Formula 1 heads to Mexico City this weekend. With five Grand Prix remaining, including Mexico, Kimi Antonelli arrives with a 123-point lead over Mercedes teammate George Russell.
After his win in Austin, he needs just two points to secure the Drivers' Championship and become Formula 1's youngest-ever world champion, breaking Sebastian Vettel's record.
Even if Russell wins, ninth place would be enough for Antonelli to clinch the title and become the first Italian to win the Drivers’ Championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
The fight for second remains close, with Russell on 242 points, just one ahead of former Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc remain in striking distance on 236 and 233 points respectively.
Mercedes lead the Constructors' Championship on 607 points, ahead of Ferrari on 474. Ferrari arrived in Mexico City after a strong result in Austin, where Charles Leclerc finished second behind Antonelli, and Lewis Hamilton took fourth, where, arguably, a podium was on the cards.
McLaren and Red Bull are level on 355 points in the battle for third. Red Bull have improved after a challenging start to the season where the car was unstable and overweight, while McLaren have struggled to find consistent gains from their upgrades.
Sergio Perez returns home
After sitting out the 2025 season, Sergio Perez returns to his home Grand Prix with Cadillac. It's been a difficult season for Perez, who has picked up zero points so far this term and is last in the Drivers' Championship while Cadillac sit at the bottom of the Constructors’ standings.
Perez has never won his home race, with third-place finishes in 2021 and 2022 marking his best results. His last two appearances at the circuit ended in disappointment: he retired in 2023 after first-lap contact with Charles Leclerc before a lowly 17th-place finish in 2024.
He will be hoping for a better result this time as he prepares to make his 300th Grand Prix start in front of his home crowd.
The challenge of Mexico City
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez sits over 2,000 metres above sea level, the highest altitude circuit on the calendar. The thin air presents a challenge for the teams to find the right balance between aerodynamic performance and cooling.
The first Mexican Grand Prix was held in 1963, with Jim Clark taking victory. Since its return to the calendar in 2015, Verstappen has won five times, more than any other driver. Valtteri Bottas holds the race lap record set in 2021 with a time of 1:17.774.
This weekend, there will be three Straight Mode zones: on the start-finish straight, between Turns 3 and 4 and between Turns 11 and 12.
One of the biggest challenges comes at the start. The long run down to Turn 1 gives drivers behind an opportunity to use the slipstream, and last year's opening lap saw cars go four-wide into the first corner.
Turn 1 has also produced other decisive moments. Verstappen took the lead from polesitter Carlos Sainz in 2024, Perez's contact with Leclerc in 2023, and in 2021, Verstappen started in third but passed both Mercedes drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, to lead into Turn 1.
