Grand Prix 2015 Mexico Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Welcome to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico. We are back after 23 years.

1992 was the last race held here. The reasons it was cancelled were principally due to money issues, but also in no small part because of increasingly severe bumps on the track that they couldn’t afford to fix. This coupled with problems in Mexico City itself including increasing air pollution and a rapidly growing and increasingly lawless population saw the venue get the axe.

In 2015 Mexico city is the most populous city, with the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere, some 3 times larger than greater London. The visit Mexico brochures would describe it as colourful and wild, yet fail to mention the car jacking, gun battles, subway gangs and a murder rate over 5 times higher than London. I would love to visit, but you certainly want to make sure you read your guide book before you get off the plane as walking into the wrong area is definitely bad for your health. The city is set at a dizzying height of 2250m (7380feet) above sea level. Although the drivers may not exactly need oxygen masks, the cars at any rate will feel under powered here from the thinner air. Aero also works less efficiently in thinner air. With so many variables, I am hoping for a shake up in the running order as some teams nail the engine and areo settings and others mess it up.

The Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit has had $300 million thrown at it from state, federal and private investors in order to pay for what is now a heavily modified complex since our last visit here.

The old pits were demolished, the track, kerbs and crash barriers ripped up and the grandstands bulldozed. In early 2014 this place was literally a muddy field.

All the corners have been redesigned, mostly to accommodate safety run offs and aid overtaking, but most retain the spirit of the corner they replace such as the hair pin and the esses. A bigger change is the Peraltada that is now cut in half, with the ‘remaining’ half now slightly tighter and the removed half now one of the most fun stadium sections I have seen with the track going between 2 grandstands. I can already hear the groans about chopping up this famous corner, but the bottom line is the Peraltada had to be changed due to the proximity of the buildings preventing the existing small run off from being expanded. A hard concrete wall at the exit of a 186mph corner is simply not possible today. Some videos of the old corner and why it was changed are at the foot of this article.

The entire track has been laid anew to get rid of the horrendous bumps. No doubt they will return in time as the whole area is built on a lake bed next to 3 tectonic plate fault lines and is prone to earth quakes. But with any luck the track will get a good few years of smooth running.

As for the weather, at this point Hurricane Patricia seems to of been all talk and no trousers.Having said that there is little news of damage at the circuit. Maybe thats a good thing. Hopefully we will be getting a race. If we do, almost certainly it will be wet, the forecast is for thunderstorms all week.

So at this point in the season with 16 races down and just 3 to go, Merecedes and Lewis are our world champions :1st: and we are now just racing for kicks. which is absolutely fine by me. I’m looking forward to this one, lets hope it delivers.

The track mods.
Mexico_Track.png

The crashes.

Senna 1991

Mansell Berger. No crash just amazing.

Phillppe Alliot 1988 (not dead)
 
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I gotta feeling this track will be become 1 of my favourites as that atmosphere was amazing. Up there with Silverstone & Monza when Hamilton & Ferrari overtakes at there respective home circuits. As you could hear perez before you could see him as I knew perez had passed verstappen from the roar before id seen the replay

Academic obviously as vettel crash meant both mercs wouldve pitted. But I cant help but merc are hiding something because 20 on meds is highly unusual considering they did 27 laps on the softs & Massa managed 41 before he hit cliff. So primes wearing faster than options go against logic. But well done to rosberg on finally getting his 1st victory since Austria nearly 4 months ago controlled it very well,

I feel he's either not consistent or not aggressive enough to maintain a title challenge but at least he's all but sown up the mighty important runners up spot in the title race with a 21pt lead which couldve been dangerous in future, because I cant see a situation in last 2 races vettel winning with nico 4th even a DNF & you realistically expect nico still have a 3pt lead into Abu Dhabi. also Shame vettel had that nightmare & crashed out because as them few laps when he was getting lapped showed he had the pace to challenge.

finally glad bottas & kimi was deemed a racing accident, because bottas was more than along side wouldve had the inside line to overtake if been given the room, just kimi being stubborn has cost a possible podium
 
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Titch .....I'm sure Mercedes wanted a Rosberg win to create more space between him and Vettel to secure a one two in the drivers championship. They won't want to see Rosberg loose his runner-up standing. As long as Rosberg can stay in front of Vettel I'm sure they'll let their drivers race in the last two GP's, why wouldn't they.
 
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I have to say the stadium section instead of the daunting Peralta curve is an innovative and clever design to be able to see the F1 cars that close up

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I am disappointed in Mercedes because the drivers should race their own strategies as Toto promised a hands off approach.

Lewis was right to question it I mean the worse he could have done is do a "Jean Alesi" and blame the radio being broken so could not hear anything and get the team going bonkers to tell him to come in
 
I have to say, I would have liked to see Hamilton make his own call, after all there was nothing to lose really for him or the team given both championships are in the bag.
 
Mercedes' decision could cause problems later on in that one of them will ignore pit calls to come in. I think this idea of equal strategy will go out of the window
 
Mercedes' decision could cause problems later on in that one of them will ignore pit calls to come in. I think this idea of equal strategy will go out of the window
Highly unlikely, as they have persisted with this anally retarded screwed up concept of fairness for the last two seasons. They have demonstrated over and over just how flawed, twisted and inflexible this strategic approach is and still they persist with it. These are bright, intelligent people who are as thick as shit. F1 reflects precisely the human condition, as a species we're doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over because we are amazingly brilliant and astoundingly stupid simultaneously.
 
snowy I can't see it working for long seeing how it really riles Nico that he comes off second best 9 times out of 10 and Lewis always wants to race

It may cause problems next year if Ferrari and Vettel are competitive and that will require more flexible approach.
 
Friday it was wet and no useful running took place.
Saturday FP3 no one got chance to do exhaustive full runs.
Saturday pm was qualifying, not much in the way of long runs there.
Sunday was at least sunny and totally different from the other days.
No-one knew how well the tyres would stand up to long distance race speed running; Mercedes had a good window to give both drivers fresh prime tyres which would ensure a 1-2 even if there was a safety car; why would they do anything other than what they did?
 
It deprived the viewers of a race between the Mercs on split strategies. I wonder if Nico would have been sulking if he was the one behind
 
Imagine the shitstorm if Rosberg had not pitted when Hamilton lead and nicked a race that way.

Rosberg had the right to expect that his team tried to win him the race. Hamilton would get the same indulgence.
 
Looks like Lewis has stirred up a storm by saying Mercedes are trying to keep Nico "Happy":whistle::whistle: I think the equal strategy will definitely go out of the window next year and we will see a dividing wall as well in the garage
 
For the record Perez made just the one pit stop on lap 18. He completed the next 53 laps with a last lap of 1:23.209, which compares with Verstappen's penultimate and fastest lap of 1:22.603.

Lewis is right to reveal what he feels about the team, their strategy calls and handling of Nico whilst grudgingly towing the party line. He is definitely not happy having one had tied behind his back and not being allowed to race with all the tools in the box.
 
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Given the Mercedes pace which was half a second a lap faster than anyone else . I think had Lewis done a one stop he would have finished 2nd still
 
When the call to pit was made, they had no idea a SC was going to happen.

However, if Hamilton had stayed out when told to come in, he would probably have pitted for softs under the SC.
That would likely have won him the race.
 
The fact is that the guys on the pit wall had no "divine right" to call both their drivers in without discussing it with them. They were racing for position, they had the right to use strategy to win the race and were denied it. And clearly Lewis is not in the slightest bit pleased that the team exercised a veto on using fuel, tyre use and strategy to win the race.
 
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