A three-way championship fight tops F1 Mexico City Grand Prix storylines

When the Formula 1 grid landed in Austin for last week’s United States Grand Prix, the script for the season’s final act seemed rather simple. A two-way fight between McLaren and Red Bull for the Constructors’ Championship. A duel between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship. Simple and straightforward.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari decided to make some edits at the Circuit of the Americas.

Leclerc’s emphatic victory in Austin, with teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. finishing behind him, thrust both Leclerc back into the mix in the Drivers’ Championship, and Ferrari back into contention for the Constructors’ Championship. McLaren still leads Red Bull by 40 points in the Constructors’ standings, but Ferrari is just eight points behind Red Bull now, having closed the gap in Austin.

As for the Drivers’ Championship, while Verstappen extended his lead over Norris for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix, Leclerc now sits 79 points behind Verstappen.

And only 22 points behind Norris.

As Leclerc said Sunday during the FIA Press Conference, until he and Ferrari are eliminated, he is going to believe.

“I mean, never say never. Let’s say that for the Constrictors, if we do everything perfect until the end of the season, no matter what McLaren does, if we do better than them, I think we can still clinch that title. With the drivers, I see it a bit in a different way. Even if we do everything perfect, I feel like it will require a little bit of luck inside that to try and get that title, and we cannot really rely on luck,” said Leclerc on Sunday. “So the Drivers’ seems to be quite unlikely, but again, I’ll believe in it until it’s mathematically impossible. But trickier.”

Trickier.

But not impossible.

This sudden three-way fight leads the storylines heading into this week’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Franco Colapinto is getting closer to home

Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images

One of my favorite moments from last week in Austin came just moments before the lights went out for the United States Grand Prix.

I was walking through the paddock, making the trek back to the media center from being on pit lane during pre-race festivities. That’s when I spotted an older gentleman posing for a photograph at the back of the Williams garage, holding up an Argentine, on which he had written “Franco.”

The gentleman also had a smile on his face brighter than the searing Texas sun.

Franco Colapinto has captivated the entire sport, with his meteoric rise from F2 driver to F1 star, while breathing new life into the team at Williams. Colapinto, on his first F1 Sprint Race weekend, delivered a strong recovery driving, finishing in the points despite starting 15th on the grid. That gives him a pair of points finishes in his four races in F1, and he has caught the attention of rival team principals as he fights for a place of his own on the grid for next season.

However, this week he’ll get to race closer to home, a fact that was not lost on the young driver when he met with the media Thursday in Austin.

“I know many fans are gonna be in Mexico, and more in Brazil,” said Colapinto last week.

“So it’s gonna feel almost like home, I think at least Brazil, and I am very excited about it,” continued Colapinto. “I have a lot of support from the fans from Argentina to race close to where my home is, and it’s something I’ve been waiting for and something I’ve been dreaming of.

“And it’s happening now. Very exciting times.”

Very exciting times, indeed.

Sergio Pérez under pressure at his home race

Death, taxes, and Sergio Pérez under pressure.

Speaking with the media in Austin shortly after the checkered flag flew at the United States Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner noted how both Ferrari and McLaren have driver pairings fighting consistently at the front, while the situation is different at Red Bull.

“Congratulations to [Ferrari] this weekend, they’ve been very strong, and they’ve got two drivers that are competing at the front,” said Horner to the media, including SB Nation, Sunday night in Austin. “McLaren likewise, their drivers, there’s not a big deficit between them. That’s where we really need, for the Constructors’, to have Checo come into play.”

Now Pérez heads to this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, his home race, under increased pressure to deliver a performance given Red Bull’s standing in the Constructors’ Championship fight. Rumors earlier this fall held that Pérez would announce a shocking retirement at this race, rumors the driver shot down in incredible fashion on social media.

Still, the combination of his home race, and the pressure he is under, will be a tremendous amount of weight on his shoulders as he climbs into the RB20 later this week. Remember last season’s race, when Pérez crashed out at the first corner while attempting a daring overtake of Verstappen and Leclerc? Hopefully, for Pérez and Red Bull, we do not see something similar this week.

Later in his media session Sunday night, Horner talked about the support Pérez will receive in Mexico City, and how that might give the driver a boost.

“Hopefully with the support that he’ll receive in Mexico, it will give him that boost,” said Horner. “Obviously when you qualify out of position you lose so much time coming through the tail end of the cars in the top ten that you’ve lost contact with the rest of the race.”

Both the team, and the driver, need that boost to come through this week.

The fight for sixth between VCARB and Haas

The three-way fight between McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari will dominate the conversation down the closing stretch of the 2024 F1 season.

But in a sport where every position matters — in terms of prize money and sponsorship dollars — there are critical fights all over the grid.

One is the scrap between Visa Cash App RB F1 Team and Haas for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship. When the grid arrived in Austin for last week’s United States Grand Prix, VCARB held a three-point advantage in that fight.

But thanks to double points in the F1 Sprint Race in Austin, and an eighth-place finish from Nico Hülkenberg in the Grand Prix, Haas has pulled ahead in this battle, leading VCARB by two points at the moment:

At the FIA Press Conference Friday in Austin team boss Laurent Mekies said both Haas and Williams are faster than them at the moment, which could make holding on to sixth a difficult proposition.

“You know, you have to give credit to Haas and Williams. I think they are faster than us right now, both of them. I think it’s a product of the difficulties in our car development that we hit in the middle of the season. So it took us some time to digest that, to understand, eventually to start fixing it,” said Mekies to the media, including SB Nation, in Austin. “So I think at the moment, going into Austin, we are slower than these guys, so we are defending our positions.

“Now, it’s quite impressive the number of updates that pretty much the whole grid brought to Austin, so it’s a bit like a new six-races shootout for all of us. So, you know, we don’t think we can defend the P6 if we stay with a car that is slower than them for the six races, so hopefully with the upgrades we have here and a couple of more tweaks coming, we hope it will give us enough raw pace to give it a good fight.”

That fight continues this week in Mexico.

The battle for eighth between Williams and Alpine

Then there is the emerging battle for eighth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship between Williams and Alpine.

Williams has rocketed ahead of Alpine in that fight in recent weeks, thanks in large part to a double-points result in Azerbaijan:

But Alpine seemed to take a step forward, at least in terms of one-lap pace, in Austin. Pierre Gasly delivered the team’s best qualifying performance of the season at the United States Grand Prix, storming into Q3 and qualifying seventh. But beyond the mere fact he advanced to the third segment of qualifying, is how he did it, as Gasly was topping the timing sheets at various moments in both Q1 and Q2.

Williams might have the momentum, but Alpine might have found an answer with their recent set of upgrades. This fight will be fascinating to watch.