Four talking points from a mediocre Mexican GP

Mercedes gets it wrong on tyre strategy

It probably didn’t really matter in the long run, because Red Bull would likely have won anyway, but Mercedes definitely called it wrong on tyre strategy in Mexico – a race in which the team had fancied its chances of ending its season-long duck. The thin air at high altitude suited the Silver Arrows, certainly more than the Ferraris that fell so flat. But even with a reduced effect of aerodynamic drag, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggled to live with Verstappen and home hero Sergio Perez on the long main straight.

Mercedes tried to make a difference on tyre strategy, Hamilton and Russell starting on mediums versus the red-walled softs used by Verstappen and Perez. But as the Red Bulls switched to the yellow-walled Pirellis for their second stints on a day of low degradation, Mercedes chose white-walled hards to take their drivers to the finish. They were on the slower tyre and the little air that had been left in this race quickly blew out.

“I was so close in that first stint, but the Red Bulls were clearly too fast and also maybe had a better tyre strategy,” said Hamilton as the crowd uncharitably booed him afterwards. “Yeah, I’m not sure it was right tyre at the end. I thought we should’ve started on the softs but we had the opposite tyre [to the Red Bulls]. It was OK in the first stint but the hard tyre was the opposite. Congratulations to Max. It’s great to be up here and separate the two.”

Perez on his home podium again

Hamilton had at least beaten home hero ‘Checo’ to score a fine second place, his fourth runner-up position of the season and second in succession. Team-mate Russell had outqualified him to join pole position man Verstappen on the front row, but Hamilton quickly demoted him at Turn One. Perez, starting fourth, also came by the second Mercedes at Turn Four at the start of a frustrating afternoon for Russell, who was even worse served by Merc’s hard-tyre strategy call than Hamilton. As for Perez, he closed in on the #44 Mercedes during his second stint on the medium Pirelli, leaving the seven-time champion looking vulnerable on his slower hards. But Hamilton’s tyres were at least younger and eventually he stretched away out of Checo’s reach.

So that meant a second consecutive third place at his home grand prix, which at least gave the partisan crowd in the baseball stadium section an excuse to go wild. But for Perez it was a little underwhelming when he had hoped for so much more.

Ricciardo’s strange starring role

Yuki Tsunoda won’t agree with the verdict that Daniel Ricciardo was driver of the day in Mexico, that’s for sure. The McLaren driver appeared to be playing up to his recent hapless reputation when he botched a half-chance on the AlphaTauri at Turn Six. The move was never really on and Ricciardo deserved the full weight of a ten-second penalty for damaging Tsunoda’s car and forcing him into retirement.

The incident only seemed to emphasise how far Ricciardo has fallen. Except he then showed a dose of his old spark as McLaren gave him the soft tyres a few others could have done with for his second stint. Suddenly the Aussie was flying just like he used to, cutting through those ahead of him and rising to seventh as best of the rest behind the anonymous Ferraris, Carlos Sainz Jr. leading Charles Leclerc to an inglorious 5-6.

Most crucially, Ricciardo had sliced by the two Alpines with which McLaren is engaged in an intense duel for fourth in the constructors’ standings. Even better, he finished more than ten seconds ahead of Esteban Ocon, meaning he got to keep his seventh on the road. To add to McLaren’s joy, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire his Alpine with an engine failure – the Spaniard moaning about his season on the radio, then showing his frustrations as he walked away from his car. And with Lando Norris ensuring a double points haul for McLaren in ninth, running on the less competitive hard tyre for his second stint, it all had ramifications for the teams’ duel. Alpine is still fourth, but only seven points ahead of McLaren with two races to go. As we’ve said before, this one will go all the way to the wire.

A hard-earned point for Bottas

Last word this week to Valtteri Bottas. The Finn started a sensational sixth in his Sauber-Alfa Romeo. It was always going to be tough to maintain such a position in the race, but the former Mercedes driver battled away all day to stay in contention and was rewarded with a point for 10^th, finishing ahead of Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, Alex Albon’s Williams and team-mate Zhou Guanyu. Top effort, Valtteri.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.