Title permutations: Mercedes could clinch constructors’ championship in Sao Paulo

Max Verstappen is known for not needing to start in the top three to win. Until now, however, the Dutchman had never won from fifth on the grid.

He finally did so at the Mexican Grand Prix, extending his own record: he has now won from 11 different grid positions: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 14th and 17th.

Fernando Alonso ranks second on this list, having won from nine different grid positions. Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton have each won from eight different starting positions.

A race engineer’s job is to advise the driver on how to get the most out of the car. During Sunday’s race, Lewis Hamilton received some well-intentioned advice that ultimately proved useless.

“You have overtake and boost on the main straight,” Hamilton’s race engineer Carlo Santi advised him, outlining the tools at his disposal to attack Verstappen.

The seven-time champion asked with a sigh: “How am I supposed to overtake a Red Bull engine?”

Even in Mexico’s thin air, Ferrari struggled with a lack of straight-line speed. Its smaller turbo helped at the start and on corner exits, but towards the end of the straights, its rivals’ larger turbos and more powerful power units overall came into their own. Hamilton, however, believes the Scuderia can overcome this disadvantage in 2027.

Nico Rosberg points out where things are going wrong at Ferrari. “But interestingly it’s always Charles’ fault, isn’t it? It’s never Lewis’s fault. In the last couple of times, in Monza was Charles, here it was Charles…”

Kimi Antonelli has no plans to exercise his right as world champion to race with the number 1. The Italian will therefore not follow in the footsteps of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, who both took up that option.

‘I think I’ll stay with number 12,” Antonelli revealed. “Obviously it’s a very special number for me. It’s a way for me to stay grounded, to stay humble.”

Frédéric Vasseur was in no mood to celebrate after the race. He, too, felt it was abundantly clear that Ferrari had cost themselves victory. “We were 1-2 at Turn 4. I don’t remember the last overtaking in Mexico, perhaps at the end of the 70s.”

Did you know that Charles Leclerc’s time in first practice was a quarter of a second quicker than the fastest time in the same session last year? Although the drivers were slower than last year in second practice, that is still remarkable given that we are in the first year of the new regulations.

This is down to resurfacing at many points around the circuit, but above all to the concept of these cars, which are less sensitive to the loss of downforce at high altitude.