F1 2026 - Mexican GP

An absolutely insane weekend from Mexico City with so many stories in the world of Formula 1, plus a brand new world champion was crowned...

Performances

Mercedes - a great drive from Antonelli to seal his world championship title! P5 to P3, kept his head cool throughout and managed to get a podium. He becomes the youngest ever world champion, breaking Vettel's record and also becomes the first Italian world champion since Ascari in 1953! Just a superb season all round, yes he had the fastest car but he also applied himself so well in the races, Monza and US in particular as stand out performances. A very deserving champion. Russell had a pretty awful race, hitting Hadjar on the opening lap and finishing P6. Also once again another deployment issue for him off the start, it happens way too often to be a coincidence. Something is up there. An awful season all round, the favourite heading into 2026 and the collapse has not been pretty to look at. A reset is needed and a few wins are too to round out the year if he wants to end with momentum for 2027. It's honestly been a while since a pre-season favourite has gone that badly in a season!

Ferrari - We've got big problems... another failed win for this team taken away!!! Great pole from Lewis, oldest polesitter since Mario Andretti in 1982 (with the un-upgraded engine as well!), Leclerc was P3 too and a 1-2 was definitely on with the pace. But of course the drivers decide to fight each other hard on the opening lap and practically open the door for Verstappen to take the lead and the win. Honestly I'm trying to be measured here but Charles always does this, he fights his teammate like it's the last lap of Abu Dhabi 2021 every time. No one's expecting him to just let Lewis past, but some common sense would be acceptable. And this is where the questions about Fred Vasseur come into play, he needs to lay down the law in the team and get some basic rules of engagement going. That's what a strong TP does. Lewis made a nice recovery to P2, but he also made the mistake at the start by going off, although he did save it by rejoining in the correct place. The pace was definitely there for the win though, Mexico is just impossible in these 2026 cars to overtake at. Charles was on for a podium before locking up badly at the red flag restart and finished P4. Also the stewards are a joke, 5 seconds for that is a nothing penalty. I hate when they treat intra-team battles differently, the rules need to be the same in every scenario, especially when they literally said before the race they would be harsher this year on the cutting T1 stuff. Also Kimi needs to stay far far away from Ferrari in the future if he ever wants to keep on winning titles!!!!!

Red Bull - brilliant win from Verstappen, ignoring his pretty dumb incident in qualifying with Lawson his race was really good. He had a rare good launch off the line and was able to capitalise on the Ferrari's tripping over each other. Good strategy as well to be on the softs in the last stint. His form since Austria has been absolutely insane, if Red Bull wasn't a bad car in the first few races then he would have been right up there in the title hunt again. Next season is looking pretty good for them. Hadjar was spun by Russell on lap 1, but recovered nicely to finish in P9 and the points.

McLaren - pretty average weekend again, P5 for Norris and P7 (on track) for Piastri (this is becoming an Audi P11 situation). Norris just had zero pace on the straights and couldn't get the move done on Leclerc at the end there, also the pitstops for both cars seemed slow. Piastri had a bad weekend, out in Q2 and then got a penalty for the collision with Lindblad during the race. He got a penalty which demoted him to P13, which was probably unfair, but it's how this horrendous ahead at the apex stuff is written unfortunately.

Racing Bulls - solid weekend from Lindblad, made Q3 and was running in the points in P8 until he collided with Piastri. Lawson (ignoring the practice thing) got a DSQ from qualifying for an MGU-K issue but did an excellent recovery drive from the pitlane to finish P9 on the road, upgraded to a P7 after the penalties! Honestly though the vibes from RB are bad in terms of him keeping his seat. It's a shame because he's had a great season so far, best of the rest outside the top 4 teams and nearly double the points of P10 in the WDC as well. It would certainly be one of the more unfair sackings I've seen (although not totally outrageous).

Alpine - solid weekend, Q3 for Gasly and a P10 and a P8 for Colapinto until... penalties for speeding under yellow flags for both drivers put them both out of the points. Ouch.

Williams - once again awful pace but somehow due to penalties it turned into a P11 for Albon and P12 for Sainz.

Audi - Hulkenberg made Q3 but made a silly mistake during the race, took out Bearman and finished down in P16. Bortoleto finished P11 (Audi own it now) on the road but due to the penalties managed to snag a P8, some good points.

Aston Martin - honestly the hope was there and the team was hyping it up at Mexico so of course it was a double Q1 exit again and constant reliability issues ending the race by lap 5 for the entire team. The money to success ratio of this team must be terrifying! Also Fernando was just being a grumpy old man this entire weekend, personally I feel like the back of the grid is the best it's been in YEARS, I mean we have multiple race winners back there! But I get it's also frustrating for someone of his talent to be stuck in such a crap car.

Haas - drama central this weekend. Ocon had a massive blowup with the team and team principal, getting replaced for the weekend by Hirakawa and eventually the rest of the season by Camara. His F1 career is basically over, honestly it's been better than most. 10 years, a race win in Hungary and podiums in Monaco, Bahrain, Brazil... not bad at all, but I do think it's time to move on here. As for the race, Bearman had a better pace weekend and was near the points before Hulkenberg too him out, while Hirakawa was not bad at all, P13 on the day to finish P10 after penalties and get a point! A one off points scorer is rare in F1, probably only happened a few times, so well done to him! Also Camara's debut in front of his home fans in Brazil this weekend is going to be really good, I can't wait.

Cadillac - scary suspension failure on the main straight for Bottas, thankfully he is alright but that was a hefty accident. Perez had solid pace, running high in the midfield at points before eventually finishing P16. It looks like Herta is getting the seat of Bottas in 2027, although their faux pas by missing the required laps for the superlicense by 1 point was laughable! Honestly I'm not going to pass judgement until I see him in F1, we know he's good from the American series and F2 is not really too reliable of an indicator anymore. Also the team's ownership is probably going to change, not ideal for stability but Mark Walter is a dodgy person so they'll be glad to get rid of him. It looks like the Liverpool owners FSG will be taking charge.

Race rating - 6.5/10 - a few good incidents and moves, lots of drama but ultimately the superclipping really harmed the racing here.

Driver of the race - tough this weekend, any of the top 3 could have taken it but I'll give it to Verstappen. (also iconic photo)

Next weekend - the sensational Brazilian Grand Prix at the superb Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, more commonly known as Interlagos! Named after Carlos Pace, a race winner that tragically died in a plane crash in 1977, the circuit is anti-clockwise and built on hilly terrain, making it physically tough on both car and driver. The layout is superb for F1 racing, and combined with the rapid changeable conditions, has produced many classics over the years and is considered as one of the finest tracks on the calendar. Some of the best races over the years have been: 1982 (incredible heat as winner Piquet collapses on the podium from heatstroke before the top two are disqualified in controversial circumstances),1991 (not for the race but Senna finally winning Brazil with a broken car and cramps with fever is amazing), 2003 (an insane number of crashes in crazy conditions and the race literally went to a courtroom and took almost a week to decide before Fisichella was declared the winner for Jordan!), 2012 (the greatest F1 title decider in changing conditions with Vettel fighting back from spinning on lap one and Hulkenberg almost winning), 2019 (Verstappen win from Gasly with Sainz on the podium and the two Ferraris colliding), 2021 (Hamilton winning after disqualification from qualifying), 2024 (Verstappen winning from P17 in wet conditions as Alpine gets a double podium)