2023 F1 Mexican GP: Top 5 conclusions
The 2023 F1 Mexican GP saw Max Verstappen clinch his 16th win of the season. It turned out to be more or less a straightforward race for the Red Bull driver after escaping what could potentially have been a very calamitous first-lap incident involving his teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen was followed by Lewis Hamilton in P2 with what was a stellar drive from the Mercedes driver. He put everything together in a manner that helped the team the best possible result. In P3 we had Charles Leclerc who would finally secure a podium after dropping two places from pole position.
The race featured a lot of incidents, crashes and some brilliant overtakes as well. In all of this though, what did we learn from the 2023 F1 Mexican GP that even featured a red flag as well? Let's take a look.
#1 Max Verstappen is building an undeniable single-season resume
This was win No. 16 for Max Verstappen and he made it look easy. Things could have gotten interesting if there had been no red flag as the Dutchman's two-stop versus Charles Leclerc's one-stop could have meant for an interesting race.
Regardless, the Dutch driver did what had to be done to win the 2023 F1 Mexican GP. He's now on 16 wins this season and with three races left he could get to 19 wins easily.
Years later, we're going to look at this season and marvel at the kind of performances Verstappen put together in 2023.
#2 Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo have contrasting races
Daniel Ricciardo's race was shades of the old honey badger coming back. The driver was ridiculously smooth in his driving and kept his nose clean throughout the race.
He was also driving the car to a level that it probably hadn't been all season. The 2023 F1 Mexican GP was a good recommendation for Ricciardo in case Red Bull wants to take a look at him.
Sergio Perez, meanwhile, had a polar opposite weekend. The driver was out-qualified in the 2023 F1 Mexican GP by Daniel and then had a first-lap crash.
There aren't many in F1 that would vouch for Perez keeping his seat at Red Bull for the next season and he's not done a good job in building his case either.
#3 Lando Norris would have been a podium contender for the 2023 F1 Mexican GP
Lando Norris should be kicking himself after the race because the pace that he showed deserved a podium. It was, however, no one else's fault that the McLaren driver had a poor qualifying.
This season when he's not in a title battle it might not sting as much but if Norris is in a title battle next season it is these weekends that hurt the most.
#4 The disparity between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton post-upgrades is peculiar
It's happened twice this season that as soon as a set of upgrades are introduced on the Mercedes there is a clear flip in form. George Russell falls off a cliff and has a couple of races where he's nowhere and on the other hand Lewis Hamilton is right on the money and looks like a million bucks.
The 2023 F1 Mexican GP showed just that again as Hamilton drove a beautiful race while Russell struggled a lot by the end of the race.
So upgrades play a role in this role reversal? We'll need a bigger dataset to reach a proper conclusion to this.
#5 The F1 Mexican GP needs a rethink
You can't have drivers needing bodyguards for a race weekend. You just can't have that. At the same time, you can't have fans getting into brawls over a crash where the Mexican driver is clearly at fault.
The pre-race expectation was that Max Verstappen might get booed when he won. The fact that it was Charles Leclerc who got booed for a racing incident where he wasn't even the guilty party is just not done.
F1 might need a rethink about the Mexican GP, especially if the scenes are similar to the ones we had this weekend.