2026 Mexico City Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell

2 minutes ago

4 min read

Sergio Perez’s Homecoming

The Mexico City Grand Prix is always a hard weekend to grade; the atmosphere and vibe around the track is awesome, but the actual on-track racing isn’t very good! Last year’s Race felt even more numb without a home hero to cheer on, but thankfully, after a year away, Sergio Perez is back competing on home soil! Granted, there’s a big difference between driving around in a Red Bull and driving around in a Cadillac, but the atmosphere and hype will still remain! In fact, this weekend will probably be the most that anybody pays attention to Cadillac, simply because of Sergio Perez, so what can Checo achieve?! Realistically, qualify at best P20 and try to finish the Race! Sounds depressing, I know, but on the flip side, that would be better than Perez’s last two Mexico City outings, which, if you remember, went absolutely horrendously! Vamos Checo!

A Massive FP1 Re-Shuffle

For once, I might actually tune into FP1; not because it will have any bearing on the rest of the weekend, but because we’re going to see a ton of Rookies on the track due to the F1 Regulations! How many, you ask? 10, yes 10! Back-to-back F2 and F3 Champion Leonardo Fornaroli will be driving for McLaren (in place of Lando Norris), whilst Frederik Vesti will once again hop into the Mercedes (in place of George Russell)! Ayumu Iwasa will drive for Red Bull (instead of Max Verstappen), Luke Browning will drive for Williams (in place of Alex Albon), whilst Ryo Hirakawa will replace Esteban Ocon at Haas! There will also be some American blood added to the field, with Jak Crawford and Colton Herta jumping in at Aston Martin and Cadillac respectively (in place of Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas)! Now we get to the real Rookies, who have never driven in a Formula 1 FP1 session before! Firstly, Gabriele Mini will take over Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, which is pretty cool, whilst F3 runner-up Freddie Slater gets a go in Gabriel Boroleto’s Audi! The fact that Slater is driving an F1 car before he drives an F2 car is pretty insane, but it’s also very exciting! And finally, Liam Lawson will have to watch on as Nikola Tsolov will get to showcase what he’s made of in a Racing Bulls car that he genuinely has a chance of driving full-time next season! Tsolov’s pace compared to Arvid Lindblad’s is going to be interesting to keep an eye on, even if it is just FP1!

McLaren Are Falling Away

After Lando Norris dominated in both Budapest and Zandvoort on either side of the summer break, McLaren had hopes to fight their way back into Championship contention, with Norris in the Drivers’, whilst McLaren also had their eyes firmly fixed on catching Ferrari for second in the Constructors’! However, since then, McLaren have only finished on the Podium once, and even that was a letdown as Lando deserved to win that Race (which he would’ve done had it not been for a cruel bit of luck)! Ultimately, they haven’t been quick enough! Yes, Oscar Piastri has struggled most of this season, but Lando himself has struggled recently; whether that’s being off the pace in Baku or nearly running into the back of his teammate behind a Safety Car in Malaysia! And oh yeah, I can’t forget Norris completely wiping Piastri out of the Singapore Sprint (for P4)! What’s made life even more miserable for McLaren is on top of Ferrari pulling away from them, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli all but securing his maiden World Title, is the fact that Red Bull have come alive! In fact, Max Verstappen hasn’t missed the Podium since McLaren’s last win, whilst consistent points for Isack Hadjar has allowed Red Bull to overtake McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, with both teams currently situated on 355 points! It’s one thing to fail in trying to defend both of your World Championships, but to finish 4th in the Constructors’ would be pretty disappointing!

Franco Colapinto is Struggling

Franco Colapinto left Spain on a career-high; finishing P7 whilst his teammate failed to score any points was a sign of the improvements that Franco has made since his first year at Alpine. However, then Baku happened, where Colapinto made a terrible error which saw him completely destroy both his and his teammate’s car, leading to Alpine losing big points in their battle with Racing Bulls for P5 in the Constructors’ Championship! Since Azerbaijan, Colapinto is pointless, having only finished one of the last 4 Grand Prix’s! Yes, Pierre Gasly has only scored one point during this period, but his performances have been comfortably better than his Argentine teammate! Of course, Franco’s seat for 2027 is safe, but Colapinto needs to find some form towards the end of the year, especially now that he’s on the American leg of the calendar!

Kimi Antonelli’s Crowning Weekend?!

This feels more like a statement than an actual question, as almost everything is set up perfectly for Andrea Kimi Antonelli to leave Mexico City as the youngest World Champion in Formula 1 history! We spoke plenty about Kimi Antonelli’s season last week, so we don’t need to do a deep dive into his Championship-winning year (yet), but what I will say is last week’s win in the United States was a prime example of why Antonelli can dominate this sport for years to come! 2 points are all that Kimi needs in order to secure the World Championship this week, but let’s be honest, he’ll be going for the win!