🌴🌴New heights in Mexico in the middle of a triple header!

Good morning. We are smack dab in the middle of a triple header. From Austin to Brazil, we are on a heated tour of the Americas!

Last weekend we had a showdown between Max and Lando as well as some surprisingly good drives from the newbies (Lawson and Colapinto). As the drama still unfolds between the battle into turn 12 at COTA between the two championship contenders, we are prepping for the race at the highest elevation on the calendar.

Some teams are upgrading their cars but most are just trying to setup their vehicles for optimal cooling. At these high elevations, it’s hard to keep brakes and engines cool. You need air to cool the bits on the car and in Mexico, there isn’t much of it.

I know I have my predictions below, but feel free to send me yours!

-Jake Williamson

🏎 Mexico GP

Description

At 2 km above sea level, the Mexican GP is the highest in F1 history. The 4.3 km circuit has 3 DRS zones and several undulating high-speed corners that vaguely follow the original street circuit from the late fifties. The track is known for its elevation, the vibrant host city, and the famous turns that wind through the Foro Sol Baseball Stadium.

Changes to the track

The only change to note is the shortened DRS zone on the main straight. The zone is now 75 meters shorter to prevent easy overtakes like we saw in 2023.

Cooling issues

Being the highest track on the calendar poses one problem. The cars run hot! This has to do with air density. With less dense air, everything works incorrectly. The brakes and engine get too hot from insufficient cooling, the turbocharger spins faster to compress the reduced air volume (means too hot), and the reduced downforce results in high tire degradation from graining. Many of the cars this weekend will have track-specific upgrades to combat this issue.

Major upgrades

McLaren and VCARB have brought new floors to extract more permanent performance, while the other teams have made minor changes to keep the cars cool.

What car does this track favor?

Generally, this track favors a high downforce setup.

Predictions

With the circuit liking the high downforce setups, the McLarens should be the cars to beat here.

P1 - Norris

P2 - Sainz

P3 - Russell

P4 - Piastri

P5 - Max Verstappen (may have engine issues)

Other guesses:

• 1 stop strategy (medium - hard) some probably taking the opposite approach

• We will see a safety car in the first ten laps (only because the battles are heating up)

• We will see Tsunod and Lawson in the points as they push each other to higher levels of performance.

🌎 McLaren’s Right of Review

McLaren isn’t likely to let the Turn 12 incident at COTA go until they’ve exhausted all methods of getting Verstappen a penalty.

The latest is Team Papaya submitting a right of review that would allow a team to open a fresh investigation of the incident in question.

McLaren’s goal here is to either overturn Norris’s penalty or to make sure Verstappen gets a penalty for forcing Norris off the track at the exit of Turn 12.

To open a right of review, the plaintiff (McLaren) needs to bring fresh and “significant” evidence that the stewards haven’t considered up to this point. This will be tough for the Woking team, but apparently, there are new camera angles from the cars that can give a more clear picture of the Red Bull and McLaren cars going into turn 12. Up to now, the stewards only had a rear-facing view of Verstappen’s machine and a front-facing view from Norris. Now, there are new angles.

With the renewed perspective, McLaren argues that Verstappen went from the defender to the attacker before entering the turn in question. Norris’s car was at least a car length in front of Verstappen, nearing the braking zone for turn 12. This is where Verstappen decided to brake later and dive to the apex to preserve his status as the attacker. However, Norris believes that being significantly ahead of Verstappen going into the braking zone reverses the roles here. He posits that Verstappen became the attacker the second Norris got out front and that the only reason he dropped behind the Red Bull machine at the apex is that Verstappen played an illegal defense.

If it is ruled that Norris was ahead at some point and that Verstappen should have been labeled the “attacker,” then number 33 would have needed to satisfy the following criteria to complete the pass legally:

• Have its front axle AT LEAST ALONGSIDE of the mirror of the other car no later than the apex of the corner

• Be driven in a safe and controlled manner throughout the manoeuvre (entry, apex and exit).

• Without (deliberately) forcing the other car off the track at the exit. This includes leaving an acceptable width for the car being overtaken from the apex to the exit of the corner

• Be able to make the corner within the track limits.

As you can see, Verstappen would have received a penalty in the unlikely scenario that the stewards agreed with McLaren.

This is all great, but apparently, McLaren doesn’t have enough evidence to bring this issue to a full investigation. The stewards agreed that the addition of camera footage is “new” evidence but it isn’t “significant”.

Furthermore, this whole argument hinges on McLaren persuading the panel of officials that Norris was ahead because of his position on the back straight. So the question is, what constitutes being ahead? And what constitutes the start of the corner?

These seem like flimsy arguments to me, but McLaren is going to do anything at this point to eat away at Verstappen’s championship lead.

🚀Headline Sprint

⏩McLaren unleashes full floor upgrade in Mexico: McLaren returned from the long Fall break with a disappointing car. They are easily the third quickest at this point so they are on a mission to fix their problems in Mexico. Aside from the cooling changes to the car, team papaya has upgraded their floor geometry pretty much everywhere. This just means they massaged the shape of the bottom of the car to create more downforce in all conditions. This comes after McLaren struggled to get their car to turn into corners in the US.

🫢Bottas back to Mercedes possible?": Bottas reported to the media that he has “signed terms” to stay with the soon-to-be Audi team for 2025. The Bottas team is still awaiting a final decision from the big boss, Mattia Binotto. Bottas has one priority right now and that is, “to stay as a racing driver” so he will want to nurture that Audi contract. However, with Audi dragging their feet, Bottas has said that he may be open to rejoining Mercedes as a reserve driver. This would afford him access to a more successful team and a potential long-term position with the German team.

💸COTA slapped with massive fine: The promoter of the USGP at Circuit of the Americas has been fined over $500k for allowing an early track invasion by fans after the race. About 200 people entered the track along pit straight after climbing a 2 meter fence and ducking under a secondary safety fence. This all happened while cars were completing their cool-down laps before they returned to the pits. This hasn’t ever happened at this track so the FIA reviewed the American circuit’s safety plan after the race. The stewards concluded the safety plan was followed, but the area where the infraction took place wasn’t well policed.

🛞 Austin to Copy Austria

Whatever you think about the controversy over the Norris/Verstappen incident at turn 12 at COTA, one thing is true: This wouldn’t happen in Monaco.

When cars are physically restricted from running wide like in Baku, Singapore, and Monaco you generally get cleaner races with less contentious track limit situations. The polar opposite happens at more traditional tracks like COTA where you can run wide through much of the circuit.

So, the FIA could either change the rules to prevent defending cars from darting to the apex with no intention of completing the turn within track limits or they could work with tracks with excessive runoff to create physical barriers.

The latter seems to be the path de jour.

Prior to the USGP, the FIA suggested that the track promoter at COTA make changes to turn 1, 11 and 12 to discourage drivers from running wide. These changes would mirror what they did in Austria. Red Bull Ring installed adjustable gravel traps that sit right behind the serrated kerbs to discourage drivers from running to wide.

COTA decided to not make the suggested changes citing issues with resurfacing these areas throughout the year to accommodate MotoGP.

COTA boss, Bobby Epstein said, "You can't cut into the track and put in gravel, then flip it back and hope it stays watertight when you have clay underneath it.”

He makes a point. COTA already has issues with the foundation underneath the track that causes excessive bumpiness even after resurfacing.

COTA did narrow turns 6, 13, 14, and 15 and installed cameras around the track to monitor track limit violations. But, this didn’t seem to solve the issue that resulted in penalties for George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lando Norris.

The FIA has no power to force track changes that don’t involve driver safety, so it will be up to the tracks to decide whether or not to install these adjustable gravel traps.

🏎 Is Ferrari not so special anymore?

No, this isn’t a story about Ferrari’s F1 team, but it is a story about the judgment of the people in charge over in Maranello.

Pictured above is the new one-in-a-decade hypercar that is reserved for those die-hard Ferrari customers who have the scratch to fork over millions for the latest “special” car. This is the new F80 that unseats the La Ferrari as the king of all Ferraris.

Starting at $3.1 Million, the F80 boasts a plug-in hybrid power train with a V6 engine that produces 1184 horsepower and can launch its drivers from 0-60 in 2.2 seconds. That’s if this thing ever gets driven out of the secured garage.

The problem; this is an underwhelming car and may be the end of the “special” Ferrari dominance.

This car doesn’t look particularly good, really doesn’t sound good, and doesn’t produce any mind-bending numbers when compared to other cars in this category.

When I say it doesn’t sound good, I mean it just doesn’t sound at all. Check out the hot laps here.

So why will people buy this? Well, it’s the special Ferrari that comes once every ten years and stands as an asset class on its own. Meaning you can buy any limited-run “special” Ferrari and stand to make an extra $1 Million just for owning it. So, if Ferrari grants you permission to buy one of these monsters, they will also effectively hand you $1 million for the trouble.

The only problem with this mentality, as pointed out by Chris Harris on his podcast, is that to buy one of these, you need to be a loyal customer of the brand. This translates to you someone needing to buy several million dollars worth of cars from Ferrari’s other models. Historically all Ferrari’s have appreciated in value with some minor exceptions. So, you will have made money along this journey of buying a hypercar. BUT, the latest offerings in the form of the 296 and the Roma have all flopped. So, maybe the days of the Ferrari investment strategy are over.

One thing to look forward to is that the F1 team must do well. As Jeremy Clarkson once pointed out, when the road cars are sh*t, Ferrari F1 dominates on track!

💨 Hot Laps

Fernando Alonso misses his Thursday media duties due to an illness. Did someone drink from the tap in Mexico City?

Verstappen says he needs the rulebook with him in the car these days. This comes after the racing guidelines have come under fire post-USGP.

Should one company be able to own two F1 teams on the grid? It isn’t against the rules but may warrant further thinking.

It wouldn’t be an F1 week without some comments from Helmut Marko - Oscar addresses rumors of a Red Bull switch.

🛞Marbles

Random links from the authors not always car related

✅Aging: Apparently, the best indicator that you are biologically aging is loss of balance, so try this test for your longevity.

✅Drink: The list of the world’s best bars has been unleashed and in honor of the GP this weekend, a Mexico City bar comes out on top!

✅Travel: I have been obsessed with compressing my travel needs as I hop from track to track. This article shows you how to travel with one minimal bag.

🤯Brain Food

Match these elevations to the correct GP circuits

📖Answer

Correct elevation matches

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