An in-depth analysis of the F1® Mexico City GP 2022

Max Verstappen has once again made history, this time claiming sole possession of the record for most wins in a single Formula 1® season with his 14^th race victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix. After an impressive performance in qualifying by Mercedes, which saw Lewis Hamilton and George Russell starting from second and third on the grid, respectively, many saw this as the best chance the Silver Arrows have had all season to claim a race victory that has eluded them throughout the year. However, another dominant performance by Verstappen, who yet again barely broke a sweat, shut the door on any hopes of a Mexican miracle for Mercedes as Hamilton had to settle for second place. Meanwhile, hometown hero Sergio Perez made sure the local fans went home happy after finishing third to secure another double podium for Red Bull, their seventh of the season.

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is one of the shortest laps on the calendar at just 4.304 kms, the track consists of two high-speed straights in the first sector and a flowing and twisting highly technical Sector 2, before heading into one of the more unique aspects of any Formula 1® track in Sector 3 which makes its way through an old baseball stadium, the Foro Sol, which was the old home of the Diablos Rojos del México. However, by far the most distinctive and challenging aspect of the Grand Prix weekend is the altitude - the circuit lies 2,285 metres above sea level, nearly three times higher than Brazil’s Interlagos Circuit, which has the next highest altitude at 786 metres. This had a huge impact on the weekend's proceedings because as altitude increases, the air gets thinner and oxygen levels decrease.

The most significant impact of the thinner air levels is on the downforce levels that are produced, and despite the long fast straights, teams will bring high-level downforce setups similar to those seen at much slower tracks such as Monaco and Singapore. Paradoxically the speeds that cars reach still rival those seen at low-downforce tracks such as Monza, and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez holds the speed trap record set by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas in 2016 who was clocked at 372.5km/h.

However, downforce isn’t the only factor that teams have to account for, as there is an array of issues the altitude introduces. Modern F1® engines are turbo-charged, meaning air is compressed by the turbo and forced into the cylinders under pressure. Whilst engines can burn just as much oxygen as they do at sea level, it is forced to work much harder by significantly increasing the RPM levels of the compressor. The increased strain on the power unit introduces a higher probability of failures and makes it run hotter, creating the need for more cooling. The main method of cooling hot parts such as the brakes, engine or gearbox on Formula 1® cars is air-cooling, which in simple terms, is the transfer of heat into the air. Because of the lower air density, there is less air available for cooling. To overcome this, teams will “open up” the car by creating bigger brake ducts, air intakes, and looser bodywork on the rear of the car. This ultimately creates more drag, meaning teams have to strike a balance between optimal cooling and minimising drag. However, the thinner air does mitigate the impact that increased drag has on the cars.

Hamilton and his teammate Russell both started the race on medium tyres in an attempt to counter Verstappen, who began on soft compound tyres. Mercedes had hoped that Verstappen’s softs would rapidly degrade and that they would be able to either take advantage of that and complete an overtake on the track or go long into the race on the mediums and then change onto the softs towards the end of the race.

However, as the polynomial fit race pace plot above shows, during the first stint, Verstappen’s tyres degraded at roughly the same rate as Hamilton’s despite being on the softer compound. Verstappen was able to utilise his car's performance advantage along with the faster tyres to build a lead of around two seconds before making a pit stop on Lap 25 to change to the medium tyres. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s gamble failed to pay off as he was forced to stop for the hard compound tyres not even halfway through the race on Lap 29. It was during this second stint that Verstappen once again proved why he has had one of the most dominant seasons in the history of Formula 1® as he was consistently setting lap times half a second faster than his rival Hamilton, as the Red Bull showed no signs of slowing down as the lead at the front ballooned to 15 seconds. Hamilton himself conceded that “the Red Bull was just clearly too fast” and that “ultimately maybe they had the better tyre strategy”, adding that they should have followed Red Bull’s strategy in starting on the soft tyres.

There was a massive overhaul of the technical regulations introduced this season, largely related to the change in aerodynamics called the ‘ground effect’. This change means that approximately 65% of the car’s downforce is generated through the floor, which also amplifies the effect of the reduced downforce as the way in which this year’s cars generate downforce is much different compared to the 2021 cars. This difference is made evident when looking at the violin plot comparing the distribution of Verstappen’s lap times at the Mexico City GP over the last two years - Verstappen’s median time in last year’s race is around the same time as some of his fastest laps this year.

Taking a closer look at the telemetry between the two races highlights just how much faster the 2021 car was throughout most of the track. The plot above compares Verstappen’s fastest lap this year, where he set a time of 1:22.046, compared to last year’s fastest lap (set without DRS to ensure a fair comparison) of 1:19.210. The 2022 car had a slight advantage down the long main straight, where it was around 5km/h faster. However, the 2021 car had a similar speed advantage in the slow corners where much more time can be won or lost. However, the largest differences lie in the medium-speed corners of turns 7, 8 and 10, particularly the latter where last year’s car had a speed advantage of around 15km/h.