“Making mountains out of mountains.”
Ah, back to your regular scheduled race review. Hey everyone, and welcome to another edition of DRR, and with MotoGP’s Sepang weekend in the distance (Keep fighting Noah), it’s time to talk about Round 20 of the F1 World Championship as the travelling circus headed to Mexico City for the Mexican Grand Prix. And with it, we got the most dominant single weekend performance of the year from one McLaren, a spirited fightback from the other, and absolute carnage at the start and at the end. Let’s get into it.
A Different Class
It’s funny. By the time we got to Saturday, I think everyone discussing F1 on socials were a little bit thunderstruck. Lando Norris dominated the running, across the whole weekend. Quite possibly, his best in F1. Not bad for the man so many were quick to call a bottler after a tough start early in the year when the man himself admitted he was struggling to adapt to a car that was built for outright speed and even less on driver feedback.
I’ll be honest, I think people have been out to get Lando as far back as 2021. That chance he had to take his first win in the rain against Lewis Hamilton, when he defied his team and stayed out in the Sochi thunderstorm, only to spin out and lose. They came back in 2024 when the combination of a lack of experience, and a McLaren team that wasn’t sure how to win yet combined for a handful of errors that cost him a real shot at the World Title that Max Verstappen sealed down the stretch. And early on, when Oscar Piastri had the upper hand, and Lando crashed in Saudi Arabia qualifying, and again in Canada, I think people got their excuse to rag on him.
I think this was so strong that it gave us the false narrative that Piastri was this unflappable iceman that didn’t make mistakes and was what they ultimately wanted Lando to be. And I think the last few weekends have proved that to be very wrong. For me, this was the fifth weekend in a row that Lando’s been the stronger driver out of the McLaren’s and this one was the most emphatic.
Beating the field by four tenths of a second in qualifying. Pulling away from the Ferrari’s early on, then stretching his head to double digit seconds. In the end, it was a 30.3 second victory, the biggest margin of 2025, and just a fastest lap away from a Grand Slam. Utter domination and with it, his first lead of the Championship since Saudi Arabia, 17 races ago.
Across the garage, it was a different story for Piastri. Half a second back through practice, even more in Qualifying having to start seventh, and then dropping to ninth early on after a poor start. He recovered well to finish in 5th and was unlucky he didn’t have a final chance of beating [NAME REDACTED FOR NOW], but no matter how good you feel it was as a recovery drive (Loved the move he stuck on George Russell), there’s no good way of saying you finished 42 seconds behind your teammate when we have to be hyper-critical of you as a title contender with barely anyone else in range.
As said, this is the fifth round in a row that Piastri’s looked second best:
- Monza: Was behind Lando before an arguably unnecessary team swap by a handful of seconds
- Baku: Arguably the single worst weekend any driver has had in 2025, crashing three times and writing off a tub
- Singapore: Was muscled out at Turn 1 in a firm but fair pass by Lando, never really got close enough to contend for more
- Austin: Caused multi-car pileup in Sprint, was anonymous for the rest of the weekend
- Mexico: Recovered but only fifth in a race that Norris dominated
It’s now been three races since Oscar last finished on the podium. Five since his last win. And now his Championship advantage has gone. I’m not going to go down the road of examining “confidence” and “mental health” because I’m not qualified to, and I’d rather measure this situation using tangibles I can put a value on. But no matter how you want to describe it, Oscar’s struggling and it’s now effectively a four race shootout.
My theory as to why? Sheer lack of experience. It’s easy to forget that Piastri only has 66 career starts compared to Norris’ 148. And this is a part of the calendar he lacks experience on, going back to his junior days that wasn’t that long ago, and were mostly euro-centric. Singapore isn’t on the junior slate, as is Austin and Mexico, where Piastri was poor last year too, especially in Singapore where Norris destroyed the field again. And even Baku, an F2 weekend where Piastri won last year, was a disaster this year. If you’ve been paying attention to Oscar for a while, you’d have probably seen this coming.
This felt like a weekend of narrative busting, and for Lando, a reminder that on his day, he’s as good as anyone in the field. It’s now his Championship to lose, with four to play. Better not rain in Brazil again, mind you…
The Other 19 Drivers
The race itself will likely be most remembered for its crazy start. Max Verstappen from the third row of the grid was the last man to enter a three wide behind Norris for the lead alongside the two Ferrari’s, and was left with nowhere to go, having to take to the grass and cutting the first corner sequence, as did Charles Leclerc who was in the middle of that pack. Both men rejoined, Verstappen giving up spots to the Ferrari’s to end up back where he started in fourth, and Leclerc, seemingly got away with not returning his place to Lewis Hamilton. Cheeky, and the stewards missed it.
Verstappen actually had the pace on his mediums to attack Lewis Hamilton and sent it down the inside of Turn 1, banging wheels and pushing Hamilton nearly off the track. Hamilton rejoined and then took to the grass himself at Turn 4, and then failed to use the escape road to rejoin, copping himself a 10-second penalty. Why neither he or Ferrari informed him to give up the time gained because he stayed in front of Max, I’ll never know. However, I did think the stewards ultimately got it right. As much as it frustrates me that Verstappen will always stray over that line of fairness to make his moves (And I’d argue he has enough talent where he doesn’t have to dabble in the dark arts so much), by the letter of the law, he’s in the clear. He had the wheel at Hamilton’s wing mirror at the apex, he kept two wheels on track and the contact was inconsequential. By all accounts, that’s a “legal pass”. Listen, I know how the sausage is made and I don’t like this counting as fair racecraft, but unfortunately this is what the drivers wanted, and Max is the only driver that’s prepared to fully exploit that on a regular basis. Turkey, meet Thanksgiving next week.
Max Verstappen drove a brilliant race. Given he was adamant he had no pace as recently as Saturday night, for him to use his Mediums at the start, take the pain, and then do a one-stopper on the soft at the end was excellent strategy work from Red Bull, and outstanding driving. That soft stint at the end as he was gunning down Leclerc was amazing. 30 consecutive laps in the 1:21’s, with only Norris going quicker. If the race was one lap longer, he absolutely passes Leclerc for second, but Carlos Sainz ‘car being trapped in the escape road in the stadium meant a final lap VSC. A brilliant survival job from Leclerc, even with the Ferrari’s late dropoff after being on 40-lap mediums at the end.
Quick sidetrack, as a lot of people got mad about this – First of all, Sainz car was still half sticking out of the gap in the wall. You could have probably gotten away with that, but because the car caught fire because the Williams was damaged due to contact on Lap 1 with Alonso and Lawson. Welp.
The good news for Verstappen is that he’s passing every test asked of him with the new upgrade package, even if we did conveniently forget they were cheeks in Mexico last year. Third was a great salvage job, second would have been amazing. However, Norris as the hot hand is now the lead car, and BOTH McLaren’s are now 35 and 36 points in front. It means Max is in what I call the “Snookers Required” stage. He needs help AND likely needs to win everything left on the table to take the title and now BOTH McLaren’s need to make mistakes. As a reminder: No one in F1 has won four consecutive races this season. But man is he gonna try.
The last man left to mention in an amazing block of Top 5 performances was Ollie Bearman. Qualified in Q3 for the third weekend in a row, and took advantage of the early chaos to get into fourth place, and there he stayed for most of the race. He drove brilliantly, and Haas clutched up and executed when it mattered most, including two exceptional pitstops to keep him in front of Russell and Piastri late on. Fourth place, matching Haas’ best ever finish, and Bearman is now ahead of established veteran Esteban Ocon, Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll in the standings. Superb. And someone keep hold of David Bearman, Dad looked like he was about to explode into a supernova of party popper explosions.
The Lightning Round
And no, I didn’t miss it, the two marshals at Turn 1 running to collect the debris was incredibly unprofessional and completely unacceptable. The FIA claimed that the request to collect it was cancelled and double yellows were brought in once they saw Lawson pit. Something clearly got lost in the communication process there. The FIA are continuing to investigate what happened.
It’s funny – Max Verstappen sent it out of nowhere on Hamilton and got it wrong, and didn’t go for the late lunge on Leclerc with two laps to go. Interesting decision making and it could matter down the stretch.
George Russell was extra sassy on the radio today. I love that he’s essentially a Pro Wrestling heel on the mic when necessary, and while I don’t think he crossed the line in that regard, I did find it funny he essentially hosed himself. He demanded a swap while in the middle of a teammate and Piastri sandwich, knowing that not doing anything was going to hamper them both… only for Russell to not utilise the extra pace he thought he had, and drop back to seventh in the end. Still, it did give us a hilarious “Parklife” skit on Instagram this morning…
Lando Norris being boo’ed by the Mexican fans for the published reason of not giving Oscar his position back in Monza might be the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. First of all, that was the team’s decision, not Lando’s, if we had any sense of nuance, they’d recognise that. Also, was Piastri boo’ed for unfairly inheriting a win last year? Look, booing doesn’t bother me, as I’ve said many times, sports fandom is built on hatred, but the reasoning given was stupid.
Very quiet but good day from Gabriel Bortoleto in 10th, and a superb pass on Isack Hadjar around the outside of Turn 1 to make it work. After a rough start, he’s having a very solid rookie year. Funnily enough mentioning Hadjar, that’s now three weekends in a row that Racing Bulls have failed to score…
Carlos Sainz had a day. Contact at Turn 1 led to vibrations to the point his car’s sensors stopped working. He stops early for new tires, and then goes over the speed limit by 0.2 kph for a 5-second penalty, then does it again as he had to pit the car manually and put his foot down too early on exit. That’s a mildly funny yet cruel and unusual form of punishment.
Watching Alpine makes me miserable. Last week’s team orders fiasco was laughable, and now they’re just off the pace. I know everyone’s given up and they’re all-in for 2026, but seeing them that far off is just sad. But hey, at least Franco Colapinto was allowed to fight his teammate this time. That’s a plus!
The Verdict: 7/10 (Good) – Probably the best Mexican GP I can remember. F1 in particular struggles around Mexico City, a track that everyone else seems to love racing on, but despite Norris’ getaway drive, the chaos at the start, the drama at the end, and some good action and overtakes throughout left this for me as a pretty good race. See you in Brazil, and keep Noah in your thoughts.
