Just a few months after turning 20, Kimi Antonelli sealed his first title this weekend at Mexico City, becoming the sport’s youngest-ever champion. Elsewhere, there was drama aplenty, perhaps a consequence of the thin air affecting decision-making in some cases. The race was Ferrari’s to win, but yet again, the team handed victory to a rival this season, in this case Red Bull.
Further down the grid, we saw a last-minute driver change in the Haas team, synchronized retirements from both Aston Martins, and the wheels literally coming off Cadillac Racing. And there was I, expecting a dull weekend. It might not be as high as Pikes Peak, but at an elevation of 7,350 feet (2,240 m) above sea level, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez provides a unique challenge on the F1 calendar.
Wings that would create huge amounts of downforce at circuits like Monaco just generate Monza-like levels in Mexico, and there’s little slipstream effect when following another car. Cooling tends to be a problem, too, with insufficient airflow across radiators, and obviously engine power is reduced with less oxygen to burn. The track is very flat, with a rather low-grip surface and mostly medium- and slow-speed corners, including a processional route through a stadium that was built in the 1990s, plus a very long run from the start into turn 1.
Friday’s first practice saw 10 rookie drivers substitute in for series regulars—each team must run a young or test driver in each of their two cars at least twice in a season. Make that six times in the case of Cadillac? The American startup team wants IndyCar star Colton Herta to race in F1, but Herta needs a total of 40 points over three years to get the requisite F1 super license.
Sadly, his IndyCar record was too inconsistent—10th place in 2023, 2nd in 2024, but then 7th again in 2025—so he entered F2 this year, both to learn the circuits and to finish well enough in that championship to earn the remaining points.
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