3 hours Ago By Sam Cooper
Formula 1 is off to the home of one of the most passionate fanbases in the world and the Mexican crowd would love nothing more than seeing Sergio Perez do well. In much the same way Zandvoort is on the calendar because of Max Verstappen, Mexico is definitely there because of Sergio Perez’s popularity. But with the Red Bull driver struggling for form, can his home crowd give him a much-needed boost? 189 days.
That is how long Perez’s podium drought will be by the time the race starts in Mexico. But even that stat does not tell the full story of Perez’s form. Perhaps the most damning indictment is when Jenson Button was asked how many drivers could compete in Austin and he came back with the answer “seven.
” If Perez was ever in need of a boost from his diehard home fans, now is the time. The Mexican may have a deal for next year but contracts in sport are not worth the paper they are written on. No one is demanding a win but if Perez can at least get into the top five, it may go a long way to ensuring he is still in the team come this race next year.
In our post US GP Q&A, there was one name you mentioned more than most – Franco Colapinto. Since being in the team together, Colapinto has finished ahead of Albon in the last two races and if Logan Sargeant was an easy team-mate, the young Argentine is proving to be the opposite. Albon knows that it will not be Colapinto in the seat next year but the British-Thai driver will want to right some wrongs and get back on top in the final few races.
Colpainto meanwhile is trying to show he deserves that Sauber seat next year. Andrea Stella and Toto Wolff are both good paddock politicians but the pair of them came dangerously close to crossing a line in their criticism of the stewards in Austin. While Stella said they should not have got involved with the incident, Wolff went even further and hinted at bias and “correlations” between certain stewards and the outcome of the investigations.
In the past, the FIA have taken a pretty dim view of criticism of their staff. In 2021, Christian Horner’s description of a “rogue marshal” handed him a formal warning, so it will be interesting to see if Wolff and Stella face similar fates when F1 comes together this weekend. Despite the FIA giving it the all clear, one man who is refusing to let the so-called ‘Bibgate’ drama die is Zak Brown.
His latest comments had him making the request of Red Bull senior staff signing a legal document stating the device wasn’t used (we would have loved to have seen a similar document being suggested in 2007...
) and clearly Brown is not letting it go. Is it tactical? Designed to throw off McLaren’s competition? Maybe, but Brown does seem to genuinely have it in for Red Bull and Horner. In the past, Horner has proven to have a talent at using the microphone to his advantage but Brown is being a little more heavy handed at the moment.
In everyone’s build up to the return of F1, McLaren vs Red Bull was billed as the title fight but creeping up behind them is an in-form Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was helped by Norris and Verstapepn battling into Turn 1 but there was every indication that he had the speed to win regardless of what his opponents did. Ferrari’s tally of 55 points moved them to within eight of Red Bull and 48 of McLaren and with 250 left for a Constructor to earn this season, they are more than in the title race.
The question now is can they keep it up for the final five races and the next test is this weekend in Mexico. Read next: F1 set for Mexican GP schedule change with F1 2025 new experiment planned.
