F1Weekly Podcast # 1118
LANDO NORRIS DANCES THE CUCARACHA IN MEXICO! MAX GETS THE "NO WAY JOSE" ON LECLERC, GEORGE GETS A LITTLE EXCITED, THE VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR WAS TOTALLY BOGUS!! AND PIASTRI NO LONGER LEADS THE CHAMPIONSHIP. NASIR HAMEED CORNER HAS... ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ, ANTONIO PIZZONIA AND TEAM OWNER TREVOR CARLIN. GRACIAS.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - OCTOBER 26: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25 and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 battle for track position at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on October 26, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Orcale Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen drove a battling race from fifth on the grid to secure thid place in the Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, finishing just 0.725s behind second place as he fought all the way to the chequered flag in his hunt for more points in the 2025 Drivers' Championship fight.
Starting fifth, Verstappen made a fast start, but ran wide in Turn 1 as he tried to thread his way into the top three. The Dutchman recovered quickly and fought hard to put his RB21 on the podium as McLaren driver Lando Norris drove to a comfortable win. Verstappen's late race charge to catch runner-up Charles Leclerc came down to the very last lap of the race, but the Ferrari driver just held on by 0.725s to leave Verstappen third.
In the race for the 2025 Driver's Championship Verstappen gained more ground on the two McLaren drivers ahead of him however. Norris overtook team-mate Oscar Piastri to assume the championship lead by a single point on 357, but Verstappen closed the gap from 40 points to 36 with just four races now remaining.
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda just missed the points in 11th place, losing a position from his starting slot on the grid, while Visa Cash App Racing Bulls saw only Isack Hadjar finish in 13th after Liam Lawson suffered a DNF after just five laps onf the Grand Prix.
LANDO:
“I could just keep my eyes focused, I could just keep eyes forward and just focus on what I was doing.
“A pretty straightforward race for me, which is just what I was after. Good start, good launch, good first lap and I could go from there.”
“This is awesome here... this is unbelievable. My first win here in Mexico, a beautiful one to win, especially here in the stadium. A big thanks to all the fans.”myself, I keep my head down, I ignore all of this [noise] and I keep to myself. It's working at the minute, so I'm happy.”
GEORGE:
That was a frustrating afternoon. At the start, three drivers cut over the grass at turn one and either kept or gained positions without penalty. I stayed on the track but lost out, unfortunately. That also happened when Lewis (Hamilton) and Max (Verstappen) were battling; when the Red Bull came back on the track, I had to take avoiding action, go off track, and lost several positions myself. Those two moments were ultimately the undoing of our race.
From there, it was difficult being stuck in a train of cars and in particular, with the dirty air. We inverted the cars to try and maximise the team result but ultimately we just didn’t have the pace to fight our way forward. We’ve got four races to go and need to regain some momentum if we are to emerge ahead in the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship. We’re relishing that fight and looking forward to Brazil.
FERNANDO:
"It was a difficult race for me, and we've struggled for pace all weekend. We had a good start but then there was some contact which caused minor damage to the front wing. I was also surprised to see a few cars cutting the corner at the start, jumping ahead of us and not getting penalties. Unfortunately, about halfway through the race we had to retire the car as a precaution. Hopefully we can have more luck in the future."
MAX:
“I didn’t expect to be on the podium today, it was quite eventful at the beginning and I had a good start. However, I went into the kerb, started bottoming out, avoided the wall by going on the grass and got back on to the track. It was quite hectic and the grip wasn’t there on the Medium tyre, we quickly realised it wasn’t a great tyre and tried to extend on it as much as we could. As soon as I was on the Soft tyre it felt better and we were more competitive. We did the perfect strategy, really optimised the final stint and I was enjoying it. At the end with the virtual safety car, it was unfortunate timing but sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn’t and that is just racing, but it would have been an exciting finish. I have said before that we need everything to go perfectly for the rest of the season and it wasn’t perfect this weekend, so we will just need to continue optimising our performance as much as we can. However, even with a difficult weekend, to still be on the podium is a great result. We need to analyse everything and see what we can do better to come back stronger: it will be tough but we will give it everything that we can.”
LAURENT:
“Well done to the whole Team for never giving up on a weekend when we have been struggling a bit more than we wanted with the car. Everyone pushed hard to get to a better place and the support we got from Milton Keynes and here trackside was very strong. It was never quite enough to fight for the win here but allowed us to get another important podium with Max. His drive made the strategy work very well for us, so very well done to the strategy team because we committed to a difficult one-stop while starting on a very tricky Medium tyre, his second stint was mega, he didn’t let the pace drop and what he managed to extract from the car was what we needed to make the race work.
He was taking six to seven tenths out of Charles per lap and we would have had a proper fight in the last few laps without the VSC. It is part of the game, we don’t control the VSC, and it’s cost us a nice battle to watch and perhaps a few points. The pace from Yuki was also fast today, especially his first stint on the Medium. Unfortunately we had a fairly long pitstop with him, which is not the sort of thing which usually happens with our super strong pit crew.”
Thinking of you Nasir...
