The Mexican Grand Prix looked like a Red Bull versus Mercedes battle for victory, but in the end there was little threat to Max Verstappen as he took a record 14th Formula 1 victory in 2022.
That makes him a clear winner, and there was another very obvious candidate for the happy half on the list below – and an abundance of contenders for the sad part.
WINNERS
Max Verstappen
Fourteen wins from 20 races so far in 2022 for Verstappen. Eleven more race victories than any other driver has won this year.
Extraordinary statistics. Dominant campaign statistics.
Except Verstappen didn’t really have a dominant car. The Red Bull has often been slower than the Ferrari, and in Mexico Mercedes could certainly have beaten it to pole with a smoother race and probably mounted a stronger challenge in the race with a more inventive strategy.
Verstappen’s stats in 2022 aren’t due to an unbeatable Red Bull. It’s how much he maximizes every moment when his rivals don’t, and Mexico is another prime example. – Mate beer
Daniel Ricardo
Everything we loved watching about Daniel Ricciardo on the track in F1 has been removed in 2022.
The opportunistic lunges, the powerful tricks in Q3, his strong competitiveness against his teammate at his side.
But the Mexican GP was a window into the Ricciardo of yore.
Yes, the strategy helped, yes, his Yuki Tsunoda move was misjudged, but it was a beautifully executed run.
He was decisive in his overtaking and wasted no time in getting any advantage from his soft tyres, pulling a 10-second gap over final overtaking victim Esteban Ocon with ease and reversing his penalty.
After such a miserable 2022 season where Ricciardo’s signature smile was chipped on every hopeless Q1 and Sunday outing, it’s a good feel-good result for Ricciardo to be the ‘best of the rest’ for the first time this year. – Josh Suttle
Alex Albon
Considering he only finished 12th, it’s unlikely many will remember Alex Albon’s performance at the Mexican GP.
But to go from being a very perplexing second slowest in qualifying to finishing less than 2.6 seconds from a point, via a series of on-track assists and a very well-judged and executed strategy (averages until lap 38 , then 33 laps on softs), was one of those brilliant but little-heralded performances in midfield that a team like Williams needs from its drivers.
A bit of frustration afterwards at what might have been possible from a better starting position, but a lot of which Albon can be proud of here. – MB
Mvsarena
Initially, it looked like Alpine would claim a small but significant points gain that would make McLaren an overhaul for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship before the end of 2022, a long shot.
But as has often been the case this year, there was a mid-race twist in the McLaren/Alpine battle, this time in favor of McLaren.
Ricciardo passed both Alpines, Lando Norris beat Valtteri Bottas late and Fernando Alonso retired, all helped tip the Mexican GP in favor of McLaren.
Eight points against four for Alpine reduces the gap between the two teams to just seven points.
Alpine still has the fastest car but McLaren – this time with both cars – continues to press on and threatens to upset. –JS
LOSERS
Mercedes’ 2022 race victory hopes
It was probably Mercedes’ last best hope of breaking its winning duck in 2022, and in reality, it wasn’t even really a short-term thing.
The Red Bull has always been a better car in the race compared to qualifying this season, so the fact that Verstappen still took pole and felt confident to start the race on the soft tire did not bode well for Mercedes.
The drivers battled amongst themselves on lap one and lost an extra place to Sergio Perez, then Mercedes hoped its slower hard tires would somehow survive the Red Bulls’ mediums – on a track where the tires don’t really degrade – just compounded the extent of the defeat.
Mercedes have done a decent job in Mexico, as they did in the US last week (but more emphatically) replacing Ferrari as Red Bull’s closest (but still distant) challenger. The smooth track surface and high altitude played to the W13’s strengths and helped minimize its weaknesses – but it still wasn’t enough to get the job done.
Lewis Hamilton is hoping for a miracle in Brazil – another race at altitude, albeit lower than Mexico – but more likely (unless something really untoward happens) we’re going to see F1’s first winless season. Mercedes since 2011. –Ben Anderson
george russell
Russell explained how he found things more difficult at Mercedes recently. Since claiming that surprise pole in Hungary three months ago, he has always found himself beaten by Hamilton, who always tends to kick up a gear or two after the F1 summer break.
Mexico seemed to provide some sort of reset. Russell was chasing pole until the final half of his final lap of Q3, and after a decent start to the race he also showed up with half a chance to pass Verstappen for the lead.
But he was far too conservative in Turn 1, allowed himself to be intimidated by Hamilton, then was also passed by Perez – and ended up moving second on the grid for a distant fourth.
Russell was pushing for a better medium/soft tire strategy than Mercedes had opted for medium/hard, but could not convince the team to accept his thinking and split the strategies between the cars in the race. hope for some sort of fightback against Red Bull.
All in all, a disappointing result given so much early promise. Russell had a realistic pole shot and at least a podium finish here, but he ultimately failed to achieve either. –BA
Ferrari
Ferrari’s seemingly inexorable and excruciating decline in 2022 continued in Mexico, where the car looked simply awful to drive and painfully slow all weekend.
To have a car beaten by an Alfa Romeo in qualifying and then finish 58 and 68 seconds from victory has to be considered Ferrari’s worst outright performance this season so far.
Part of that was due to the locked engine setup. As Mark Hughes explained after qualifying on Saturday, the Ferrari’s intake, turbo and MGU-H design is ill-suited to a site as high as Mexico City. The turbo is too small and Ferrari’s engine has lost the usual electric punch it loves out of corners.
To compound this, the car also behaved badly – consistently failing to rip curbs through the esses at speed without threatening to spit its drivers on the barriers. Since the new plank restrictions and swing measures from Spa, the Ferrari just doesn’t look the same as it did in the early races.
Charles Leclerc said he felt like he had “absolutely maxed everything out” this weekend, but he finished a lowly sixth and nearly 70 behind Verstappen. It shows how poor the car really was – and next is Brazil, another high altitude place… – BA
Fernando Alonso
There were plenty of reasons for Fernando Alonso to honk the hyperbole horn as he raged over his latest post-race reliability issue – the ever-increasing number of points he estimates he lost to failure (now 66 ), his belief that he had been 20-30 seconds ahead of his closest rivals in midfield (it was never quite in that territory), for example.
But you couldn’t deny that he was driving brilliantly, again. Even if his Alpine had remained healthy, he probably would have been caught by the Ricciardo steering wheel for seventh place at the end, but retained the place thanks to the McLaren driver’s penalty, so it was definitely a “best of the rest “Result lost. While his fury should be seen in part in the context of his impending exit from Alpine, it’s still understandable. – MB
Valtteri Bottas
Deciding which column to put Bottas in this weekend was tricky.
On the one hand, he was amazing in qualifying on Saturday and splitting the Ferraris was a great achievement.
As finally broke an F1 points drought that stretched back as far as the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
But considering he started sixth and eighth at the end of the first lap, a 10th place finish is disappointing for Bottas and Alfa Romeo.
Bottas was easily passed and pushed aside by the charging Ricciardo and was also passed by Norris and Ocon who were on the same strategy.
Without Alonso’s retirement, Bottas would have left Mexico empty-handed. Instead, he eventually returns to the top 10 – just not as high as his qualifying form promised. –JS
Aston Martin
A hopeless weekend for Aston Martin looks even worse after very good form.
There was no heroism from Sebastian Vettel late in the race this week, instead a painful run to the flag for Vettel and teammate Lance Stroll as they finished 14th and 15th.
Aston Martin have lost at least a single point to Alfa Romeo, but have just two weekends left to close that four-point deficit in the battle for sixth place in the constructors’ championship.
It’s still totally doable, but with Alfa Romeo’s improving form, it looks like it’ll go all the way. –JS
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