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Motorsport

F1 Mexico GP: Five quick takeaways

Lando Norris Max Verstappen Oscar Piastri F1 Mexico Ferrari Charles Leclerc Oliver Bearman Lewis Hamilton Andrea Stella

Is Norris the new title favourite?

Lando Norris probably didn’t expect this after his retirement in Zandvoort, when he was left trailing Piastri by 34 points. But the Briton is back on top of the championship for the first time since losing the lead at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April.

Norris had been steadily closing the gap to his team-mate over the four rounds that followed Zandvoort, and he has now delivered a flawless performance at the Mexico Grand Prix to return to the top step of the podium for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break.

With Piastri struggling over the past couple of weekends, and Mexico proving that Verstappen and Red Bull won’t be winning every race after all, Norris leaves the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez strong enough to stake his claim as the new championship favourite.

Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images)

It will be interesting to see how Norris handles this new status heading into the final four race weekends of the season.

- Federico Faturos

Piastri’s drop in form is alarming

When Andrea Stella was asked after Baku whether Oscar Piastri’s dreadful weekend – with crashes in both qualifying and the race – suggested he was starting to feel the heat of the championship battle, the McLaren boss’s response was a clear “no.”

One-off bad weekends, he insisted, happen to all the greats in F1 history, Michael Schumacher included. Stella should know – he worked with Schumacher during Ferrari’s dominant years. But perhaps he overestimated how well he knows Piastri.

Baku wasn’t a one-off. The Mexico GP has now become yet another difficult weekend for the Australian, following similar struggles in Austin, where he again failed to match his team-mate and title rival Lando Norris. In Mexico, the contrast between the two was even more striking.

Piastri was almost knocked out in Q2 on Saturday and endured a tough race on Sunday. The points advantage that looked enormous just a couple of months ago has not only vanished – it has turned into a deficit, as Oscar now finds himself second in the standings for the first time since April.

And that’s not even the most worrying part: he seems unable to understand where his pace has suddenly disappeared.

– Oleg Karpov

Red Bull is not dominating, but Verstappen is still there

The past few races suggested we might be heading for a final stretch of the season where Max Verstappen and Red Bull would win it all – turning an unlikely title bid into a very real one. And while you can never rule the Dutchman out, Mexico showed that, although he remains a major force, it’s still too early to call the Red Bull a dominant car.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images)

In qualifying he was beaten not only by Lando Norris, but also by both Ferraris and George Russell. In the race, an aggressive strategy helped him recover ground, yet he was still overtaken by Oliver Bearman’s Haas in the early stages.

He did make it to the podium – despite saying beforehand that it was “pretty much impossible” – but there was never a moment when he could truly challenge Norris for victory.

What does look increasingly likely, though, is that Verstappen – not Piastri – could become Norris’s main rival for the 2025 title. The end of this championship is anything but predictable.

- Jose Carlos de Celis

Bearman proves his worth

It was at this very track two years ago that Oliver Bearman completed his first FP1 session for Haas – showing enough potential to convince Ayao Komatsu that he was one to watch, even if his later F2 campaign didn’t quite deliver on results. The Jeddah race in a Ferrari came as an unexpected bonus, but Haas’s new boss insists that was merely the cherry on top.

Bearman’s first full season in F1 hasn’t been easy. He’s made the occasional mistake and at times looked a bit too eager, but the raw speed is undoubtedly there. On his day, Bearman can deliver something special.

And Sunday in Mexico City was one of those days. It wasn’t just the pace that stood out – it was the racecraft. Muscling past Max Verstappen is quite an achievement for any driver, let alone a rookie.

Ferrari will be watching...

— Oleg Karpov

Ferrari: Better late than never...

Ferrari’s 2025 campaign has been a roller coaster with more downs than ups, but just as the season nears its end, the team finally seems to have found the sweet spot. Leclerc’s podium in Austin still left some doubts, and Mexico was meant to show whether that result was an oasis in the desert – or a sign they’ve reached open waters. It appears to be the latter, even if a little too late.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Leclerc and Hamilton were Norris’s closest rivals in qualifying. Although they were still a step behind the Briton, they beat Verstappen, the Mercedes, the other McLaren, and the rest. In the race, Leclerc held off Verstappen to secure a second consecutive podium, while Hamilton had a more eventful Sunday, dropping to eighth after a debatable penalty.

Ferrari, though, has clearly confirmed its Austin form.

— Jose Carlos de Celis