really competitive, and try and be better in Brazil.”

If it was bad for Verstappen, it was brutal for Pérez. Starting at the back of the grid Pérez managed to pick up five spots on the opening lap but was hit with a five-second penalty as he was improperly situated in his grid box at the start, and he was penalized for a false start. He then fought several battles at the back of the grid including several with Liam Lawson — who is in contention for Pérez’s seat at Red Bull for next year — and could not get into the points.

Making matters worse was the fact that Red Bull, hoping to deny either McLaren or Ferrari from picking up the bonus point for the fastest lap, called Pérez into the pits late in the race and bolted on a set of soft tires, hoping he could at least deny their rivals that extra point.

He could not beat the time posted by Leclerc, who delivered a similar glory run at the death once his odds of finishing second went out the window.

While Pérez blasted Lawson after the race, saying the young driver “needs to be a bit more humble,” he again faced questions about his future. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner did him no favors:

Red Bull arrived in Mexico City second in the Constructors’ Championship race.

They leave in third after a brutal few days.

Winner: Haas

Following the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this season, Haas trailed Visa Cash App RB F1 Team 28-7 in the Constructors’ Championship standings.

With just four race weekends remaining, they now have a 46-36 lead in that fight.

Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen delivered a double-points result for the team in Mexico City, with Hülkenberg finishing ninth and Magnussen seventh. It was a Sunday that Team Principal Ayao Komatsu hailed as an “amazing” race for the team.

“I don’t know what to say, it’s another amazing result for this team. I’m so happy that everyone’s hard work is paying off, with the updates, and the car getting better. I’m so happy for Kevin, he drove very well in Austin, but we couldn’t quite deliver on Sunday, but this weekend he had an amazing qualifying – today everyone delivered,” said Komatsu in the team’s post-race report. “His pace in the second stint was unbelievable, he was catching Verstappen in his Red Bull and was finishing just four seconds behind. That was probably the best I’ve seen Kevin drive, I’m so happy for him. In a way, Nico being disappointed with P9 is a great sign for the team as well. Today Kevin showed what the car is capable of, so we’ll look at the data to see why Nico couldn’t perform the way he could perform. I’m looking forward to going to Brazil, another Sprint weekend, and really trying to go for another double points finish. A huge congratulations to everyone and a big thank you.”

Magnussen described the race as a “perfect” day.“

“It was a perfect day, really. We got everything right, the balance of the car was right in that sweet spot, and I was able to manage the tires when I needed and push hard when I needed. P7 is a better result than we could’ve hoped for because we had Piastri cruising through the field and I just about managed to keep him behind,” said Magnussen, highlighting the ability to hold off the quick McLaren at the end of the race. “The last year or so has been tough, and I feel like I’m finding my rhythm again, so I hope we can finish this year really nailing points in these last four races.”

Losers: Aston Martin

Sunday was supposed to be a celebration for Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, who was participating in his 400th Grand Prix weekend.

His race ended after just 15 laps after he was forced to retire the car due to an issue with his AMR24.

On the other side of the garage Lance Stroll fought hard and almost got himself into the points, but could only finish 11th.

“Lance drove a very strong race today, but points were just out of reach. We did not have great pace all weekend, but Lance managed the race well, looked after the tires, and enjoyed some fun battles on the track,” said Team Principal Mike Krack in the team’s post-race report. “It was a shame Fernando’s 400th Grand Prix weekend ended early with a front brake issue. The temperatures were getting too high so we had to retire the car. Even though we just missed out on points today, we take the learnings and the positives into Brazil next week.

“Full credit to the trackside team, too, for their continued hard work across this triple-header.”

Still, Alonso found the bright side in what was a difficult Grand Prix.

“I felt a lot of love this weekend with lots of nice messages and respect from people,” added Alonso. “Despite the result, I have a positive feeling from the weekend and I’m confident we can have better performance in Brazil.”

Winner: Pierre Gasly

When I sat down with Pierre Gasly ahead of the United States Grand Prix, the Alpine driver made the case that a positive end to what has been a tough season would be signs of progress from the team, and improved performance from the A524.

Since that discussion, Gasly has advanced to Q3 in the Grand Prix qualifying format twice — both in impressive fashion — and now he has a point to bring to Brazil from Mexico City, thanks to his tenth-place finish in the Mexico City Grand Prix.

That point inched Alpine one step closer to Williams in their fight for eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, as they now trail 17-14 in that race.

“I’m very pleased with the point today. It’s only one point – probably the best we could achieve – but it’s satisfying as it’s been a few races since we last scored and it shows that we are continuing to improve. After a strong Qualifying yesterday, it was important for us to confirm that with a reward, so I’m happy for the team that we got tenth place today,” said Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “It was a close call at Turn 1. I felt some contact, then I saw Yuki [Tsunoda] go off, so certainly quite fortunate to escape from that. From there, we just drove our own race and focused on managing everything as best as we could. Next week, we go to São Paulo for another Sprint event. We have some work to do, especially our race pace, but I’m optimistic for another positive weekend.”

Team boss Oliver Oakes hailed Gasly’s “good race” in his comments.

“It’s nice to come away from Mexico City with a point and return to the top ten. Pierre drove a good race; we did not have the pace to challenge the Haas cars today,” said Oakes. “We took the opportunity to change components on Esteban’s car, which meant he started from the pit lane running him long in the first stint and he did well to recover some places throughout the race. We were not as competitive in race trim as we were in Qualifying, so we have a bit of work to do in the coming races.”

Signs of life as a tough season winds down at Alpine.

Losers: VCARB

After a tough Saturday for Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, Sunday was even worse.

Yuki Tsunoda was caught up in traffic shortly after the race began, coming into contact with Alexander Albon and spinning off the racing line and into the barrier, ending his race at the first turn. It was the second hard shunt for Tsunoda in as many days, as he crashed in qualifying on Saturday.

“There just wasn’t enough space. It was a racing incident. It was very tricky. If I had qualified where our true pace was, we wouldn’t have been in that position,” said Tsunoda. “I’m very sorry to the Team. They did a fantastic job to prepare everything from yesterday. I want to make it up to them in Brazil.”

As for Liam Lawson, he finished the race outside of the points, and then found himself waiting outside Christian Horner’s office for a post-race chat with the Red Bull boss, perhaps related to his on-track scuffle with Sergio Pérez:

Pérez was none too happy as well with Lawson, as the veteran driver blasted Lawson’s attitude in his post-race media comments:

Making matters worse, as we outlined above Haas enjoyed another double-points result, one that now has the American-based team ten points clear of VCARB in the fight for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Might make a long flight to Brazil feel even longer for VCARB.