F1 Report Cards: Mexico City 2021

The world of Formula One is slowly but surely shaking off the effects of the big C, as it brought us another party in form of the raceweekend at Mexico City. The festivities around the race were reminiscent of Austin, whilst the roaring crowd cheering on their home-hero closely matched the Orange Army in Zandvoort.

Whilst we were treated to a thriller of an opening lap, the rest of the race wasn’t quite the nail-biting event we have gotten used to in 2021. What kept us going was the raucous crowd which maintained a party-like atmosphere throughout and Papa Perez’s buoyant celebrations at the end of the race.

Here are the top-class contenders and struggle bus riders from the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix:

Top of the class:

Sergio Pérez – Qualifying: 4^th | Race: 3^rd

The Mexican must have felt on top of the world Sunday afternoon, as he was the first Mexican driver to ever clinch a podium in his home race. The roaring crowds chanting his name, being awarded driver of the day, and papa Pérez and Sergio Junior joining in the celebrations could only have made it more special.

This was Sergio’s third podium in a row, which tells us that the Mexican has managed to tame the beast that is the RB16B and is starting to settle in at Red Bull Racing. Sure, Checo was aided in getting his result by the incident which took Bottas out of contention, but the Mexican proved in the closing stages of the race that he certainly has found enough pace to be battling a Mercedes. So even with Bottas in the mix, he could have potentially fought his way up to that third step.

Red Bull is certainly hoping that Checo can hold onto this upwards trajectory, as recent results mean that Red Bull Racing is now one measly point behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship. They’ll want to keep it that way, or better yet, surpass them in one of the coming events.

Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 3^rd | Race: 1^st

Whilst both Bulls looked quite comfortable during the Friday practice sessions, the Saturday gave cause for concern. Not only did their DRS give them trouble, but they just weren’t quite able to get everything out of the car. Which is why Mercedes managed to lock out the front row.

At first, it looked like Mercedes had improved exceptionally well, but on Sunday it seemed more like Red Bull hadn’t quite managed to get their ducks in a row on Saturday, as on Sunday Max seemed uncatchable after a quick getaway at the start. At one point during the race, it really seemed like the Dutchman was just fulfilling side quests: asking the team about comparing left front tyres, suggesting alternate strategies and blocking Bottas to try and keep him from getting the fastest lap.

This superb result means that the Dutchman now has a lead of 19 points on Lewis Hamilton in the championship battle, but as Verstappen himself points out, we’ve got four races to go and all is still to play for.

Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 5^th | Race: 4^th

The Frenchman drove a rather anonymous race, as he wasn’t featured much on the worldwide broadcast, but that doesn’t mean that his race was any less stellar. He did exactly as needed, keeping his nose clean in the opening round and then creating a gap big enough to the lads behind so he was never truly challenged for his 4^th position.

He ended up finishing 18 seconds clear of the Ferrari duo behind and his 12-point haul has allowed AlphaTauri to draw level with Alpine in the fight for P5 in the constructors’ championship. Yet another best of the rest performance from Gasly – and to only be a tenth off the Red Bulls in qualifying gets extra kudos as well.

Ferrari

Charles Leclerc – Qualifying: 8^th | Race: 5^th

Carlos Sainz – Qualifying: 6^th | Race: 6^th

Not quite the front row lockout Ferrari enjoyed in the last edition in 2019, but another solid double points haul for the Scuderia in 2021.

The Ferrari cars didn’t feature much in the worldwide broadcast either, the only televised part of the race involving the Italian team which stands out in memory is the swap they executed. Team orders were given because the Spaniard was approaching Leclerc rapidly on fresher tyres, something Leclerc reluctantly made room for, but they later ended up swapping back as Sainz didn’t manage to catch up to Gasly. 

Whilst both Ferraris were beaten to the ‘best of the rest’ position by Gasly, the team will undoubtedly be very happy with their finishing positions in relation to their main rival McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. Their papaya-coloured rivals had quite a disastrous race result, which allowed the team in red to extend their lead to 13.5 points.

Honourable mentions:

The second honourable mention goes out to Kimi Räikkönen. The veteran driver lost out to teammate Giovinazzi at the start, but a strategic longer opening stint leapfrogged him ahead of the Italian once more, allowing him to take home points for the fourth race in this 2021 season.

The third honourable mention goes out to Sebastian Vettel. Sure, he was one of the benefactors of the first-corner incident between Daniel and Valtteri, but that’s racing. A well-managed drive allowed Seb to come home 7^th, but even this isn’t enough to make any useful difference to the Constructors’ standings, as Aston Martin finds themselves in no man’s land behind Alpine and AlphaTauri and miles in front of Williams. Still, it’s a nice boost and shows us that we can never count out Sebastian Vettel.

The struggle bus:

Valtteri Bottas – Qualifying: 1^st | Race: 15^th

Whilst everything went right for Valtteri on Saturday, his Sunday was a complete 180. A decent start was ruined when he put up a rather shoddy defence into turn 1, allowing Max around the outside in a near carbon-copy of his move in 2017 – and breaking so early he was in a different time zone compared to Max and Lewis.

Then came a rather aggressive chop across the apex of turn 1 which caught McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo by surprise, the Aussie in turn locking up and tagging Bottas into a spin.

Bottas dropped like a stone through the field as he was forced to wait for an opportunity to turn back around, meaning that once he was back on track after what must have been a handful of excruciatingly long seconds, a long and frustrating afternoon laid ahead of him as he was left to try and salvage his race. The same driver who collided with him during that first lap came back to haunt him, as Daniel held off Bottas for the majority of the race.

The one redeeming factor about Bottas’ race was his mission towards the end to steal the fastest lap point away from Verstappen. Even that didn’t come easy, as in his first attempt to set a quick lap he ended up just behind the Dutchman, who blocked him as he tried to unlap himself and later overtook him once more.

Valtteri had to pit for a second time and it was a race against the lap counter to get the fastest lap in time, which he only just managed, despite another agonisingly slow pit stop that would have sent flashbacks of Monaco.

Another race of wretched luck but the Finn wasn’t completely blameless on this occasion.

McLaren

Lando Norris – Qualifying: 10^th (started 18^th due to engine penalties) | Race: 10^th

Daniel Ricciardo – Qualifying: 7^th | Race: 12^th

As mentioned before, a late-breaking Daniel tagged Bottas in what later was deemed a racing incident. This turn 1 error relegated him to the back of the pack, and whilst he valiantly held off Valtteri Bottas and made up a few spots himself, he never managed to elbow his way back into the points.

Lando actually doesn’t deserve to be put in the struggle bus category, as he drove a fairly decent recovery drive from 18^th after having to take engine penalties. What earned McLaren a spot on this list, however, is the fact that the papaya-coloured team lost their grip on third in the Constructors’ Championship. The singular point Lando managed to earn during his recovery drive was not the point haul they were hoping for with Ricciardo starting 7^th. It could have been so much more, if only everything had panned out the way they planned.

Lance Stroll – Qualifying: 20^th | Race: 14^th

Lance was going to start near the back anyway due to engine penalties, but his heavy accident on the exit of the Peraltada in Q1 wasn’t exactly the best preparation for the race, nor extra work that his Aston Martin team would have wanted.

The Canadian was highly unlikely to score points during the race, but being lapped by his teammate was the nail in the coffin of a forgettable weekend in Mexico for Lance.

Dishonourable mentions:

First up for our dishonourable mentions is Yuki Tsunoda. There was nothing to write home about this weekend for the Japanese driver. On Saturday he was (in my opinion unfairly) blamed for Pérez and Verstappen missing out on the front row during qualifying by the sister team, and on Sunday his race finished on the first corner as he tried his best to avoid Bottas but instead ended up tangled with Ocon.

Another victim of the carnage in the first corner on the opening lap was Mick, as he too saw his race end far too early, with both drivers coming off second best in contact with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Neither Yuki nor Mick really deserves the dishonourable mention, but as the only two drivers unable to finish the race, there is little good to be said about their Sundays.

Then the third dishonourable mention goes to Antonio Giovinazzi, or rather Alfa Romeo’s strategy that ruined a promising shot at points. He was running 6^th in the early stages of the race after weaving his way through the turn 1 drama, but Alfa Romeo’s decision to pit him early backfired and unravelled Gio’s race as he got stuck behind the early stoppers.

This resulted in a rather sarcastic radio after the race, where the Italian could be heard saying ‘Hey guys, thanks for the great strategy’, which many fans thought was the wrong comment to make, as Antonio hasn’t yet been able to re-sign for next year. This won’t put him in good stead with the team… but perhaps Tonio knows more than us.

As we’ve just kicked off a rather ambitious triple header, the drivers can be found waiting for lights to go out once more next Sunday in Brazil. There’s also the final dose of Sprint Qualifying for 2021 at 7:30pm on Saturday, whilst lights out at 5pm on race day.